Alan Semok:
CLASS OF 1970
Woodbridge High SchoolClass of 1970
Woodbridge, NJ
Buena Vista College & UniversityClass of 1974
Storm lake, IA
Fords Junior High SchoolClass of 1967
Fords, NJ
Ford Avenue Elementary SchoolClass of 1964
Fords, NJ
Alan's Story
Life...
46 years after my turn as the leading character in Woodbridge High's senior play (and now definitely starting to look like a different kind of senior) I'm still plugging away at show-bizzzz!
In other words, after nearly half of a century (!?!), still crazy after all these years.
After five years of college in Iowa and NJ, I jumped directly "into the fire"in New york City--trying to make a living in show business--and have somehow managed to stick with it for more than 41 years, working mostly as an actor. To be perfectly clear, I am most definitely _not_ a famous actor by _any_ stretch of the imagination, but thankfully I've somehow managed to be a mostly working one. Over the last 41 years I've had the honor and pleasure of working with a number of performers and directors whose work I've always admired including: George Carlin, Conan O'Brien, David Copperfield, Sidney Lumet, Jessica Walter, Jeff Dunham, Arthur Penn, Ringo Starr, Chuck McCann, Rodney Dangerfield, Steve Martin, Ben Vereen, Paul Winchell, Alan Arkin, Henry Winkler, Bill Murray, Kevin Spacey, Kirk and Michael Douglas, Didi Conn, Goldie Hawn, Adrien Brody, and lots of others.
On television int he late 1980s/early 90s, I worked over the course of seven years as a cast member in the now classic PBS children's series SHINING TIME STATION (it also aired in Canada on YTV, and later aired on FoxFamily and Nickelodeon). At PBS again (with pistol in hand) I portrayed Vice President Aaron Burr, taking aim at Alexander Hamilton in an episode of "American Experience" entitled "The Duel".
Some folks (especially my Fords Junior High friends) might remember my interest in ventriloquism. That world of 'dummies' actually still comes beckoning every so often when I am called upon to serve as a technical advisor and special consultant for various motion picture, television, and stage projects. For the feature film "THE TEN" I was hired to build the ventriloquist dummy with which Winona Ryder does things that you wouldn't (make that couldn't) imagine doing with a dummy (for the record, the dummy didn't mind). In the spring of 2012, I was hired by Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey to help coach him for his role in a short ...Expand for more
film in which he portrayed a ventriloquist and I also built the dummy he used in the film . If you're curious, thanks to the film's sponsor (Jameson Whiskey) you can actually see the film on YouTube...just do a search for "The Ventriloquist/ Kevin Spacey").
Oddly enough (and odder still to those who know me well), some people are now calling me "Dr. Alan Semok". In 2007, as a result of events that I still can't fully comprehend (but for which I am very, very grateful) I received an honorary Ph.D in Fine Arts from Buena Vista University in Iowa, where I had the distinct honor and pleasure of delivering the commencement address for that year's graduating class. My ego is kept in check by my close friends, some of whom were quick to suggest that in my case "Ph.D" might simply mean "Piled High and Deep"... But seriously, that event is a memory which I'll cherish for the rest of my life, along with the 2 and a half years I spent as an undergrad at what was once called Buena Vista College. Tumultuous days they were...but ultimately happy ones.
2016 was an interesting and busy year with a couple film projects, continuing to tour occasionally with my one-man show, and serving as a consultant on various TV and Film projects. Last summer, I also signed on to serve as a consultant for a new live theatre event which is tentatively set to premiere in New York City sometime in 2018.
This past December (2016) I was once again ihabiting the character of Ebenezer Scrooge in the timeless Charles Dickens holiday classic story (for the 12th time since 1994). During December, I was once again a guest artist at the Chatham Playhouse in Chatham, NJ, portraying Scrooge in their original musical adaptation of the classic Dickens story, A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
So I'm still hanging in there. :-)
Actually, for more than forty years now, my _real _ full time job has _always_ been actively chasing the NEXT job. Even though I've chosen an admittedly uncertain profession that has most definitely been full of ups and downs, if nothing else I can honestly say that life has never been dull.
Besides...the real truth is that I'm too old (and too damned stubborn) to give it up now. :-)
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