Passionate and Devout: An Aspiring Writer with a Knack for Performance

A friend of mine from film school, Ross Everett, has been developing a television pilot for the last few years, relentlessly seeking guidance from our friends and professors in an impassioned attempt to actualize a sitcom that candidly studies the standard post-graduate ambition lost in the banal ennui of everyday life. That sitcom with the inspired title of 'twentynothings' could have been the brainchild of any college graduate that's played 'Guitar Hero' a few too many times. What differentiates Everett is his longing to endure. 

I first read a draft of the pilot my junior year as an undergrad upon his request for criticism, and gave him my honest opinion of the show, alleging that it was an unmitigated achievement for an early draft, before offering my probably too-in-depth critique. He'd forget about the thing anyway in a few weeks, I thought. When I got a call from Everett late that summer before we were to begin our senior year informing me that a staff writer from 'The Colbert Report' had commended his writing ability and tenacious drive, I began to think otherwise. Sure enough, throughout the next year he asked me to read various new drafts of the pilot, which he had thoroughly doctored under the mentorship of one of our more respected professors. That drove home the point: he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

So it doesn't necessarily surprise me that, during his current internship at 'The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien,' he found himself climbing the theoretical 'ladder,' even being offered a paying job. Whether or not he accepted employment is unbeknownst to me (I have yet to return his most recent phone call being the dawdler that I am), but I do know that his persistence has lead to, at the very least, an appearance in a recent skit on O'Brien's program.

In the skit, Everett plays a Police Officer (he wields what seems to be a shotgun in the first scene) who doesn't mind enjoying a beer with a few wrongfully accused African-American men - a satire on the Gates/Crowell incident that lead to Obama's inviting both men to the White House for a beer. What proves evident in the brief video is not necessarily how Everett performs - he's pleasantly histrionic beyond all means - but why he had the chance to perform. The answer: tenacity. 

It's an admirable, necessary quality if he is to succeed up to his own particular standards. What he lacks in innate talent, he more than compensates for in determination. But let it be known, should a sensible director put out a casting call, Everett won't be auditioning for the extra with one line: he'll be vying earnestly for the lead. And he'll probably get it. In the meantime, he'll be revising 'twentynothings' until it appears on premium cable.

Check him out on 'The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.'

http://www.hulu.com/watch/86200/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-blue-and-black-lager