I see an ad in craigslist for a commercial and I send in my head shot. Just a couple hours later, I get an e-mail back asking me to come in to meet them. I'm there an hour later. Their office is around the corner from the Gay 90s. I was kind of creeped out in the building. Basically when you walk in, there's an elevator and a door (which I would later figure out are stairs). Right then, a black guy with a little dog (like a pomeranian or something like that) walked out of the elevator. The guy reminded me of Darnell (the black guy) from My Name is Earl
.Anyway, I follow the e-mailed instructions and take the elevator up and then all that's in front of me are a door and a set of five doorbells. I was told which one to press, but in general, it just felt weird and creepy. Actors must put themselves in all sorts of slightly weird situations like this in search of their next gig.
A girl answers and leads me through the door and past a hallway (where I presume the other four doorbells lead) and into their office. Very New York Soho loft kind of place (like the apartment in My Two Dads
). There are modern looking couches on the first floor with a pretty big kitchen and a loft second story above the kitchen. In front of the couches there's a big empty space, but with a movie projector screen rolled up in the corner. My wife and I guess they gather on the couch to look at pictures or films (or play an awesome game of multiplayer Mario Kart). There are posters from various fashion shows on the walls and modern looking desks with Macs on the second story. Way more chic and cool than any place I'll ever work in. Anyway, I sit on the couch and I'm given a small form to fill out. I was also asked to bring in a headshot. As someone who really doesn't care about acting, my headshot was printed on regular paper minutes before. No way I'm spending money on a real photo. I'm asked my age and then the girl goes upstairs. If you ever want to go into acting, it would be a good idea to know all of your measurements, like it asked for like my suit measurements and my neck and all this stuff, which the Men's Wearhouse salesguy magically took care of earlier for me. So I fill out the form pretty quickly. One reason this post is so long is because I had time to take notes (and a couple covert pictures) while I waited. To them, it probably just looked like I text a lot.
Some music came on the speakers. It was the original "Baby Where Did Our Love Go" and then went on to other pop music. After waiting a while, a trendy guy walks down the stairs and introduces himself. He's wearing very tight pants and a hoodie and a sportcoat. He's also wearing a piece of cloth around his neck kind of tied like a bowtie. I'm never around people like this. He explains that they're a modeling agency, but they're helping to cast a commercial for the Minnesota Lottery. He thinks I'd be good for the part and asks if I can audition today. I say yes. He goes upstairs and I wait some more.
Then, the black guy with the dog from earlier came in and went upstairs. The dog spent of its time really scrutinizing me. This is probably a coincidence, but the music switched to all rap/hip hop after that. Then, the trendy guy comes back down. The dog follows him but then goes back upstairs after playing with a toy for a minute. I'm given a sheet and told the audition is around the corner in 45 minutes. He wishes me luck and tells me we'll talk about money if I get the part.
The sheet tells me where to go and a little more about the commercial. It asks that the man casted for the part be "Not a model by any means. He's interesting looking in the fact that he's very ordinary." (After showing this sheet to my wife, she said, "No, you're extraordinary to me." Aww.)
I get lunch in Block E (there are still places open in there?) and then go back to my car which is in a nearby lot. Unfortunately, I only paid for one hour of parking which was $4. I put in more money for another hour. I could have saved $2 if I had known ahead of time I'd be there for two hours. Oh well. It must suck being an actor and driving to random places and paying for parking all the time.
The audition for commercial is a block over in the Wyman Building. This is much nicer than the building I was in previously. I go into an office where there's a older guy and older woman. Another woman just walked out of a second room and had apparently just auditioned. I'm given a form to fill out (again, they ask for all these random measurements). I'm also directed to another sheet that storyboards the commercial.
So I have just bought a scratch game and I'm in the car scratching. And then a really tall guy gets into the car (Simpsons reference: "This is the largest automobile I can afford.") and the other guy throws confetti at me, but I'm so engrossed in the scratching that I don't notice him. And then a thing comes up saying that the Minnesota Lottery is huge.
I'm led into the other room. There's a still camera and a printer and then a videocamera and a monitor. A still is taken of me and printed out. The woman explains that I'm going to sit in front of the videocamera and act like I'm scratching a ticket. We practiced a few times and I had to be reminded to keep my head up so the camera can see my face. My instinct was to lean over. Anyway, she films me and then I act like I won $10 or something and my face lights up. And that was it. Really, I felt pretty stupid throughout the whole thing. I doubt I'd ever make a good actor. I'm not really sure if any emotion made it through to the camera.
Anyway, that's it. I'll hear back on that next week. That was fun though. I think this is also my longest post.
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