11:07 AM - SUN 1.22.23
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Well, this has officially been a good week.

Fast on the heels of my first commercial audition of the year came my first theatrical audition (For a network sitcom).

Friday was particularly nice - I recorded the theatrical audition with my buddy Josh in the morning (Which felt very easy and fun), then went to Costco with him in the afternoon, where, while we were having lunch, I found out I had a callback for the commercial the next day.

I got a kick out of going to Costco (Josh has a membership, while I'm not sure I've ever been in a Costco). He treated me to lunch - We each had a hot-dog, a large slice of greasy pizza, and a drink, for a total of around $8.00 - and we walked around the entire place, which was huge (I didn't think I was going to buy much, assuming it was all bulk-item stuff, but I ended up dropping a fair chunk of change, primarily on a new Waterpik, since my store-brand Waterpik had crapped out a day or two earlier).

(Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the trip? During lunch, we briefly baby-sat another customer's pet parrot while they waited in line. Josh got a fun picture of the two of us, having a chat.)

But what I didn't expect was how much fun it would be.

Pre-COVID, the commercial process was basically to go in, do the initial audition, then hopefully have the callback maybe a few days to a week or so later.

At the initial audition, it's pretty much you and the camera person (Sometimes other actors, but more often than not, it's just the two of you). Then at the callback, there's also the Casting Director, the Director, ad agency people, and the client (Or clients).

But when COVID was at its height, that process morphed into recording your initial audition yourself, then if you got the callback, it was via Zoom (Or another Zoom-like app).
Typically, at that kind of callback, you'll see the camera person (Who's basically running the audition), and maybe the Director, and that's it (And the Director will often just be a disembodied voice).

But yesterday's callback was "old school", with seven or eight people in the room.

I very much prefer that - At its best, it reminds me of community theater, going in and doing your thing in front in front of an "audience".

There's no guarantee that it's going to be "magic" - you can walk in, do your thing, and they're paying more attention to their lunch than to you - but if you can turn them into an "audience", you've got a good shot.

And I felt like they were an "audience" yesterday, practically from the moment I walked in (I walked in, gave a little wave and said "Hey...", then turned to the camera guy and hiked up my pants, which I'd been having to do before I went in, then decided to let that happen in the room because it "worked" for the character).

And the actual audition was great fun - the Director gave me some direction that sounded "broader" than what I'd been asked to do at the first audition, so to make sure I understood I said, "So I can 'go big' here?" and he said, "Oh yes!" (The reason for the clarification on my part is that I'm almost never asked to be "big" at an audition - It's always about being "real", to the point where, over the years, I've made a virtue out of how little I can do at an audition while getting the point across. But it's a lot of fun to get to "swing for the fences" every so often).

So I did the thing, and they laughed (And someone - I think the Director? - joked, off what I'd done, how the character had really not liked the news he'd gotten, to some more laughter).

Then the director gave me a different bit of business to do, and I did that and got more laughs.

(Then they thanked me, and I hightailed it out of there.)

Now, there's no guarantee that I sealed the deal with that callback - the next guy could have come in and done something even funnier, or been just as good and looked more like how they envisioned the role - but from what I did and how it was received, I made a really good case for myself.

Since the theatrical audition was due Friday afternoon, and the commercial callback was yesterday, they might have already been decided, but they could also still be "open".

If I don't get word on either tomorrow, I'll assume they didn't happen...but for now?

I'm in a "world of possibilities".

Till next time...

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