ENTERTAINMENT
genuinely interested in what she did, focusing as she did
on things that are beautiful, creative. I expressed sincere
interest in her magazine, its topic, etc., and it felt great
to say something I meant. Meeting artists and designers
who (sincerely) deal in charm and wonderment is, for
me, an oasis in the dry desert that is the musty world
of law. I needed a drink. So I drank.
before, he was a sheriff for 17 years.
Wait. How does a sheriff become an actor?
If that question hasn’t come to your mind yet, it should
have.
“Hmm…” I thought. “I write. I ask questions. Sure!”
In Marino’s case, he too had a love-hate relationship
with his career as a sheriff. “I hated the bureaucracy”
he said. He hinted at a strong disdain for the culture
pervading law enforcement officers – the contrived
machismo, the corruption, the backstabbing.
And here we are.
‘It was an effort to get through the day’, he said.
She asked me if I wanted to try my hand at interviewing
and writing about people.
I met my first assignment, Carl Marino, over the phone
on a warm summer evening. I had to leave my office
to talk to him in my car so I could put him on speaker
phone.
I was late.
The first thing I must say, because it is so definitive, is
that Carl Marino is and was an extremely easy going,
friendly, relaxed guy. Even though it was awkward
at times – or rather, even though I was awkward at
times – I walked away feeling forgiven, as though he
was saying, somehow through his energy, “Its okay
Zameer *insert smiley face* You’re doing fine.”
This is simply the guy he is – quintessentially nice.
He “answers every piece of fan mail” he gets. Or at
least he tries too. That’s Carl Marino.
But on Homocide Hunter? All business.
Based on the real life work of Lt. Joe Kenda of the
Colorado Springs Police Department, Marino is
responsible for being an intense, tough-as-nails, 23
year veteran of law enforcement who has worked on
hundreds and hundreds of criminal cases. In this role
Marino takes the audience and the actors themselves
step-by-step through the gruesome, mystifying and
complicated cases that the show portrays, and the
stories that surround them.
Not exactly a huge leap for him, since, as I mentioned
And so there he is, trudging away trying to help people
and protect the “public interest” while his own interest
was being corroded by acidic nepotism and duplicity.
And then all of a sudden, the foundation gave way
and his life fell apart. His parents past away close
together, and his relationship with his long-term girlfriend ended. He was left alone. Chin up, chest out
– or most probably, eyes moving to and fro, confused,
listless – he did what many romantic Americans have
done before: he packed up his car with everything he
owned, went west, and left it all behind. Gutsy, my
friend, but awesome.
Upon arriving on the sun-swept shores of California,
he took a job as a private investigator, unable,
understandably, to completely let go of his old life
and the vestiges of his past career.
And then one day while browsing Craigslist, he came
upon an ad that caught his attention. Not an ad about
a new gun holster or surf board. No, it was an ad for
an acting job. Specifically, it was an ad seeking actors
to play police officers on the pilot for “Trauma”, a new
television series about paramedics.
I’m sure he stared at that ad with some intrigue, not
knowing it was a cross-road. He “had never had a desire
to be an actor” ever in his life, after all. Or perhaps he
sensed big things to come. It was, after all, an oddly
tailored opportunity, out of place but sort of fitting,
eclectic: an ex-cop who hated the job of being a cop,
faced with an opportunity to act like a cop. It was, at
the very least, odd (at least by my standards).
17
1961 Magazine Fall 2016