Today I drive down to San Diego for American Idol auditions. My motto will be “no regrets.” I don’t pretend to be the best singer in America, but who knows? Maybe my personality and performance will be what they are looking for.
Registration for American Idol began this morning and continues until the morning of the auditions, which are on Monday. Those who get called back may spend several days in San Diego before all is said and done.
As you remember me over the next couple of days, hope for me that I’ll be able to relax, perform to the best of my capability and that I have a good book for all the waiting in line.
On Saturday, I auditioned for a boyband. The ad said they wanted “really strong singers” and “guys who can dance.”
I found out on Friday that they wanted me to audition, and I acted in a short film Saturday morning. Thus, I had a couple of hours Saturday afternoon to get ready. Rather than prepare the “three R&B songs” they requested, I pulled out the karaoke version of “At This Moment,” by Billy Vera and brushed up on it.
At the audition location, I mostly kept to myself. My acting coach says people are often trying to psyche you out at auditions since they are in competition with you. In this instance, I took her advice and tried not to listen to comments from those who had already auditioned, who said things like “not to make you worried, but there are seven of them in there.” Instead, I did some relaxation exercises my acting teacher taught me, and when my turn came, I felt pretty good.
The audition went well. They had a camera set up, and I since getting to LA, I learned to perform not to the CAMERA but to a spot NEAR the camera. I was really able to act the song, visualizing what I meant with each line. When I got done, they asked, “do you have a dance background?” I was frank that almost all my dance experience was in Latin and Ballroom dance. They were satisfied because they told me to come back at 7pm for the callback.
I spent the intervening two hours relaxing and making myself look as good as possible.
The callback was a fiasco. There were probably thirty of us there auditioning for the five spots in the band. The judges sat in a panel at the front of the dance studio and watched as the choreographer taught us a very fast, very complex and very specific routine to a hip hop number.
Now, I have good rhythm and I enjoy dancing, but I have not learned the skill of memorizing a dance routine. I decided not to try and hide behind the other auditioners, though, because maybe the judges really did care more about our personalities than our ability to dance hip hop. Once the choreographer was satisfied, she split us up into groups of five to perform the dance. When it was my turn, all I could do was try my hardest; my hardest included forgetting the routine a couple of eight-counts in and freestyle dancing the rest of the song. This did not hold up in comparison to some of the genuinely talented breakdancers and hip hop dancers who were there standing on their hands and striking poses during parts where they were SUPPOSED to dance freestyle.
After we finished, the judges said they would be in touch in a few days. I do not expect to hear from them, and I am alright with that. I was pleased that they liked my appearance enough to call me in to audition and even more pleased that they liked my singing enough to call me back.
The truth is, I didn’t want to be in a boy band; what I did want was to try for things I always dreamed of doing. These dreams include performing and singing professionally in front of people, and I don’t want to think back someday and realize I didn’t try.
Filed under: acting
As an actor, part of the game is to stay in shape at all times. A health club membership costs more than I am currently willing to spend. Therefore, I stay in shape by doing high-repetition sets with a couple of 15 and 35 pound dumbbells. Then I work out more thoroughly on my Tony Little Gazelle, which I got from my Auntie Mary, and which made the U-Haul trek out here with my dad and me.
Many of you probably remember the Gazelle infomercials. It’s actually quite astonishing. They are as cheap as can be, and yet you really can get an aerobic workout and exercize your upper and lower body.
Filed under: Hollywood
Agents are people who help their clients find work. In the case of actors, agencies (where agents work) aim to have one or a few individuals who fit into each category. By this I mean they require a person of a certain ethnicity, sex, age range and type. A type might be a person who would play a best friend, a model type or a young mom or dad.
For actors, there are two kinds of agents in Hollywood. First, there are commercial agents, who help you find auditions solely for commercials, be they on local, regional or national television. Second, there are theatrical agents, who help you find auditions for movies and television shows.
For two reasons, I am seeking a commercial agent at this point. First, I just completed a course on auditioning for commercials, and I feel ready to have at it–I learned some important skills and feel that I could be marketable. Second, common knowledge says theatrical agents pay more attention to a person when he is a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Though I hope to become eligible soon, I do not want to get an audition with a prospective agent and hear them say “come back when you are SAG.”
My next step in finding an agent will be to send out a mailing. This means I plan to send a brief cover letter, my resume and a head shot to upwards of a hundred prospective agents. Of those one hundred letters, I would be fortunate to get a few responses. Sometimes people get no responses when they send out a similar mailing. I hope that my Spanish skills, European appearance and the accents I’ve worked on could cause recipients to pause and consider whether they might need an actor like me.
One difference between living in the Midwest and California is the meaning of the word “beach.”
While I was growing up, we had a good time swimming on beaches in the North Woods of Wisconsin. It was usually fairly quiet because we did not stay on overly touristy lakes. Sometimes we could see eagles’ nests up in the pine trees.
Wisconsin beaches are not big. They might be a 30-feet-deep stretch of sand along 50 feet of the otherwise pine tree-covered shoreline. The water is cool and refreshing. I know, I know, there is supposed to be mercury lurking in some of our lakes, but the clean air, the glistening water and the eagles make it feel clean.
Lately, my friends and I have been going to Santa Monica each weekend to play beach volleyball, and the scene is quite different from Wisconsin. Besides the obvious difference in beach size and the arguable difference in beach cleanliness (the water at Santa Monica is not so clean), it is worth noting that California beaches are not quiet places.
On the weekends, California people go to the beach. Tim, Christian and I never have problems finding people to play pickup volleyball with, and when we get done with volleyball, it is always fun to go walking up and down 3rd Street Promenade, where there is a pleasant atmosphere, street performers and a McDonalds to buy McFlurries–sadly, there is a severe lack of Dairy Queens in the Los Angeles Area, but I digress. Santa Monica pier is also worth a visit. The first time Tim and I took Christian to Santa Monica, I bought my yearly funnel cake to share with them at the pier.
One difference we Wisconsinites don’t expect in visiting California beaches is how COLD the water is. It’s freaking freezing. When Christian, Tim and I went to Malibu a few weeks ago, we really needed to force ourselves to stay in the water because the natural reaction was to get out as soon as possible. For the first time, the Midwestern wisdom that “all one needs to do to be warm is dunk oneself under the water” did not hold true. I dunked myself and I was still c-o-l-d.
Wisconsin beaches are good, and they are qualitatively different from California beaches, which are also good. They are two good, different things, just as coffee and tea are two good, different drinks. It reminds me of something C.S. Lewis wrote. He learned not to compare the beauty of two places, but rather to enjoy the beauty present in each.
Here is a picture of some friends and me at a California beach on a recent road trip we took to San Francisco.
