8:29 pm - Fri 5.28.2010
Finding My Voice

A lot to write about...

Five auditions in May - three just this past week - means, happily, that I've finally broken my streak of three auditions a month (or less) so far in 2010.

(Though with my mutant superpower of "seeing the bad in everything", I'm half-assuming the timing of this record-breaking month is just so I can feel anxious about all the auditions/bookings I'll be missing when back in Michigan next month. But what are ya gonna do? - Not have a life?)

Anyway...

Auditioned for Parks and Recreation on Wednesday.

I was very excited; it was my first audition for the show (Got called in once before, but then they "re-imagined" the character as someone who, apparently, wasn't me, and canceled).

I'm eager to get a straight-on comedy credit. And I think "Parks and Rec" is one of the best tv comedies out there right now.

Anyway, I thought it went very well (I read for two small parts)...but at this point, two days after the audition, I'm assuming it didn't happen.

I was thinking yesterday...I've been here nine years, and understand - intellectually, at least - that there can be any number of reasons you don't get cast in a role. But I still can't shake the feeling, when I don't book something, that "I wasn't good enough".
It's hard for me not to second-guess my initial good feeling about an audition if I don't book the gig.

Yesterday, I had two auditions - One a super-secret commercial audition (That I had to sign a "confidentiality agreement" for), and the other for Sons Of Anarchy, a one-hour drama on FX.

With all the secrecy, I assumed the commercial audition was for some exciting new product, or a campaign so witty and innovative that they didn't want a word of it to leak out and "spoil the surprise".

When I got there and saw what the product was and what they wanted us to do, I thought, "This is what all the secrecy is about...?".

I was (decidedly) underwhelmed.

And it was one of those auditions - kind of common with commercial auditions, actually - where they tell you, basically, "not to do anything".

I left feeling like "This is a total crap shoot...", one of my least favorite things to think upon exiting an audition (My #1 "Least Favorite Thing To Think Upon Exiting An Audition"? Something along the lines of "@#!! I had every chance to rock that audition, and I @#$! blew it!").

(You could argue that, to a certain extent, they're all "crap shoots" - because of all those factors you have no control over - but when they tell you "don't act" or "don't try to be funny" or what-have-you, they take away the one thing you do have control over, which is your "take" on the material. Then you're not an actor making creative choices, you're just a face, or a body, or a voice, that you can't do anything about. But anyway...).

I went directly from that audition to the Sons of Anarchy audition (Reminding me that, while I'm bitterly jealous of other actors who are having two or three auditions a day while nothing's happening for me, the reality of multiple auditions in a day can kind of suck - This from the guy who was trying to get across LA in fifteen minutes yesterday afternoon, right at the beginning of rush-hour traffic).

Anyway, I don't really know how the SOA audition went - I'm not sure I completely shook off the stress of my drive there, and I was embarrassed over some confusion once I was in the room (I thought they were going to have me "slate" my name at the beginning, so I was standing up. But they wanted me to just go into the scene, so there was an awkward moment when they had to tell me to sit down, which I worried left them thinking I didn't know my character is sitting in a van during the scene).

Anyway, I did the actual scene fine (And it's a fun scene, a little different than what I've gotten to do so far out here). Though again, I was struggling not to second-guess myself on the way home.

(But after my audition, when the casting person walked out to get the next actor, she was chuckling over what I'd just done. Which I thought was positive, since I perceived the character, and the scene, as a bit of "dark comedy").

Anyway, while I assume P&R goes into the "dead audition file", the commercial audition and SOA are probably still in play (What with them being in the afternoon yesterday, casting offices closing early today, and Monday being a holiday).

In short, it would be fun to "sneak in" one more gig before heading off to Michigan...but it's not the end of the world if I don't.

(Almost 11 pm already...running out of time here - I have to get up super-early tomorrow to work three WW meeting. Why does it take me so long to write these damned things...?)

All-in-all, it was nice to have the auditions, of course (Even though, re-reading my entry so far, seems like I've got more than a little negativity going on here).

But the real acting fun this week was yesterday morning, when I recorded my first voice-over demo.

Haley, who will be running the voice-over side of BCK (Brett's management agency), was very cool, was very happy with the copy I'd brought with me (Ad copy torn out of magazines, at her request), and seemed delighted with what I brought to the table vocally.

We had a lot of laughs. And I told her, in the hour-and-a-half or so we recorded stuff, that "this is the most acting I've done since moving to LA".

I'm not sure exactly how many things we recorded - eight or nine separate voices/characters, maybe? - but it was really fun, and I'm looking forward to hearing what she puts together for the demo (She's going to send me a couple different versions, so I can see what I think).

She said something towards the end of the session that I've thought, and I'm sure other people have thought as well - "You should have been doing this years ago...".

But "better late than never", as they say.

But speaking of "late", I've gotta get to bed - My first meeting tomorrow is at 7:15 in the am.

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