We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tim Carr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tim below.

Tim , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

There are so many people in showbiz that had this in their “life goals” or plans. I was not one of them. I grew up in a small town where sometimes, hope and ambition fell by the wayside, so for me, being able to work in New York and Los Angeles would never have been a thought.

But my first TV job was a wonderfully written, wonderfully acted TV show called “Homicide: Life On The Street”. My first day there was a scene that eventually got cut from the episode, but being there, being among all of these great writers, and actors and crew and directors, watching something THAT good come together (this cut scene had Clark Johnson, Melissa Leo who eventually won the Oscar for “The Fighter”), this organically, that was it. I knew I needed to keep that feeling in my life. That drive home, from set, I could feel myself crashing back to reality. It was surreal. That was the moment. It was not a huge “A Ha!” moment, it was simply a realization that I had a chance to be a part of some greatness, and just wanted that to stay in my life…as long as it can.

Tim , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

It’s a pleasure to be here. I roam from town to town. Right now, as we speak, I am in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania….and the people, the rivers and the sandwiches here are exceptional. Sometimes it’s because I’m filming, sometimes maybe it’s a charity event where I may be of some service, or maybe I just saw an opportunity to see a town and wander around. Either way, I’m happy to be here. Here’s a little bit about me.

I may have come into your lives in a sandwich commercial, or a soap opera or a clothing ad, or in catalogues, or maybe even a soft drink spokesperson. However any of it happened, I’m grateful to be in your lives.

In my career, I find the closest connection showbiz has to “real life” is in the editing room. That’s where you experience the highs of when something “works”, the devastating lows when you relive your mistakes…and in both editing and in real life… if you have to explain the joke, it may not be very funny to begin with.

I love it when others share anything about themselves. Their poems, their short stories, their songs, or their thoughts. The world is a 24/7 never ending cycle of madness. If someone wants to express themselves to you? That’s beautiful. That’s an honor.

It’s never too late to try anything. Remember, Dame Judi Dench came into our lives when she was about 60 years old and continues to really do incredible work. I hope when you read the word “incredible” it’s written in 4 syllables, Dame Judi Dench is In-Cred-I-Ble. Lucille Ball was 40 when she started “I Love Lucy”, Leslie Jones joined Saturday Night Live at 47 years old. Helen Mirren had her real breakout moment at 49. Time doesn’t matter. I encourage everyone to get out there and try some things. To get out there and live.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of all of this, is simply when anything we do resonates with anyone.

There are colleagues in this business that are known for one role or for one thing, and they are frustrated by that. To that I always say “I have been in audition rooms, where no one talks to you, only gives you looks. I have seen the high highs and the low lows, if we’re lucky enough to get the work, then lucky enough have that work be seen, and then, lucky enough to have had the work remembered? That’s a win.” and I mean that, I know there are quotes and lines from my work that I joke that will be on my tombstone, it just means, that for one beautiful instance, I connected with someone out there. And that’s why we do this. That’s why we wake up at 2am to be on set, that’s why we’re in North Jersey in the cold at midnight filming a soda commercial, that’s why we’re flying across the country to be somewhere. For that one brief instance, there’s a hope where maybe our own expression of the work will connect. That’s what this is all about.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The funny thing is, to really do any job there needs to be resilience. My job, your job, any job, there’s always some variation of getting “knocked down”, and how do we get back up again? That’s what shows what we can all do. That’s what shows our character.

There is a part of me that thinks that if I turn a job down, there will never ever be another one. So there have been at least 3 instances where I pushed myself to the brink, so I’d never have to say “no” to something.

There was a time where I’d taken a TV job, and then another “promotional” event (promotional events are basically live commercials, you show up, put on some sort of fancy shirt and just interact with the world), one shot in the mornings, one was at night, so no problem right? Wrong. Different cities, so all of my “scheduled” sleep time was spent on travel. Fortunately that was only about 3 days, so it wasn’t a long commitment. It’d have been much more wear and tear if I did that, over, say a ten day period, that would have been crazy right? Well…

Well, one day I did this same thing, over a ten day period. I was lucky to be in a position where there were three TV jobs coming in at once. Fortunately, all three jobs were in New York, I’d learned my lesson from last time.

I did not.

I did not learn my lesson from last time.

I said “yes” to all three. One show I’d been working quite a bit on (it got cancelled and a bunch of my episodes never aired, that’s never fun) that would be the mornings. I’d film that one about 3 days a week, the next one, that was night shoots, so I’d get into a van and they’d take me to set, I’d put my head back and expect to get a little nap, but I never napped, I was in New York, something is always happening in New York, so “napping” is not a thing that happens there, the 3rd job was later in the week, and both of my other 2 jobs were supposed to be finished by then.

You know where this is going, schedules change and sleep wasn’t happening and towards the end of the week, I’d only known where I was by looking down to see what wardrobe I was wearing. Funny post script to that, all episodes aired in one night, my entire screen time over 3 shows? Was probably about 10 minutes total. Also, if I may put in a disclaimer. Don’t skip nights of sleep. Don’t do that to yourself.

Another instance, I’d been doing the “writer/actor/director” hybrid role, which is a great thing when it happens, I mean THAT’S the ultimate job, you get to make something AND be in something that you came up with as an idea, so I’m not a complainer anyway, and there’s was no way I was going to complain about anything in the “writer/director/actor” role….so I’d spent the morning on rewrites, we filmed that day and we were editing at night. That particular day was physical for my role as an actor, so I rolled into editing that night, and my wonderful editor looked over at me and said “hey are you okay?” It turns out , I was still in wardrobe, was disheveled from running from place to place, had already been looking tired…and my face was swelling up from a knock I took from a stunt in a scene that day. I caught a glimpse of myself, I sort of looked like “Beetlejuice” at that moment.

So why do we do this? Why do we stay so resilient? I think we all are just looking to express ourselves, to help be of service to a story, to entertain, we’re always chasing that moment to “connect”.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ParkingLotFilms.net
• Instagram: @NotTimCarr
• Linkedin: ParkingLotFilms

Image Credits
D’Mont Reese Photography