I stared at the screen for a few minutes to ensure what I was seeing was real.
Yes. It actually says “You have a callback tomorrow”
AWESOMMEEEeeeoohh crap.
Tomorrow was a busy day. The first audition took place on a day I had to have a dental appointment then rush off to work which seemed like a lot at the time.
In this case I had to take in my sisters cats, that started at 7AM, followed closely by going to work early, then leaving work early so that I could make it all the way down to Corona for my first day of teaching a new class. This required a little more planning.
My time margin of error was already slim. Adding an audition into the mix was going to make things hectic.
Needless to say my gas tank wept and my bank account moaned at the thought of driving from Burbank to Korea town, then to Santa Monica then Corona, and finally back to Burbank again.
For the first time in my life I had been racking up some debt. My father had gotten me into the strict habit of never using a credit card unless you absolutely HAD to. I had taken extra precautions and creative ways of finding meals throughout my post college life in order to avoid dealing with debt.
Thanks to low wages and surfing the poverty line at my previous job, hateful spiteful useless waste of a job, I absolutely HAD to use my credit card on more than one occasion.
Not to mention, aspiring to be a comedienne is a very expensive dream.
But no one makes a cent without a little risk.
So I dove in head first. I woke up the next day and shuffled to the kitchen to grab some coffee. Before I knew it my sister’s roommate sent a text saying “Here!”
~ Charlie and Ichabod are lovely cats, but they can be little terrors. They have a knack for reeking havock by chewing off the ear buds from your iPod, or staring at you as you yell "Don't you dare!" while they knock over your last wine glass. So you can understand my hesitation of having them at my house. ~
I opened our front door to find two crates yowling at me. Once they were locked away in the bathroom, far from breakable vases and precious headphones, I headed to work. My sister and her roommate would grab the cats on their way down to San Diego while I was at work.
The work day was extremely busy, which in retrospect was nice because I wasn’t thinking about the audition. I got a call from my agent around noon, who told me how proud he was that I got a callback. Seeing as I had just signed with him officially the day before I got the audition, this callback was really in my favor.
“That’s good, it shows to me that you really know what you’re doing”
My chest started swelling with pride.
Oh man, don’t talk me up anymore or my pride will be too big and I’ll never book this audition.
I walked back into the office and said “My agent’s proud of me” as I walked by the receptionist. She chuckled because we both knew how over the moon I was. My chest loosened it's nervous grip and I breathed a little easier.
I took each new task in stride. Filing those files! Printing those certificates! Mailing those packages! Stocking those sodas!
Mine is a hard burden to bear.
Because of the audition on top of teaching in Corona I had to leave extra early. I proudly walked out as my co-workers encouraged me along the way. I brushed aside my silly actor superstitions whenever someone said "Good Luck!"
Its amazing the difference you feel when you have people supporting you. Having this job be so flexible and supportive has been a huge blessing in the past couple of months.
I climbed into my car and changed in the parking lot (its covered, don't freak out) a talent I have gotten pretty good at, I must admit.
I didn't want to arrive too early to my 3:40 appointment so I drove at a leisurley pace having confidence that I'd make it on time.
The only thing I didn't account for was that parking wouldn't be the same as it had last time. In the first audition I got a prime spot right up front, and I foolishly assumed it would be there waiting for me.
But it was 3:35, and there were no parking spots to be found.
3:36 Crap I still need to apply make up
3:37 Thank you! Thank you for stealing that space I had my blinker on for!
3:38 YES! There! It's a bit of a walk but it'll do.
I barely had time to whip some make up on my face before I flung myself out of the door. My purse caught on the E brake.
I tugged several times while releasing a string of viscous oaths that would shame the cow whose skin made my purse. I stopped puffed an annoyed breath of air, and like an angsty teen avoiding eye contact with the E brake, removed the strap.
3:39 I was jogging down the sidewalk one arm in my fuzzy purple vest, the other arguing with my purse. In a flurry I rushed into the waiting room to find it full of children and adults alike.
Oh no, not kids
I started panting heavily, my anxiety rising slightly.
Kids never stay quiet
Behind me, the door opened to reveal a mother wheeling in her baby and three waddling children.
Oh God, no. Any minute they'll start-
Tears. Floods and floods of tears. The same tears I cried internally as I tried to focus on the task at hand. A sippy cup clattered to the floor as I took my seat on one of the many cramped benches.
They had run out of sides so I had to result to creepily peeking at everyone else's to see if any new material had come up.
Across from me sat a typical Hollywood girl- straightened brunette hair, perfect makeup, could use a sandwich- who barely looked at her sides.
Well how could she when she has all that texting to be do.
"Excuse me, do you mind if I look at your sides?"
She barely looked up from her iHavemoney to say it was alright.
"Thanks"
The sides were exactly the same, so I read them over and over. Trying to find how the hell I was supposed to be sexy with this ad.
Maybe I could make it look like I was jealous of how sexy the phone was... Like we're too sexy to be near each other?
I looked around if anyone could some how see the inner monologue in my head
Come on, you know they won't take that seriously. Sexy! Think!
I set my sides down and immediately a child sat on them like it was a placemat. I've said it before and I'll say it again, children don't belong in an audition wait room. It's unfair to everyone's soul.
"Whoops, you sat on my sheet there" I tried to smirk, it may have come out as a grimace.
She looked away, flipping her hair and talking to her mom.
Luckily, mom noticed, and proceeded to berate child to the point of making me feeling guilty. She skootched over as I tugged the sheet away, holding it a little more dearly this time. I looked up to apologize to miss Hollywood that I ruined her sides thanks to jam hands over here. Instead I saw the Groundlings performer, the one I saw last time, sitting in her place.
I barely choked out an "Oh hey!" when I remembered, Yeah he still doesn't know you.
The "Oh hey" morphed into a muted grunt/smile instead, and I went back to reviewing my lines.
I couldn't help but have a little school pride that he had made the call back as well.
Go Groundlings!
But he had made it to Sunday Company, so of course the guy probably owned the audition.
I got bored of reading the same lines, and my brain has no tolerance for coming up with a million "sexy" ideas of how to showcase a phone. My eyes began to wander as I spotted my Chet #1 who I originally auditioned with and waved to him, in an "Awesome we made the callback!" kind of way. He looked right past me even though I was sitting five feet in front of him.
Alright, we've got game face on. No worries I can do that too.
I looked back down at the lines, as two more Hollywood's filed in. Wanting to provide the same kindness I had recieved I handed over my set of lines to the baffled twigs.
“How can they be out of sides?” one asked.
“Well they’re pretty busy, and it looks like they’ve got a second audition going for some kids commercial.”
Finally the monitor/casting director came out.
"How many of you are here for the LG Commercial?" she asked. A slew of male hands rose along with mine and the two other sandwich deprived Hollywood's.
“Great, good to see you all again. Chet’s they want you to do the same thing just go bigger. And my Patti’s they’ve told me they want more innocent than how I was telling you to go originally. My bad…”
WHAT?! YES!! I don’t have to try to be sexy anymore? HOLLER BALLER!
“… they just want a good pair for Chet”
I couldn’t have been happier. Not only did I not have to be sexy I could continue being a dork, and I have a knack for that.
The monitor/casting director looked around the room again and as her eyes passed me she did a double take.
“You. They’ve been waiting for you.”
“I’m so sorry, I tried to get here as fast as I could”
Look being what being a minute late did! ALWAYS show up early!
“No, I mean they can’t wait to see you.”
That took a beat to sink in. Unintentionally, I looked at the nearest Hollywood thinking she was talking to her. The sour look on her face suggested otherwise.
I raised my eyebrows and pointed to myself.
She nodded “Yeah you.” And then bustled off to get the directors ready.
What?
The idea took me a while to process.
She was talking to me right?
Hell yeah she was!
So that means, even though I can’t be sexy…
You had it right all along
What?
I pulled my ego down from the rafters and started thinking, I might actually get this one.
Not long after I was called to read with two more Chet’s. The first one was a joy to work with and we had a lot of fun. The second was utterly nervous and looked like he’d never auditioned in his life. He kept forgetting his lines (even though they were on a large board in front of him), and missing the beats the directors would tell him to emphasize. This nervous energy kept making me bumble too, I’d say a line weird or forget their direction. It all sounds like a lot, but everything is more detailed in retrospect.
Either way I slowly became infuriated with this guy.
The director finally let us go and my nervous Chet began to talk up the directors as we were walking out.
Ohh bad move, bad move.
“Hey guys thanks for your time and seeing us”
Just leave, move so I can leave. You’re killing yourself.
“I had a lot of fun, sorry about the mistakes”
STOP!
I finally made a break for it when he moved to get his sunglasses. I nodded to the casting director on my way out mouthing “Thank you again” and she nodded.
I rushed to my car, not totally sure of how that ended up. I didn’t have a lot of time to mull everything over as I was running 20 minutes behind now
That guy is gonna make me late to my first class too? GAH!
The route from Santa Monica to Corona is not an easy one, especially at 5 o’clock when traffic’s just getting started.
I shared some words with my fellow drivers, that may not have been becoming of lady, but I needed to be on time for my first day of teaching. After a long a grueling drive I made it to my class only a few minutes late.
Shaking off the audition I took a few minutes to go over the typical class rules of proper shoes, respect for everyone, and “No cell phones in class or I’ll take them. Especially if it’s an iPhone”
After that we got to work.
I love this group, I loved my last one, but these guys have a lot of energy. While two students were doing a scene my phone started vibrating. Excited I looked at it to see I didn’t recognize the number. I turned off the ring and put it back in my bag. As I looked up one of students held out her hand waiting…
“Guess you’ll have to give us your phone now.”
I laughed pretty hard.
“You mean this phone” I produced my ratty old EnV with the plastic case barely hanging on.
She took a long look at it and said, “Ew, never mind.”
I started putting it away when the face lit up to let me know I had a message.
That’s a good sign!!!
We worked for a few more minutes and then I sent them on their break. I quickly snatched my phone out of my bag and listened to the message.
It was the casting director, Mimi, who had pointed me out at the call back:
“Hey hun, I’m just calling to let you know we’re putting you on Avail for this Thursday and Friday. We’ll let you know by tomorrow morning. Thanks!”
