September 29, 1998
So I'm waiting to go in and audition for this animated Nickelodeon character from outer space, and who should walk in behind me but the one and only Mark Hamill. I have heard previous to this meeting that his career as a voice-over artist was and has been for a while going quite well. So it made sense to me that he walked in behind me and could be part of this show.
After we both sat quietly for a while looking at our sides, Mr. Hamill began a conversation with me with this line, "You look familiar. Were you on some sort of big sitcom recently? Something like Frasier or Mad About You?" I nodded demurely, basking in the recognition, and then asked him, "You look familiar too. Were you in some sort of big movie about space or outer space?" Actually, if I had thought of that at the time I would have said it. But we actually just talked about Encore! Encore! for a little bit. He was very supportive and had a lot of nice things to say, including how foolish they would be if they didn't bring me back. If only he ran the network instead of wasting his time blowing up the Death Star.
Reading for the character was fun enough I guess. Invader Zim is a tiny little alien who has come to earth to take it over but is allergic to most of its food and by the end of the monologue is becoming desperately ill. I read it all through a few times and the gentleman running the audition gave me notes every time. One of his first notes was to take the character in many different directions from one sentence to the next. "You never know what's going to come out of his mouth." And then his final note before actually recording a take was, "But keep the real." I actually laughed out loud but then realized when he didn't that he was serious.
We recorded two takes and he wasn't in love with what I did. But he gave me a friendly thank-you and handshake and I said goodbye to him, to Mark Hamill, and to my voice-over animation career.
Go back to... The Audition.