So I get the call from Boston Casting, "Gary, we have a great audition opportunity for you, for a national TV ad" "Great", I said. "It's for the part of a Mayor in a Ram Truck commercial" I asked about sides. "Oh, no sides...no lines to memorize" That's great, I thought.. Even though I've worked in feature films and TV shows, I HATE memorizing lines. And although I've done it, I still haven't come up with a good technique. But if you say, "Here's the scene, this is your character, improv something" I'm golden, I can ad lib an entire scene. So I get there, and there's a ton of guys all dressed up as Mayors. There's white Mayors, Black Mayors, short Mayors, tall Mayors...I even think I saw John Mayor. I'm sitting there waiting to go in, and the casting director comes out and says, "Now just make sure you have your lines memorized" WHAT???? Sure enough, I go back to the sign up table, and there's the script. I hustle to memorize 2 required lines. I get in there...flub the first take, but NAIL the 2nd one. What the hell???
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Sounds like Boston went to "Get them down here Sunday morning" school of selling cars....Hope you get it.
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Sounds like you did well under pressure, kudos for rising to the occasion. I had something similar happen on my last audition: they said it would be a cold read. I walk in, and I see a bunch of guys with scripts they're all studying hard. They told me there aren't any more at the moment, and I should wait until they have more to go around. I had the part with the most dialogue in a partner scene. I finally get a copy of the script after a few people are done auditioning, and I end up having enough time to memorize the whole thing, since they kept me waiting an hour or so. Felt pretty good after, but was a bit nerve-wracking when I walked into that situation.
FEAR can be a great motivator.... lol... Well done Garry....
True story: I go to buy a used car. I ask the guy if I put down a deposit is it refundable? He says of course! I give the guy the money and he gives me a piece of paper to sign. Contract reads non-refundable deposit. So I told the guy to go fuck himself.
Hey Ben, take a picture of the script with your phone or tablet. It may not be 100% preferable, but at least you will have some familiarity with the text when you get your hands on the next available paper-back. And it only takes a few seconds to do it too.
Well, you nailed it when you were pressed for time. Nice job!
Ohhhh... Don't you hate that?... Had same experience for a feature... Ad lib audition... Cool my forte... So? What have you prepared for us? Errr... Nothing... Just mumbled some Shakespeare sonnet... Inappropriate for the part... Just awful... French man and ye olde English? Mortifying... Earthquake now... Please! Or I'll have to use the CD's pen and hara kiri myself to death... Might take a while...
How unprofessional of them to not tell you had lines and not give you the script in time. smh
That sucks... glad you nailed it anyway!