Published: Saturday, Jul. 18, 2009
Bill Morem: Cambria’s cast gets even more colorful
Comments (0) | 
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeSo there I was, sitting at the desk of The Cambrian editor Bert Etling, performing a few weeks of vacation relief at our sister weekly, when Methuselah entered the newsroom.
OK, he really looked more like Methuselah as a biker who looked suspiciously like Santa Claus. Steve Reilly definitely cuts a figure.
With longish gray hair, wire-rim glasses, black shirt, pants and vest, he could be a biker. But it’s his beard that’s distinctive: it’s white and about the length of one of the ZZ Top boys’, hanging mid-belly. Really, had he a larger breadbasket, he could have doubled for Santa Claus — which he did portray in a Cookie Crock advertisement around Christmas.
A soft-spoken man who turned 56 July 4, he was dropping by the office to pick up a book that features his curriculum vitae and some headshots. It’s the Bible for casting directors called “Holy Headshot! A Celebration of America’s Undiscovered Talent” and, sure enough, there he was on pages 156 and 157, looking for all the world like he belonged on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, reaching a finger toward Adam.
It’s probably a role he wouldn’t mind playing.
Here’s his story. A native of Vashon Island in Puget Sound, he tramped around Europe and North Africa for six months after high school graduation in 1971. He earned degrees in theater and special education in college, then traversed the Cascades to take a teaching job in Yakima, Wash., at Eisenhower High School.
It wasn’t enough that after developing a children’s drama program that produced eight productions a year for the next 17 years, he also was a stage manager and promoter rep for MCA and House of Blues, working with acts like Alice Cooper, The Moody Blues, White Zombie, Joe Cocker, Jethro Tull, Neil Young, The Who and Bruce Springsteen.
By 1997, he was burned out on children’s theater and the music biz, so he took a job at an alternative school and worked with gang members and other at-risk youth.
After 25 years as a teacher, he retired in 2004. Then, on a whim, he joined a Web site called Explore Talent, a site where a person can apply for film and commercial work. It got Reilly a role in Alela Diane’s music video called “The Rifle” as a dancing farmer doing a jig during the whole film.
When “Holy Headshot!” authors Patrick Borelli and Douglas Gorenstein ran across Explore Talent, they “liked my look.” So, Reilly became one of 100 headshots in the book, out of 50,000 hopefuls (yes, 50,000).
Then, last year he and wife Sally were visiting friends in Cambria and decided on the second day to have a real estate agent give them a tour of available properties “just for fun.” They bought the third house they looked at because “it just hit us,” and not the least because the community in the pines has a distinct feeling of Vashon Island.
And so Cambria has added a little more color to its cast of characters.
Bill Morem can be reached at bmorem@thetribunenews.com or at 781-7852.
What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
- Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
- Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
- Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
- Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
- Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
- Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
- Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
- Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.