Gotta love the same day auditions; especially when nothing else is going on. Well, I assume I’m still on avail for “KFC”, but no appointments for today. That is until Erin, one of my theatrical agents called with one for this evening. Yup, 6:55 this evening. Cool, I’ll take that!

Get this, I go to the post office this afternoon and who gets in line behind me? The star of Fox hit “Prison Break” Wentworth Miller. He was being kinda low-key hiding behind aviator sunglasses and I could tell by his posture he was trying to be anonymous. I wanted to say something to him, but not reveal him to the other customers. To be honest, I don’t know if anyone else knew who he was. On the down-low I say, “Congratulations on the show”. He replies, “Thanks”. I asked him about the new season pick up and he seemed surprised I knew about it. I also asked him if they were still going to be shooting in Chicago and say “no” the show will be shooting in Texas next season. Huh, Texas? He seemed like a nice, regular guy. I say “good luck”, he said “thanks” and I made my way to the window to handle my business. Not two minutes after that I am walking back to my apartment and who walks right past me on the sidewalk? Actor-comedian Bill Bellamy. Yeah, right in my neighborhood. I guess this means I moved to the right city to further my career.

Audition: “Evan Almighty” @ Aquila/Wood Casting. The role is that of a reporter; actually one of 3 reporters AND it shoots in Virginia. Yeah, so I can’t help but to plan out my whole trip if I am fortunate enough to book a role. I felt great about my preparation and was quite confident going to the appointment. The audition was in the same building that my theatrical agency is in; one floor below. So I arrive at the casting office and sign in and there are about 10-12 actors ahead of me. I hang out for a bit rehearsing and then figure I’d go outside so I could rehearse at full volume instead of whispering in the halls of the building.

One of my dilemmas was using a prop or not. My character was a reporter interviewing and thought it made sense that he would have a microphone. Ya know; you always hear “NO PROPS!” and “NO MIMING!” I didn’t have a microphone anyway, but I did have one of those little umbrellas that’s about the size of microphone, when closed, in the trunk of my car. I went back and forth for a bit about it and decided to own it and use it. Who cares what they think, it’s my audition! Right? Truthfully, I did care, but not enough to not use it. I thought about the hundreds of actors that I’ve auditioned with when working as a reader and what the most effective thing they had in their favor. More often than not it was their ownership of their performance. I’m gonna own this performance dammit!

So I’m back downstairs on the street, umbrella in hand, rehearsing at full volume. People in cars are driving by looking at me, talking to myself, in a suit, with an unbrella in my hand. Yeah, I was getting some funny looks, but you know what? It was a great feeling. Why? Because, I had to NOT be afraid of making a fool of myself. The location was Hollywood & Vine which is undergoing a lot of construction and the area is a little haphazard at best. I was rehearsing in the doorway of an empty storefront; an area where a homeless person might take a dump or vomit. It wasn’t too bad in there, a little cleaner than I expected.

So I’m reading the material, people are looking at me and I decide to move a little closer to the sidewalk to really expose myself and what I was doing. What happened next was kinda surreal. Who walks by? Not 1 of my theatrical agents, not 2 of my theatrical agents but all 3 OF MY THEATRICAL AGENTS!!! LOL! Yeah, Erin, David and Caleigh were leaving the building after work. So I had a little explaining to do, especially the umbrella in my hand that I was talking into. It was pretty funny. They were quite supportive and glad to see me working on my stuff. They also liked how I looked in a suit. I love my agents.

Back upstairs and all systems are go! I enter the room and Tricia says the umbrella/microphone is a good idea. The scenes went great. She gave me a little direction and we did some of them a second time. At the end they requested a 30 second improv. My “microphone” turned into umbrella again and it worked well for the scenario I came up with. I felt great about the outcome, so we’ll see what happens….or not. I have plans to be out of town next weekend, but given a choice I’d rather be on a plane to Virginia.