moments of troof
Whew.
Interesting weekend. We did our sketch comedy thing at Second City and did not win, which was fine. Our sketch, a takeoff on The Wiggles featuring many big faces and singing of silly songs, brought the house down the first time we did it, perhaps because we were the last sketch and people were just relieved to get a chance to leave. This time we went first and although the sketch went technically quite well, the audience needed a bit of time to warm up.
No matter! It was fun to get on stage again, it was nice to see my friends and we had a good time afterward.
Pilot season is starting to happen, apparently. I went out for a role on a remake of a British sitcom. I was really quite excited, not only because I was getting a chance to get in front a successful casting director, but also because the show is all about these guys (and a girl) who work in an IT office at a flashy company.
Which is what I did for a very long time in New York. The similarities were pretty staggering: the office the crew works in is supposedly very, very nice...except where they work, down, down in the basement. When Rocco and I were rocking it, we were just off the freight elevator in a cold, windowless storage room while everyone else got to enjoy windows, heat, and nice furniture. Even the lines were familiar. The first response to each call is, “Have you tried turning it off and on?” Whenever anyone called us about stuff we would ask, “Have you tried restarting?” So...I was excited and then I just got kinda freaked. I mean, this was it, you know? I mean, if there was ever a time where I would be auditioning for a part that was absolutely a no-brainer, this was the time, right? If this were a movie of my life, right, this would be the time when my big break came--my entire life, from being a computer geek in grammar/high school/college, to working at Apple, to working as a help desk guy, to being the main IT Guy, to being a manager of a the help desk for four offices to being an independent Mac consultant, to working as a product manager making software for the Mac....all of it was finally coming together, giving me the ultimate street cred and life experience to get a part in this TV show.
I even got, after strong nudging from my manager, a coach from my acting school to take me through the audition (which turned out to be an excellent, excellent thing to do). I mean, what the hell, right?
I went to the audition this morning and it went great. I had a great time admitting to the casting person that this was my life (I even brought my headshots in my Apple Consultants Network binder (which I use for all auditions, it just made actual sense for this one)) and did the scenes. I did one take, then got some adjustments, re-did it, went on to the other one...all good. I was doing a more nerdy character than the one I was most like but when I asked if I could do the other character, I was told it wouldn’t really matter since my type wasn’t the what the were looking for. (“But...but...he’s me!” I wanted to wail.)
On any other day, this would be a fine day, I would have been stoked to even have gone out on a pilot audition, meet a new casting director, and do a solid audition. But this one...well, it’s just one of those singular moments that only happen in this business.
We shall see what happens. It would be awesome to get called back but I have to let it go. It’s just...well, it’s like, if I had more credits, if I had been here earlier, I would probably have had more experience so the odds of my getting called back would be higher. I feel like there’s this boat at the dock and I am running after it, trying to catch it. I mean, honestly, I really doubt that there are other former IT Directors auditioning for this. I mean, I am even going to my agents’ office tonight so I can redo three of their systems and reconfigure their backups!
So, that’s my week so far.
Monday, November 20, 2006