February 22, 2002
They are six of the worst words in the English language...
"It was nice to meet you."
Yes, I know, they seem nice. They seem cordial. They are part of polite conversation, I grant you that. But when spoken to an actor at the end of an audition, they mean death.
And perhaps it was nice to meet me today. That's not where the problem lies. When delivered to an actor at the end of an audition, they mean, "Though I will never see you again, it was still nice to have met you. Good luck to you out there. Take care of yourself." You just wouldn't say it to someone you expect to see in the next few days for a callback or a test.
And was it because I did so badly? I say no. I thought I was doing almost all of the things I meant to do. If I had to nit-pick, I swallowed one of the punch-lines a little, I forgot a line and missed a beat (though I think I saved it with a different one), and in some of the longer passages, my brain got a little ahead of my mouth and I added or subtracted an occasional letter. ("She sells gifts at her shtore" kind of thing.) But the writer seemed pleased with most everything I was doing. I wouldn't have thought the little things would have lost it for me. The character speaks like I do, he makes jokes like I do, I thought I was pulling it off.
To add to the misery, the part is great -- the lead -- and the show
is the best script I have read this pilot season. By far. I would say
eight of the jokes are in the top-10 jokes I have read
this pilot season. Maybe I wanted it too much. I don't know. I
thought I was very relaxed in there. Just some days you're not the
guy. Actually, many days you're not the guy. But some days it hurts a
lot more than others.