So I was sitting in my private Vietnamese class last night when someone knocked on the door.  That actually happens quite often – people coming to the wrong classroom, etc.  So my teacher, Cô Trúc, opens the door and starts talking to this Vietnamese guy.  I’m sitting there getting kind of agitated because I’m paying for the class time and this guy’s taking it up with whatever irrelevant bullshit he’s talking about with my teacher in Vietnamese, when all of a sudden Cô Trúc turns to me and asks “Do you want to be on TV?”

I didn’t miss a beat:  “I sure would.”

So a week from today, on October 17, 2007, I am going to be an actor in a Vietnamese television commercial for Dại Việt beer:

I have to be at Tân Son Nhất International Airport from 6:00am to 6:00pm for the filming.  My role is an American living in Vietnam who is dating a Vietnamese woman.  My American family is coming to Vietnam and meeting my girlfriend and her family for the first time.  I’m not sure what all I have to do as far as acting – the only think I have to do for sure is raise a glass of beer in a toast and say the following:  “Bia Dại Việt bia của mọi nhà!”  (“Beer Dại Việt is the beer of every house!”)  I think I am a natural for this role!

So today the guy called me and asked for my measurements – like suit measurements.  I have no idea why.  Tim thinks they’re probably making me a suit to wear for the commercial.  God I hope so.  I hope I get to keep it after the commercial.  And I hope it’s fuchsia.  Or chartreuse.  Or mink.  I’ve always said people will be able to tell when I’ve made it big when I show up in a mink suit:

Tim has been in some Vietnamese commercials and on a Vietnamese television program.  He was also in the movie “The Quiet American” with Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.  So I’m going to see what I can parlay this into.  (Probably exactly one Vietnamese beer commercial, but we’ll see.)

In any event, I’m hoping I can get a digital version of the commercial to post on this blog.