Rising Stars: Meet Eric Callero

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Callero.

Hi Eric, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I want to say when I was a little kid (like 7 or 8), I was watching Singing in the Rain with my parents and there’s that musical sequence “make them laugh” and I just remember thinking, “that’s what I want to do, I want to be him, I want to make people laugh.” but I didn’t know how to get there so I acted in plays throughout Elementary School, Junior High and high school. Also in High school, I got into Santa Cruz public access television because there wasn’t YouTube back then and this was the closest I could get to being on TV and I made a couple of feature-length films and a short with my friends and my dad. It was a blast, I loved it, I loved editing, the whole process of filmmaking and it was a real learning experience especially on videotape because this was linear editing. You had to start at the beginning and go forward so it was a real discipline and I enjoyed it

In 2002 I went to San Francisco State University and I enrolled in the film program. I thought about the theatre program but I knew that I didn’t want to go into the theater world, I wanted to act in movies and TV. I was inspired by actors who also made films like John Cassavetes, Erich von Stroheim, and Gene Kelly and I thought I might as well learn everything there is to know about filmmaking and at the same time, see if I can audition as an actor while at the college. Which I ended up doing the fall production of Uncle Vanya which was an amazing experience.

I graduated in 2005 and it was around this time that I made what I consider more a true feature film titled Flying Saucer Rock and Roll inspired by 50s b-movies, rockabilly music and a little bit of Back to the Future. It was a really good time with a great cast and a lot of heart but there were a lot of limitations due to the small budget. I mean HD was just around the corner but it wasn’t really available so we shot it on DV and it doesn’t look the best. I spent a lot of time editing it and making the best it could be and even did some re-shoots and you know in the end it got distribution which is pretty cool and it premiered in 2006.

Around this time, I also started working as an actor/model in San Francisco. One of my first gigs was being a hand model, I also did a bunch of corporate videos and a Northern California Toyota commercial. I was cast in a $3 million feature film but I was let go about a week before filming started and that was a hard pill to swallow, it definitely humbled me but it also made me realize I needed to move to LA because it was so rare to have a feature film with that budget come to NorCal and cast the leads locally. Usually, they hired people out of LA. And so in December 2007, I made the move and I’ve been here ever since

In that time, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs, it’s definitely been a journey. When I first got here I had a pretty good run of bookings, in 2008 I was in a national Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi and I did some other smaller commercials. Between 2009 and 2010 I had a recurring role on Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show. I also booked some smaller roles on some feature films and a co-star on Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles. So things were really looking good but I sort it like hit a speed bump in 2010 and just wasn’t working that much and I was sort of struggling to stay creative and because so much of being an actor at the whim of other people. So much is out of your control, basically your job is primarily to audition and then hopefully you book it and then it’s awesome but you know, you can be the best actor in the world but if you’re not right for the part, you’re not right, you know what I mean. So it can be very hard, very difficult and so you want to continuously keep your chops up because that’s in your control.

Also, around this time, I was working as a wedding photographer/videographer, so I had all this camera equipment and I thought I should use this to promote myself somehow. And I decided to start a YouTube channel talking about music on vinyl because I’m an avid vinyl collector. And so in late 2010, I filmed my first seven episodes and in February of 2011, I started releasing them and I’ve been doing the show ever since then. It has morphed and changed over the years, I’ve tried a lot of ideas out and some work and some doing. Initially had a lot of help making the episodes but now I’m pretty much a one-man crew. And I’m really happy where it’s at now, I just hit 226,000 subscribers and it keeps growing every day and it’s starting to really supplement my income. To me, that’s pretty incredible and I love doing it and I’m passionate about it and I love that I get to be curious and do research and discover these stories in music history that haven’t been told and tell it in a compelling way and people are responding to it and it’s awesome.

I’m also pursuing acting which is great. One of the coolest experiences was working on a period drama by Ryan Murphy and it was so amazing to see the production recreate the 1963 Oscars with current Oscar winners (Jessica Lange & Susan Sarandon) playing Hollywood Legends Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. I played Hawaii 5-0 star Jack Lord in that project. I also worked on a Lifetime Channel movie which is a pretty cool notch in my acting belt. Most recently I was in Tecate commercial and I got to work with Bruce Willis which was so cool and yeah I’m really looking forward to the future and what it holds, I’m pretty positive about that!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I kind of touched on this earlier but it’s been a lot of ups and downs, great highs and low lows. It’s a struggle and you have to stay on your side and stay motivated and it’s hard, it really is. On the acting side, it is hard because so much is out of your control and it’s easy to start blaming yourself if things don’t go your way like you didn’t book the job but that’s the last thing you want to be doing. In the end, it’s a numbers game, the longer you stay in the game, the better your odds. In terms of my YouTube channel, it’s also been difficult; for probably the first seven years it was just a hobby, just something I did but I didn’t make any money at it and it really took a while to find its groove or maybe for me to find my groove within it. It took me about eight years to reach 100,000 subscribers and then about 2 years to double that.

I think another struggle I have is finding a work/life balance. In the past, I put my life on hold in order to finish a video or to stay in town just in case I got an audition. But these days, I’m really working on enjoying living life. Taking time to have fun, see friends, travel and have a hobby outside of the entertainment industry. I love to create my own cocktails and I really enjoy cooking and I want to be a better home chef.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m primarily known as an actor but I’ve worked almost every position on a film set, from the director to the cameraman, to hair and makeup and even a production assistant, driving one of those large production trucks.

My YouTube channel Vinyl Rewind incorporates a lot of my talents and interests. It’s basically a one-man show, I set up the lights, the cameras, and sound. I write and host the episodes, and then cut them together. The content of channel is a blend of my love for music and my natural curiosity of how and why things came to be. For instance, I was driving one day and I saw the Beatles logo and I wondered how they came up with that. I did the research and it turns out it’s a fascinating story and the video came out really well.

I’ve acted in a lot of great projects over the years, some of favorites include working on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Breaking Wind, Maggie the series, Feud, Deadly Daughter Switch, Let Us In and the soon to be released Good Grief. I think what sets me apart is I’m a really good straight man in comedy. I think you can really see in that my work in the sketch comedy series Daryl & Oates. I love to work with funny people and give them opportunities to shine as the goofy one. I’m currently enrolled in Improv 101 at UCB in order to better hone my comedy skills.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Books
The Dharma Bums
Lord of the Rings
Tune In – The Beatles: All These Years
Smugglers Cove

Apps
Insight Timer
Total Tiki
Allrecipes
Kanopy
Discogs

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.vinylrewind.tv
• Instagram: @vinylrewind
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vinylrewind
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/vinylrewindtv
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT2PC-JqpTK-B9aUeUe01KA
• Other: http://ericcallero.com

Image Credits
Rob Flate, Krisnoff Padua, Ted Mattison, Patrick Rivera, Eric Callero, Kohler