Yesterday I ran out of my (current) day job in a blitzkreig: David called with an audition (one day after our interview#–I like him already) for a national Verizon commercial. Usually an audition doesn’t come up this last minute (I got the call at 1pm the audition was at 3:25pm), but even so I wanted to make it happen#–the only problem was that I was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt (the office I’m in right now is very laid back) and I needed to be wearing office casual for the audition. That meant a quick scram back to Queens for a clothing change. Now a quick jaunt home in most cities isn’t a big deal, but in NYC it means taking multiple trains, walking several blocks, and avoiding public transit bottlenecks#–in both directions. I was pushing it to say the least. Imagine my surprise to arrive at the audition almost 30 minutes early#–don’t ask me how it happened, I don’t know. I guess the transit Gods were smiling down on me.

The audition itself was a doozy#–first off, let me state for the record that I don’t dance. Ever. I don’t enjoy it, I’m not good at it, and I feel awkward when attempting to do it. That’s one of the reasons I no longer pursue musical theater. BUT, when pressed, I’m always game for the attempt. Especially if I’m supposed to appear like a doofus while doing it. Case in point: the Verizon audition. The commercial is about an office worker giving a report to his boss… the boss gets bored, downloads a Shakira song on his phone, and makes the underling dance while giving the report. Funny! But that means someone has to audition for the part of the underling, and someone has to look like a doofus, dancing around and reading a quarterly earnings report at the job interview. Me! Me! Me! And as I said, I don’t dance! So I really looked like a doofus attempting to do it. Now, if that’s what they’re going for, AWESOME, if not, well, I went for it one hundred percent and can swallow my pride enough to think "at least the casting director laughed at me." :)

I played the guy totally serious, and only danced from the hips down, continuing the report from the waist up as though nothing was amiss. And then I peed myself a little. Well, not really, but I did wonder how incredibly dorky I looked. But like I said, maybe that’s what they were looking for. :)

And that was my first commercial audition in NYC.