MINNEAPOLIS -- Steve Sedahl just returned from a "networking trip" to Los Angeles, where he hopes to turn a hosting role with a Comedy Central game show into a full-time on-screen career.
The success of "Let's Bowl" -- which premieres for its second season at 7 p.m. Monday -- has opened several Hollywood doors for the 1975 Brainerd High School grad.
But there's a glitch that could threaten Sedahl's connection to the successful cable comedy show, he said this week in a telephone interview from his Eden Prairie home.
"You have to have a Screen Actors Guild to get any work in Los Angeles," he said, a requirement that poses a conundrum for the nonunion Sedahl.
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If you go
Who: "Let's Bowl" personalities
What: Premiere party
Where: Suburban World Theater, Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis
When: 6 p.m. Monday
Cost: Free
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His television resume qualifies Sedahl for membership in SAG or the alternative American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union, but joining either would mean his immediate departure from "Let's Bowl," he said.
The game show, a spoof on one of America's favorite pastimes, is a nonunion production, Sedahl said, and "you have to do it one way or the other. You cannot have union and nonunion people working on the same production."
Union rules also have hampered other "Let's Bowl" personalities from the Twin Cities, including director Tim Scott, who along with Sedahl and the show's co-host, Rich Kronfeld, created the show.
Scott, a SAG member, is prevented from appearing on screen in the show he helped create, said Sedahl, who did not complain about the restrictions as much as acknowledge the dilemma they present for his future decisions.
"The industry people I met with, including several talent agents, were very encouraging," said Sedahl, who spent two weeks in early February hobnobbing with actors, producers and other film and television professionals.
"There is a big need for host kind of people in game shows and reality shows, who are not standup comics," he said, "and that's where I could fit in. It helps having a show on nationally, opening doors to people who matter. But the agents were reluctant to commit because of the union thing."
Sedahl conceded, however, that he could not commit to other television roles, those with union card requirements, as long as Comedy Central, a cable network, continues to extend the life of "Let's Bowl."
The network renewed its commitment to a second 10-week season several months ago, and is considering a third season that would be shot in the Twin Cities in early summer.
Sedahl and other "Let's Bowl" personalities will host a free, open-to-the-public premiere party Monday at the Suburban World Theater at Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue, starting at 6 p.m.
In the meantime, Sedahl has returned to his full-time job with a Twin Cities-based cable-shopping channel. But it isn't easy, he said.
"After the first season (of 'Let's Bowl'), suddenly having to wake up the next morning and go back to work at an office is a tough transition," he said with a chuckle. "You go from being taken care of on many levels as a performer and being able to act and have that kind of energy, and then suddenly go back and face the four walls of corporate America. ...
"I have a small window of opportunity to make it (as an actor) and I am willing to invest in that," he added. "There's nothing better than that energy exchange you get in front of the camera."
