July 28, 1998
Well, the bad news is that I probably will not be working on the Olsen Twins show this fall. Of course, the good news is that I probably will not be working on the Olsen Twins show this fall.
The room was full of people. Jeff and Brian were there from yesterady, as were Miller and Boyett. Also, Barbara Miller was overseeing the whole thing. Then another handful of people waiting to see the Ducey magic. Plus, as an added bonus, the lead from the show was there to read with all the Eddies. It seemed unlikely that there would be a repeat of the word-mouthing situation from yesterday, and that was good.
The reading went fine, even better than yesterday in my estimation. I felt a little looser. The jokes got some more laughs. Everyone was having a good time. I had locked this baby up. Until...
After I read, Jeff came out of the room and told me they wanted to see me do it again. I stepped back inside and either Miller or Boyett pulled me to one side and said, "You're not having as much fun with it as you were yesterday, so take a few minutes and look it over again with that in mind." And I thought, "How could you have any less fun than you did yesterday? You're telling me that that was worse? All those people laughing and enjoying it? They hated me? Thank God they weren't there yesterday because I don't know what you're remembering, but there was not much fun going on then either!"
And then out loud I said, "OK."
I was then sent out to wait. In that time, one of the six other actors reading for Eddie was sent away. A couple were brought in again, given a note or two as I was before returning. Brian, the casting director, also gave me a couple of notes. He offered that I should try to make more of a connection with the other actor, remembering we're good buddies, and that I should be more natural, less studied.
Finally, I returned, armed with all these new goodies. The result? Disaster. A couple of early lines that generated a chuckle or two before fell upon deaf ears. The changes were not more fun than the first effort, at least for me they weren't as I stood there trying to "have more fun with the greater connection I was making." One of my favorite lines took a complete nose-dive right in about the heart of the scene and I could feel my future with the Olsen Twins being yanked out from under me. I hope they can make it out there without me.
Go back to the Audition.