Monday of Audishes

It was already going to be an exciting Monday: I was looking forward to a callback for a super fun musical improv group. THEN- a reminder popped up on my outlook for a VO audish. OMG! I totally forgot that on Friday I had scheduled an audish for Monday.

I van-cabbed it over to the agency and read two spots for your favorite Mexican beer. This time I did not have to say it in the slate, but I did have to be over 25 to audish. Same thing happened for another beer company so I started googling and found this Beer Institute Code of Advertising. Interesting!

When I stepped out of the booth, the other agent asked me to stay and read a dialogue with another girl who had just come in. Turns out, it was one of the girls I had worked with on a tampon VO tv demo a year ago. (after reading that in the preview I feel the need to add it was voice only over storyboard, not.... a demonstration of how to use tamps!) This one was for a cheap haircut place and it was actually funny, so that was super fun.

Another triple audishle! Hopefully, the odds are increasing that I will book some VO work.

Baseball Dance Team?

Usually I see the good, bad, funny, crazy audishes posted in all the links on my sidebar- The Reader, Craigslist, Chicagoplays.com, ect. So you can imagine my amazement at discovering this audish in a Chicago Tribune article: Schaumburg Flyers Baseball Dance Team. And now you can imagine how sad I am at reading about this after the fact. I would probably have gone out there to audish! If I had nothing better to do!

Long time readers may remember my post about auditioning for the Cleveland Cavs Dance Team way back in 2003 .

Well, from the description in the article it looks like the Flyers dance team audition was a semi-failure. Only 13 people tried out! Where did they post the announcement?

Oh wait a second, maybe all the real dancers found out about this description from the General Manager: "They'll be taking tickets as fans enter, tossing T-shirts into the crowd between innings and generally assuming a higher profile than most ballpark entertainers, he said. "Dance will be just a quarter of what they do every day."

Taking tickets?!?!? I didn't overcome the death of my mother, a move to my estranged father's inner city apartment and finding my way through the underground hip-hop scene to have a triumphant audition at Juilliard so that I could take your tickets and throw t-shirts.

Looks like we all dodged a bullet by missing that audish!

Guest Blog

In today's guest post: another example of using improv in an audish!

Last year I was asked to audition for some TV show coming through town that needed improvisers who could act like a variety of "young hollywood types." They gave us a list of types we could choose from. You had to pick one, dress as that character, come up with a "story to tell" about your character and lastly they'd conduct an interview with that character. They really stressed that the characters needed to be realistic so they didn't want any wacky voices or over the top stuff.

I spent all this time coming up with a story to tell. I knew that the improvised interview part wouldn't be too difficult, but the story thing was stressing me out. I wrote it and rehearsed it like a mad man. It was like really intricate and had all these dramatic details about my character and his history.

Well, I got to the audition (they were also auditioning for a McGolden Arches commercial in the same place so there were a bunch of child actors running around, rehearsing lines and being precocious) and when they called me in they just said: don't use any funny voices, stand on the "X" and just be your character.

They then launched right into the interview portion. I didn't even have to tell them the story.

I think the reason they did this was to sort of throw us off our game a little bit, just because the role we were auditioning for was to be improvised. They probably wanted to see if we could think on our feet and handle unexpected stuff being thrown at us.

After that initial shock, the rest of the audition went really well. Later, I talked to another friend who auditioned who said he used a voice for his character. He didn't get a call back. Duh.

On The Upswing

VO business is picking up! I got called in for a dialouge audish today, and when I got there I ended up reading for four roles in three different spots:

• 'Crew' and 'announcer' part for a McGolden Arches spot
• A teen at a local mall
• A twenty-something at a local mall

Guess which one was my fav? uhDUH- teen at the mall. for sers.

I checked my calendar, and it had been about 2.5 months without any VO audishes. And now I've been at my agency three times in the last two weeks, and two visits were for three spots! Turns out people still need to advertise, and radio is cheaper than tv.

So what does this mean for you? Get those demos and headshots in the mail! And then write me a guest blog. :)

Audishes of the Day

There is an audish party happening over on CIN, fo' reals:

• TP&R Casting is looking for 25-35 yr old men for a print ad
• Blewt! (one of the most successful comedy producers in town) has a brand new 'courtroom' show
• Reset List (An Improvised Rock Show) is being started by some peeps that I personally know to be totes hilars
• Even Baby Wants Candy is having an audish!

And either business in the VO world is picking up again or my agent remembered that I existed- because I have another VO audish tomorrow.

Yay spring!

Computer Characters

Today I had a VO audish for a popular antivirus software. The copy was very announcery and informational, but the character description was:

"a grown up Juno, edgy, quirky, spunky attitude, hipster vibe. Not sweet."

A fun challenge AND I got to say the line "this limited time TV offer."

Audish of the Day

OMG, these are the kind of posts that make me wish I was a child or that I had a child. This audish for the Wizard of Oz is just phenomenal.

The National Tour of “The Wizard of Oz” is touching down in Chicago on April 30, 2009, and is calling for 12 local children to perform the roles of “Munchkins.”... “The Wizard of Oz” is looking for a group of 12 skilled dancers and singers engaged in an ongoing study of acting, music and/or dance to perform timeless classics such as “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead,” ... The winning group will be announced at the end of the audition day. • Press is encouraged to attend and photograph/film the event. ...Singing: Each group should prepare ‘Ding Dong the Witch is Dead’ prior to the audition. The music is available for download at www.wizardofozontour.com . • Dancing: The groups will learn a section of Munckinland together the day of the audition and then will perform in their individual groups in front of the judges.

Too fun!

Guest Blog!

In today's guest blog...

I do not have an agent, but I've done a workshop with a casting director and he will occasionally call me in to audition for commercial and film projects. Maybe that's an overstatement, he's called me in twice. :)

The first audition I went on was for an industrial film. I had been given sides earlier for a group scene. The scene required 4 people, but in my time slot one of the people didn't show so the casting assistant was reading the lines. This is where the trouble happened. The casting assistant wasn't really reading the lines verbatim and was paraphrasing at times. Not usually a big deal, except that she kept leaving out my cue line which was a question, my line was the answer. I definitely let it throw me and my timing was way off and I got wrapped up in how the scene didn't make sense now. Not a smooth move. Looking back I wish I'd just pressed on as though nothing was wrong.

So I guess that's the lesson there. You can only control what you do. Would it have been better if the casting assistant had stuck to the script? Probably. But there was no way for me to control that. I had the power to control my reaction to the skipped line and in the future I'm pretty sure I'll do so with a lot more poise.

Student Film Audish

On Saturday, I went downtown in the pouring rain to audish for two student films. They turned out to be two super fun audishes.

The first audish had requested a monologue, and I prepared the same one that I had done for my most recent agent audish. This time they laughed so that was a big relief.

The second audish was one page of the script. They had me read it through once and then gave me two different directions to approach with for two more takes. Interesting and fun! However, I just saw the audish posted again on c-list, so I don't think I got the part ;).

I was surrounded by bulletin boards in both buildings - totes college campus.

Searching for Smooth Legs

Yesterday my VO agent called and asked me to come in for an audish. This was great because they haven't called me in awhile. And then I got there and found out it was for three spots- super funsies!

The first two spots were for the same sassy shaving cream and each was a little different- the more sophisticated, relaxing spot was aimed at adults and the other spot was 'more energetic and youthful.'

The third spot was for a search engine. A lady who just finished a macrobiotic diet needed to find a restaurant.... hilars.

I took a lesson from a previous audish and made some stronger choices than I usually would. They took my first read on all three, so that was a good experiment.

Do you want to get an agent? Keep those guest blogs coming!

Columbia Film Audishes

Columbia College student film audish postings are all over the place. I signed up for two of them on Saturday morning- fun!

The Reader has one here and here
Craigslist has a few including this one for four student directors.

Although these projects are probably unpaid, they can work with union members under student agreements. Benefits include good equipment, building credits and your reel.

AuDish of the Day

Now here is a high class post: the Chicago Symphony Chorus is holding an audish for singers.