February 11, 2002
It sucks when other people don't think you're as funny as you do.
While waiting to audition, I could hear another actor ahead of me doing the same audition scenes. He sounded big and boisterous and crazy. And the room was loving it. He had them laughing the whole time. "Good room," I thought.
What he was doing seemed so wrong to me, though. She's supposed to be the crazy one with the crazy family. He's supposed to be the reserved guy from the reserved family. Dharma & Greg served up Greek-style. "Bad read," I thought.
Apparently wrong on both counts. I went in there and did exactly what I had set out to do, exactly what I had decided what right for the role. Silence. Words were leaving my mouth in what I thought was a funny way. To them, not so funny. Nia, an old friend of mine, was kind enough to laugh on occasion, but eventually I just felt sorry for her, like she was defending the nerd in the lunchroom.
And it left me wondering this... If I audition is a forest, would you hear any laughter?
(It's not a great analogy, but it made me smile walking out of the building.)