WASHINGTON — Think you recognize who Detective Ed Green is grilling inside a dark bar on NBC's "Law & Order?"
   If you are watching on April 21, you just might. Robbinsville resident Joseph Halsey landed a guest spot on the episode as a potential witness to a murder in the hit show's opening scene.
   For Mr. Halsey, a musician in the Trenton-area rock band Bigger Than Plastic, the role added to his growing list of guest appearances and commercials since he began acting professionally eight years ago. The thrill of a soundstage or shooting on location never fades for him.
   "I feel very lucky to work as much as I do, especially living so close to New York. I'm so fortunate," Mr. Halsey said.
   Mr. Halsey's experiences on sets vary as much as the shows themselves. His role on the "Law & Order" episode "Vendetta" has about five minutes of screen time. But he said the shoot took over 10 hours.
   "We actually shot the scene on location at Pier 62 in New York," Mr. Halsey said. "We were at a little bar called the Village Idiot and they shot the scene in 30 second sections. It took so long because they shot from every angle possible and had to relight each of the shots."
   The conditions were very different during his work on soundstages, like a reoccurring role on "One Life to Live" and spots on the '80s TV sitcom "The Cosby Show" and "America's Most Wanted."
   "'The Cosby Show' was definitely humbling," Mr. Halsey said. "They treat their guests so nicely there — they treat you like a real star. Suddenly the next day you're back at work in a restaurant and the manager is asking you to clean the coffeepot. You just think, 'Wait, yesterday someone was offering to get me coffee!'"
   Mr. Halsey took a back door to his acting career. He tried to go to the Florida School for the Arts for music, but was rejected.
   "I was in a band, but couldn't read music. So I found another way in through acting and found I really enjoyed it," he recalled.
   He credits his large Italian family with helping his career. If not for talent, then at least for his projecting voice that he said was a defense mechanism as a child growing up in Trenton.
   "There were lots of kids and cousins around. If you had a good yell you didn't get beat up on," he said.
   Calls to work can be spotty, Mr. Halsey acknowledged. There are some months when he is busy every day and others when he does not have an acting job at all. Day jobs are common. But Mr. Halsey — who laughingly says he plays characters in the 27 to 32 age-range, but shies away from revealing his own age — never finds himself bored. When he is not acting he works in construction, bartending and modeling.
   If all that were not enough, Mr. Halsey also sings and plays bass in the four-member band Bigger Than Plastic. The group, who in recent years transformed from a punk sound to rock 'n' roll, performs regularly in the area. Bigger Than Plastic is scheduled to rock Finnigan's restaurant in East Windsor on Saturday.
   "We play regionally from Delaware to Massachusetts," he said. "One of our Christmas songs gets air-time in Philly and New York too."
   A Philadelphia management company recently signed with Bigger Than Plastic and the group is shopping for a recording label. In the meantime, the band is recording new songs.
   Bigger Than Plastic is one the main reasons Mr. Halsey moved to Robbinsville five years ago. He said that although New York has a magical quality about it, he would rather be close to his band mates, who are lifelong friends whom he calls brothers.
   "I like it here. Being near the band is very important to me," he said. "In New York everything is a struggle and you can't take jobs you want that don't pay well because you're always thinking about how to pay the bills."
   That mentality will keep him out of Los Angeles and New York for the foreseeable future. Mr. Halsey said he would rather be like Johnny Depp and take jobs because they are challenging and fun instead of just a way to make rent.
   Mr. Halsey said he would be thrilled if acting jobs would transform into a full-time profession. But for now he wants to have time to continue to snap up acting jobs when they come along and concentrate on his music.
   Mr. Halsey can be seen in the April 21 episode of "Law & Order," which airs at 10 p.m. on NBC.