Audition in Hollywood
I know, sounds a bit redundant, doesn’t it? I was getting ready to enjoy another round of 24 Club last night, when I got an email demanding my presence at an audition 14 hours later. Okay, not demanding, but it wasn’t as if they were asking me if I was available, just “take it or leave it, punk.” Actually, there wasn’t any literal attitude in the message, but I thought it was implied. I might have been reading into it, since I was already committed to surfing at Sunset Blvd. with Henry at sunrise, and I knew I’d be cutting it short. I confirmed anyway. Auditions come before surfing, which pains me to say, but there’s too much luck involved to turn one down for any reason that isn’t absolutely necessary.
I got up at 6:00, was out the door 20 minutes later, and despite a couple of traffic snarls, I hit the beach at 7:30. We had a decent day. Henry caught several, I surfed the lip of a few, unable to get on the face of any. But I am badly out of shape (for surfing, that is), having not surfed since last September, and I was mostly there to get back into the feel of it. The water was 57 degrees, and by the end of the session my hands were mostly numb. I only have my 2mm short sleeve suit, and it isn’t, um, suited for colder water. Still, it felt good to be back in the ocean, despite the usual nausea I get from gulping salt water on an empty stomach and exhausting myself paddling out, time after time.
We made it out of the water and back to our cars with barely enough time to rinse off. Henry had an audition at 10:30, five minutes after mine, so we were on the same schedule. I was five minutes late signing in, which would normally be unacceptable to me, but there were already ten other guys in the room waiting, so I knew they were way behind schedule. It only got worse from there.
I waited half an hour before they called my name. I was reading for a “tough guy,” but after I did so for the director, she wanted me to read for another character, also. She handed me a new set of sides to look over, and sent me back to the front room to wait. For another half hour, the place kept filling up, thirteen in the little room at one point, by my count, and that was after a dozen had come and gone. The thrill and zen influx I’d gotten from the surf session was fading, leaving only the reminder that I’d paddled through my glucose reserves with no breakfast and I was craving a nap. I may have been just a bit more mellow than I would otherwise have played it, but I think it worked to my advantage with the new character. Next time, granola bars, or something, before I hit the road to the beach.
