The venue had been changed to Sunset/Gower studios and the offices of Witt/Thomas productions, a TV sitcom producing team with a solid track record. My fellow actors-in-waiting were a more impressive bunch this time as well. John DeLancie, from the good old Days of our Lives and Star Trek, and Brenda Strong, from Party of Five and everything else on TV lately, shared a little couch space with me. So I was moving closer to the inner circle of power.
The scene was the same. Jeff and Sheila were both in the room again. Joining us were two more people, a man and a woman, quite possibly a producer and the writer. I read with Sheila again. I got laughs again. It was a tough call, though. I got more laughs in most places except for one, in which I got NOTHING, no laugh at all. It was a bit of a physical thing and I'm afraid I threw them off more than inspired them. They laughed heartily at the last line in the scene and were all smiles as I walked out the door. But we all know smiles aren't going to pay the rent.
The low-down, as told to my manager, was that I would not be going forward in the audition process because I was "too cute." The decision has been made to "go more character" with the role. At that point I showed them my 9th-grade school photo and they gave me the job on the spot. (Actually, that would probably be "too character.") So another job has slipped through my cute, little fingers.