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AGGIELIFE
Wednesday, September 6,2000
THE BATTALION
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Welcome Pack Co-ops!
Free Food! Door Prizes! 4 .
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Welcome Back Party ♦ All current
and former co-ops invited!
Former Freudian Slipper makes it big
By Brooke Holbert
Cooperative
Education
Evolve
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Thursday, September 7
5:30 PM ♦ 209 Koldus
Career Center Lobby
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But We Cm Help!
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601 Luliier Ifreet W * Colbe lution, TK. 079-680-3660 ♦ unuw.melroie.com
The Battalion
Imagine a good-looking high
school guy in his trusty Polo jeans,
shocked and thrilled to notice
hordes of female classmates fight
ing to get their hands in his pock
ets ... after all, pop the top and
look under the cap of a Sprite bot
tle, and you could win a $1,000 in
a pair of Polo jeans. Sound famil
iar? Unknown to most, however,
the surprised young man appear
ing in the latest Sprite commercial
is class of ’97 Eric Pargac.
“It is not as strange as I thought
it would be,” Pargac said of his
acting debut. “I knew the first time
it would air, between "Titus” and
“Ally McBeal” on the Fourth of
July. It was weird, especially when
people started calling me.”
Pargac always felt he had the
blood of a thespian pulsing
through his veins, but it was not
until a high school teacher recruit
ed him into theater arts that being
in the limelight became infectious.
“I was in this little English skit,
and the drama teacher saw it and
insisted I rearrange my schedule
and take his Drama II class,” Par
gac said. “I acted in the one-act
play which went to regionals and
started to win awards.”
The ever-involved Aggie, Par
gac exposed his go-getter person
ality as a Fish Camp counselor and
Aggieland editor, but most no
tably, as a founding member of the
group that would become his tour
de force — the improv comedy
troupe Freudian Slip. In Freudian
Slip, Pargac found an outlet for his
love of the stage, and his peers’
ambition gave him the drive to
succeed.
“It’s amazing how Freudian
Slip affects your life,” Pargac said.
“Everyone there has such desire
and this will to be great, this in
tense work ethic. We were all full
time students, working long hours
on the side to prepare for a show.”
So connected with his fellow
Freudian Slip members, Pargac
found it difficult to work with any
other improv performers and left
the Improv Olympics, an elite im
provisation forum that boasts the
beginning of comedians like the
late Chris Farley.
“I just could not find the same
bond I have with Freudian Slip,
that confidence you get perform
ing with them,” he said. “We used
to have the ‘group mind,’ the idea
that we fed off one another, pre
dicted each other’s moves and ad
justed when things went wrong. It
is a unit, and I couldn’t find that
anywhere else.”
Current Freudian Slip director
Nick Cernoch recently collaborat
ed with Pargac in a workshop to
keep the old and new members of
Freudian Slip in touch and learn
ing from one another.
INTERVIEW SAVVY
Interact with corporate recruiters and get the facts about employer expectations
during an interview.
Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2000
6:30 - 7:30 p.m. MSC 224
featured companies:
Universal Computer Systems, KPMG
Andersen Consulting, Central Intelligence Agency
TAMU Career Center 845-5139
209 Koldus http://careercenter.tamu.edu
A place to meet your next employer
“It is a very unique thing when,
in its first few years, an improv
group can sell out a 750-seat house,
like at Rudder Theater,” Cernoch
said. “It is all student-run, and mem
bers have gone from Freudian Slip
to Chicago and New York, as well as
L.A. Freudian Slip is taking over the
U.S.”
Pargac credits much of his climb
to stardom to hard work, drive and a
little strategic networking. Through
a few connections, he landed a job
as a receptionist at Avenue Edit in
Los Angeles, a production company
where he now edits commercial
footage. In this job Pargac made an
impression on the right casting
agent to launch his acting aspira
tions.
“Acting is a real catch-22 situ
ation,” Pargac said. “You need an
agent to get work, and you need
work to get an agent. You need to
be in a union to get an agent, and
you need to have done union work
to be in a union. Basically you
have to get lucky. It is all about the
people you meet.”
General Manager of Student Me
dia Robert Wegener worked w
Pargac on the yearbook in 1997 and
recalls him being less flamboyant
than one might expect.
”1 think it is a characteristic ofac
tors to turn it on while on stage
then be very quiet and unassuming
offstage,” Wegener said. "When you
are talented like that, you can pursue
so many avenues. He is just an all
around good kid.”
Perhaps like other notables Robeit
Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett. Pargac is
destined to set his audience aflameb\
way of the silver screen. For today,
he is content with editing commer
cials and booking auditions.
“You always have a plan, bm
things change, and. suddenly, you’re
going another way,” “I do not fee!
successful yet. 1 could never mab
another step. I have no idea — there
are so many factors.”
But Pargac has made anotherstep
He has already committed toanotii
er commercial for Maxwell Hou*
coffee. No release date has beenar
nounced for this one — in the mean
time, pass the Sprite.
Wednesday, Sep
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AVIATIOF
'CAREER
TRACKS
Eric Pargac, '97 Aggieland editor, poses in front of the Reec
McDonald building in the days before his commercial fame
The Texas A&M Career Center and
The Business Student Council present...
Career Fall
Networking
i While workir
on your
college
degree,
accomplish
your pilot’s
certificates a
the same tirr
Upon finishir
your college
career, you
can secure s
job as an
airline pilot.
THE
A seminar on how to make the most out of a Career Fair
Learn insider tips on how to effectively network
with recruiters and make great impressions at career
fairs and at employer receptions.
Thursday, September 7, 7:30 p.m.
159 Wehner
Join representatives from JC Penney, Ferguson, and
Cintas who will present the seminar.
Great door prizes will be given away!
Texas A&M Career Center
209 Koldus 845-5139
littp://careercenter. tamu.edu
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