GayCo Audish

GayCo is having an audish - a rare occurrence for this amazing sketch group. I saw their last show and it was very hilarious. Check it out below and email for an audition!!

AUDITION FOR GAYCO
Become A GayCo Artistic Associate
It's our first audition in nearly 3 years! GayCo has been creating critically-acclaimed GLBT-themed sketch comedy since 1997. Join our body of talented Artistic Associates; Opportunities include touring shows, sketch revues, short films, development workshops.

Audition Date: Saturday 23rd, starting at 1pm at the Center on Halsted (3656 N. Halsted Chicago, IL Room 203). Callbacks:Sunday Jan 24th, between 1pm and 5pm. Prepare one comedic monologue of 2 minutes or less (or two one-minute character monologues); audition will include cold-reading of comedy scenes and improvisation.

To Reserve Audition Slot e-mail info@gayco.com More Information About GayCo: www.gayco.com

Technical & Design Associates:
GayCo accepts proposals for technical & design associates and production interns year-round. Send a resume and letter of interest to info@gayco.com.

Laugh Out Loud

Laugh Out Loud is holding auditions next week for short form improv shows.

From CIN:

• Auditions slots are every half hour at Almalgamated Omniversal Corp1700 W. Irving Park Road, Suite 106Wednesday, Nov 11 from 4:30-7:30pm

Great cast & a great place to play, email for a slot!!

ImprovAcadia

ImprovAcadia in Bar Harbor, Maine is having auditions for their short form games / musical improv theater.

From the CIN Post:

• We have a few audition slots left but we have intermittent access to the internet. If you want to schedule an audition, please call us at 207-288-2503.When you leave a message, give the following information:1. Name2. Contact Phone Number3. Day & Time of preferred auditionPlease say all information slowly and clearly

Bar Harbor is beautiful & Martha Stewart has a home there. Call now!

Funny Bones

Funny Bones was started in the beginning of 2008 with the intention of bringing laughter and joy to children currently admitted at Children's Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park through Short Form improv games.

From the CIN Post

• Auditions will be held Monday, November 16th from 6:30 to 8:30 at Second City.

Sounds like a great cause - check it out and email for an audish!

Harold Auditions

Harold Auditions are happening!

Auditions for available spots on Harold teams will be held Saturday, October 31st with callbacks on Sunday, November 1st.
To audition you must have completed your 5B show and graduated from the iO Training Center. No exceptions will be made.
If you would like to sign up, calls will be taken starting on Wednesday, September 30th at 11AM until slots fill up. (773)880-0199.

Audish of the Day

ComedySportz is having auditions! Check out the CIN post:

ComedySportz’s next round of professional auditions will be held 8/29-9/1. The primary goal of this audition is for our Professional Ensemble. We will also be considering talent for Battle-prov, our Extended Company, and Honors 303 scheduled for October.

Fun!!

Cruise Audish for Improv

ComedySportz is on a roll with this fun audishes. Check out this one on CIN:

June 5th - with a headshot and resume at 2:00pm sharp ...
ComedySportz Chicago has partnered with Royal Caribbean Productions in an effort to help them locate the three improvisational comedians for their newest and most state of the art ship: The Oasis of the Seas! These individuals will play Royal Comics on the ship and also perform in their production of Hairspray.

ComedySportz Audish

Here's a great audish over on CIN-

ComedySportz is looking for performers of diverse ethnicities for upcoming professional engagements in Chicago and other major cities. These engagements require performing short-form improv and facilitating improv workshops with high school and college aged youth.

Auditions will be Monday, June 8th, at The ComedySportz Theatre at 929 W Belmont.

Click here for the original post and all the details.

Fun!

AuDish of the Day: Rec League

Lots of fun audishes and classes over on CIN, here's my fav:

Rec League at ComedySportz

Improvisers and Improv Students are encouraged to try out their short-form chops in upcoming auditions for REC League.

Great chance to practice and perform shortform games!

The Funnest Classes Ever

Lucky you- Second City has another round of Music Improv classes starting up. I am currently in the final level and we're preparing for our run of shows in the Skybox. I truly believe that these are the best classes ever. And they are competing against my voiceover class so you know it must be good. Of course, if you don't like musicals or singing then none of this applies to you. But if you do love music, singing, and dancing, then call now!

From the CIN Post...

The Second City Training Center's

Musical Improv Program

Learn how to create musical songs and scenes through improvisation in this five-term program. Class meets once a week for three hours. There are performances at the end of each of the five levels including a 5-performance graduation showcase.

Auditions will be held Saturday, April 25th in the afternoon.

To sign up, stop by or call the Training Center at 312-664-3959.

Reasons You Did Not Get Cast

I found this on Lauren's blog and it explains so many things:

http://youdidntgetonaharoldteambecause.com/



ps- I did a whois search and it's registered to some guy in NYC. So I guess it's not a Chicago thing but it could be.

ImprovAcadia - Season Six

ImprovAcadia still has some audish slots open - Check it out! I performed there for 2 weeks a few summers ago and it was awesome. Fun shows with lots of music and you're basically on vacation in Maine near a gorgeous national park.

When I auditioned a few years ago I felt there was no way I would even be called back, and even if I was invited I would have to negotiate with my job. So I thought, "No pressure, I'll just try to have fun and maybe they'll remember me next time." Turns out that attitude is the great way to approach auditions. It's a hard thing to do in practice though, as I have experienced audishing for agents or shows I really wanted to be in. I try to remind myself of this every time a tourco audish comes up, and then I end up wearing half a shirt on a bus.

iO Harold Team Audish - Call Friday 1/16

On Saturday, February 21st iO is having Harold Team audishes with call in sign ups tomorrow.

Info on the official site is here, info on CIN is here.

"Please bring a headshot and resume. If you do not have a headshot, please bring a comparable photograph. No need to let your picture be funnier than your audition. Please dress as you would for a show."

Do you have your materials ready to go? If you don't have a resume and you get a slot you have a whole month to get it together.

Last time they audishes was August 07 according to my blog ;), so get on it! As I mentioned in that last post about iO audishes:

A special inside note on the harold audish- if it is the same as it has been in the past, your group will do a harold piece that makes it to the second game if you are lucky. I have a special place in my heart for the harold audish as that is how my first team came together. Six of us has gotten the same time, practiced harolds, and approached the audition as a matinee show. We showed up to find 2 random people added to our time slot. After quick introductions, we had a great audish. There are things from that 'matinee' that I can clearly recall as best moments ever. Eventually we were put on the schedule and lasted 1.5 years. The first 6 were people who had not been put on a team right out of classes, and the other 2 had been cut from the schedule before.

AuDish of the Day

If you're interested in musical improv, I highly recommend audishing for this program:

The Second City Training Center announces Auditions for the Music Improv Program Saturday, December 13th and Sunday, December 14th.

I'm in level 2 right now and it is fantastic. I would even say I like it better than the entire conservatory program. In level 2, we are going through the standard structure of a musical and learning about songs for opening/closing, i wish, revolution, variety numbers, and more. Lots of singing!! They only start a new round of classes about twice a year, so get on it if you're interested.


PS-NaNoWriMo is going strong at 46k and I'm going to finish at 50k tomorrow. I promise you many more posts in December.

How To Follow Subtle Directions

I recently went through audishes at an athletic improv theater. I am excited to report they turned out well for me and I will be playing professionally at this theater. The numbers show it was a tight race- 120 people audished and 9 were hired. I don't want to be smarmy and I would have posted this had I not been hired, but yet again I saw some of my talented friends sabotage themselves.

Things we could figure out before the audish:

• The word 'professional' appears 4 times in the post, including "professional appearance" listed as a plus. What does this mean? Business casual, no jeans!

Things we learned during:

• Kudos to the artistic director for starting the audish with a clear and honest speech about the process and what they were looking for. This included being family friendly, no swears. So... be clean and smart! Maybe this is not the best time to sexually harass your scene partner.

30 people were in the callback and honestly I thought everyone could have made the cut. However, there were still a few people who did not follow the two main directions they layed out- people were dressed very casual and the audish started with a blue scene. In fact, the auditor STOPPED THE SCENE and repeated the request for clean comedy. Yikes!

Does this stuff make a difference? Maybe not, but I'm always in favor of being professional and following directions. There were excellent people who were hilarious and were not hired. Auditors might not even be fully aware of it, but if it comes down to two people and one of them followed directions...

As always, stand out in a positive way.

Audish of the Day

Lots of improv audishes listed over on CIN, including Hogwash & Comedy Sportz.
Get those headshots & resumes ready. :)

Acting Resumes

Last Thursday I was honored to assist my fav shortform theater with callbacks. As you may have noticed from this blog, I love audishes- on both sides of the table. And this was no exception. I got to see two awesome groups of improvisors- very hilarious. And I got see 16 resumes and headshots. Most people had it together, but I saw a few resumes that were not quite up to speed. It reminded me that when I helped out with PG incubator audishes I saw iffy resumes and even LACK of resumes from newer improvisors. Success equals preparedness plus opportunity, and that includes a top notch resume. Let's get our bizness together so we're ready to take on the world.

Center your name in larger, bold type on top of the page. Then your contact info - email/phone- and depending on what you are going for: height, weight, vocal range, union, hair color, eye color, ect.

Divide your experience into categories like improv, sketch, film/tv, voiceover, etc., with training at the bottom.

A good way to get your experience lined up nice and neat is to use a table with no borders. Then your text will line up without having to figure out the infuriating column formatting. Even if you don't have much for each category, having a neat resume will showcase what you do have.

Pictures speak louder than words, so here's an example that I found:

In closing, google acting resume or use google images and you will find all kinds of suggestions. Find what works for you and have it ready the next time an audish calls.

Saturdish

Quite a Saturday.

Audish #1: Agency open call as previously mentioned. It was alot like this picture that I found on google image search... By the time I got into the office it was actually just past the scheduled end time. The interns ushering us around said they were moving as quickly as possible. I think it went well - I got a one line response of 'we will keep this.' They said the same to one of my improv friends that I ran into in line. At least I got to hand in my VO demo CD.

:)

Audish #2: For the Music Program at Second City. There were only 4 people in the group, but everyone really kicked it out of the park. The final speech about the program was that multiple factors go into choosing a balanced class- voice range, improv experience, musical theater experience... after hearing this I was a little nervous. I believe I have mentioned here before that one of my secret dreams is to be in a musical- what can I say, dancing and singing at the same time? Sign me up... for the comedy version, because I'm actually writing this on Tuesday, and I found out today that I got offered a spot in the class. 42nd Street, here I come.

Double Duty

This Audisher was on double duty yesterday.

First up, a sketch show that required prepared songs. Plural- as in an uptempo and a ballad. When I got the email last week, I contacted my former teacher at Old Town. She fit me in for a private lesson which was super sassy and productive.

And finally yesterday arrived- the first time I had to sing a prepared song for an audish. I was looking forward to singing in my cab on the way there, because I have secret fantasies of being a Broadway musical star and this was as close as I will probably get to that.

I knew this was a sassy cab when I saw bright red seats. And I did have an awesome cab driver who didn't mind my practice singing, and in fact was very encouraging and claimed to enjoy my songs. He actually had some great advice when I told him I was audishing- "try hard and keep persisting" - a man after my own optimism.

Second up, a vo audish. For the role of an 'ethnically non-descript' friend who was 'nice, upbeat, funny, natural.'

Fun lunch time, but I seriously spent $20 on cabs. Yikes!

Audish Definish

Tourco audishes are this week, break a leg everybody!

I get word of the day emails from www.m-w.com and recently this appeared in my inbox:

audition \aw-DISH-un\ noun
1 : the power or sense of hearing 2 : the act of hearing; especially : a critical hearing 3 : a trial performance to appraise an entertainer's merits

Did you know? Today, “audition” most often refers to a theatrical or musical tryout, but that wasn’t always the case. “Audition" is rooted in the Latin verb "audire," meaning "to hear," and was first used in the late 16th century to refer to the power or sense of hearing. "Audire" is also the root of such "hearing" words in English as "audible," "audience" (which first meant "the act or state of hearing"), and the prefix "audio-," which appears in various words relating to sound. It wasn’t until late 19th century that the noun “audition” began being used for an entertainer’s trial performance. And the verb “audition,” meaning "to test or try out in an audition," didn’t appear on the English language stage until the mid-20th century.

The original meaning of audition is a wonderful thing to think about going into an audish. For one thing, we all know that listening is a huge part of a successful improv scene. For two things, what really applies to any audition is hearing what the auditors are asking for and doing your best to deliver. Every VO audish I have been on has included some character description. Am I really listening and delivering what I think a depressed superhero would sound like? I try :) I think every tourco audish I have done has started with a speech from the SC folk saying that after watching tons of audishes they do not want to see inappropriate scenes or language. And then I see why they have to make that speech, because someone freaks out and does a prostitute-incest-seduction scene that freaks everyone else out.