"my favorite print audition" -> first guest blog!

Every year or two I decide to take the summer off from having a terrible day-job and once again commit myself to the unknown and unsure lifestyle of acting and auditioning. The last time I committed myself to such a lifestyle was two years ago after living over two years as a receptionist for a video game company. That day job itself was probably one of the most enjoyable 'muggle-jobs' I've had in my career, but it didn't pay much and had no benefits, so off I went head first back into the struggle.

This particular audition was for a print ad for some certain cellular phone company. I took a train to the west loop (which made me 15minutes late for the scheduled audition time) but I finally tracked down the tiny studio.

I walked in to a tiny square room with a desk in the back corner and a large conference table set up in the front area. "Nancy" the one and only person in this room told me she was the artistic director for the shoot and asked me for my info. She led me to the conference table and showed me the picture mock up for the ad which I was auditioning for. The mock up picture was of a conference style table (much like the one I was sitting at). The camera was looking down the table from the head of the table point of view. Pretend you're the president of a company and you're sitting at the head of a large conference table. Now scoot your chair back so you can see the edge of the table in front of you. Now put the camera on the table right there at the edge and take a picture. What would you see? The length and width of a conference table with the inside half of 3 or 4 people sitting at the table looking toward the camera, Yes. However, in this picture one person is sitting on the table facing the opposite way, so it's 3 half faces and one ass on the table.

"Nancy" comes over to me and says, "You'll be auditioning for THAT part" and points to the ass at the table. I get up, sit on the table and she takes a picture. Apparently my ass wasn't good enough because I didn't book the job. I guess there's always next time.

-bob