Life & Work with Nicholas Garbesi of Bonsall

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Garbesi.

Hi Nicholas, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
About 4 years ago I had no direction in life. The world was recovering from covid, and I had decided to take a gap year. Everything was bleak, uncertain and unreliable. Life had no clear path for me, I started to panic, worrying that this is what my life was going to look like forever. Then one day on a trip visiting my best friend in Ohio I received a call. My mom was just checking in but then we got talking, I started realizing that what was missing was the passion, the love for life I had as a kid just seemed to have disappeared. So how did it leave? Surely it wasn’t because of the worldwide pandemic or terrible economy or awful job market no, it was because I had lost that sense of belonging and purpose, something I only found in sport, theater and choir; performing arts. My true home. In the midst of this phone call with my mom, I decided that I was meant for something better and it’s time to take life by the reigns. Right then and there I quit my job and enrolled in a little teeny tiny modeling school in Santa Rosa, California called Julie Nation Academy. It was a short and small program but without that I would never have gotten here, so to them I say thank you. I started doing some modeling classes and runway classes, but I really started to come alive in acting class. I felt, real, like I was put on this earth to do that. It started to get me thinking all the way back to high school of our theater rehearsals and our preshow routines and the post show dinners but most of all it reminded me of that rush of performing, the feeling of living on stage, there is nothing like it. After a solid three-month program, I graduated from Julie Nation and started to find my next step until my teacher reached out to me with an opportunity. One week. A hotel in LA. Modeling, acting, singing, workshops, the whole kit and kaboodle. IMTALA 2023, the start of the rest of my life. I immediately knew I had to go; I had to just try. Something about me, I have crippling anxiety and self-belief issues, but when it comes to performing arts, you just have to do it. You have to have the courage to try, and fail, and then get back up and do it all over again. So, I tried and honestly, never expected to do what I did but hey here we are. I had entered into some competitions but the thing I was most excited for was my monologue and cold read scene, and I crushed it. Flash forward to the end of the week after 6 days of meeting strangers and profusely nervous sweating it was awards night. All dressed up in my nice suit with my 5 other classmates that I came with, we were the small fish in a big pond. We had the smallest school, the least amount of people, no representation but we still were there, fighting. Low and behold I won 5th overall acting wise (out of around 1,200 people) and received a scholarship from American Musical and Dramatic Academy. I had set the record for awards won for our teeny, little school and I was so ecstatic! I couldn’t believe it. I of course had to go, wasn’t a doubt in my mind. So, with that began the best two years of my life.

I started attending AMDA in October of 2023 and immediately knew I was home. It was a conservatory program, so it had no general ed, just straight up performing and writing and even stage combat, it was amazing. The further you progressed through the semesters the more advanced and hands on it got. We were making short films and doing multiple full scenes from plays as our finals, I never knew I would find a place like this, somewhere I knew I belonged. Through AMDA I met so many amazing people and made a lot of lifelong friends, people who are like minded and fully committed to the world of acting. Among those are two of my best friends, Cruz Formusa and Nayeli Aguilar-Báez, my second family. Nayeli and I were assigned as writing partners in our 1st semester and immediately we clicked. She is one of the most talented writers and actors I have ever seen and together we talked about how we want to create art and give all our passion and sweat and tears into doing what we love. However, we also may or may not be some decently experienced procrastinators, naturally we stayed up all night thinking of ideas for this little script project for school which then lead us to being up at 2am, looking at the beautiful night lights of NYC, thinking of all these ideas for a film WE made. Then, BAM! We found it, we started writing it that night and by around 3:30 am we had about 25 pages done. It was insane, I had never felt anything like it. That was it, right there was the passion I was missing. Time goes on and we keep working together until we met Cruz. He and I instantly clicked and now we are inseparable. Together, the three of us made our first short film “Lying In Pieces” under the name Left Hand Studios. You may ask “Well why the left hand? Are you all left-handed?”. I would like to think it’s a little bit of a better story. When Nayeli and I were sitting in that dorm room writing the script we both had fractured right hands at the time. Both of us being right-handed we were a little limited in our typing mobility. Naturally we just thought the name had to be that. A name, much like the script, born out of a moment of magic. We shot the film ourselves and published it ourselves and we realized that we were meant to do this together.

Now, Left Hand Studios has maintained a presence in the indie film community and are releasing a film titled “Flow State” later this summer. Principal photography for that beings May 25th which I am super stoked for, shoutout Rosalile Jointer for bringing LHS onto the production. As for myself, I take it day by day and week by week, you have to in this industry, but I see LHS and myself doing great things in this industry because; we believe. We believe in what we are doing and know wholeheartedly that it’ll be hard, but the pain and suffering is endured because at the end of it all will be a life that was full of passion, love and determination.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For the most part I would say it’s been smooth. Doing it on our own has always proved difficult, but one of my favorite teachers from AMDA said, “You can’t wait for somebody to give you permission, you have to just go out there and do it.” So naturally things move a little slower when you’re self-budgeting and crowd funding, but we made it work so far and we only keep getting better.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I love acting and music. Those are my first true loves. I grew up with a father who loves classic rock and a mom who loves Michael Jackson and the lot like that. Once I got involved in the industry and started being more hands on I really grew a passion for directing and camera work. I became fascinated with the thought of having a hand in everything from beginning to end. I also love working with good actors and improv has always been as kill of mine. So far, I have only directed “Lying In Pieces” which became an improv short film project. However, with “Flow State” coming up soon, and us being able to afford good equipment, this next project in my mind is a true test of my directing as well as my acting.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I’ll start this off by using a very well-known quote but one that has stuck with me through everything, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky. I believe that through life comes choices, with those choices comes risk. Every decision, every interaction, even just walking down the street there’s risk. Life can’t become a life well lived without taking a risk. I take risks every day, but from even the failures I learn, and I grow and I get better.

To me risk is the wrong word. It’s not risk taking, it’s destiny.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ngarbesi/ and https://www.instagram.com/lhsprod_/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LHSProductions