1961 Magazine Fall 2016 | Page 17

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