As a youth, Neil Magnuson could picture his name in lights on a Broadway marquee. MAGNUSON has worked in other venues than New York. Later this fall he expects to be working on a play in Los Angeles. He also has performed in stock theater all over the country and belongs to a honky-tonk band called Uncle Leon and the Alibis.
Now 37, Magnuson has a different yardstick for success.
“Hitting it big means simply having the resources to do what I want,” he said.
Magnuson was home over the weekend to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center where he served as master of ceremonies for the Saturday night variety show.
Since graduating from Iola High School in 1995, he has lived primarily in New York City where he works as an actor/bartender.
“It’s a hustle,” he said of the theater world.
“A professor once said if you can do something else, go do it,” he recalled of when he was a drama student at New York University.
Truth is, those bright lights push everything else — bad relationships, making the rent, difficult rehearsals — into the far recesses of the day.
“They all fade away the minute I’m on stage,” he said. “The energy of the theater is second to none.”
Which is what keeps him pounding the concrete.
“I audition almost every day,” he said. His specialty is voice-overs for TV commercials. For many years he did voice-overs in commercials for the insurance giant AIG.
Magnuson has a healthy attitude about putting his talents on the line day after day.
“You wipe your feet before you go in and as you come out,” he said, meaning he leaves any worries at the door, and likewise, he leaves the experience of the audition as he exits.
A callback is always a good sign, he said. “It’s an automatic no unless you hear otherwise.”
“It’s a really tricky line between stubbornness and pride to stay in the acting business,” he said. “I still believe it is work worth pursuing.”
Magnuson also tends bar for more steady work.
As one of the most expensive cities in the world, life in New York is pricey, from a cup of coffee to a hamburger.
“The only people who can afford to live there are bankers,” Magnuson said, with not a hint of humor. “People here have sheds bigger than my apartment.”
“It’s a wild adventure,” Magnuson said of his life, with no regrets.
Acting: ‘It’s a hustle’
