Dealing with the audition?
DON’T!
I like to call this my “advice about love” to the lovelorn. In this case, da harv is cast as the advisor, while you as my vagrant reader will be playing a used-to-be successful voiceover thespian. (I’m assuming it’s politically okay to refer to you all as thespians.)
Disclaimer: Most of the time (every day while writing), I attempt to stay away from the philosophical, usually without success; though being blessed with a bountiful memory, recounting any of the books I’ve read having a philosophical void is without my recollection.
Like it or not, actors must deal with a subjective art form known as voice acting. For those completely unaware, YES, it is an acting craft. Whoops, that wasn’t philosophy, was it? —da harv lied. Everything actors live with brings a degree of uncertainty. Especially the task of having to audition each and every time in order to find work. We live in a world of the unknown.
We know we’ve guessed right when someone tells us; they tell us we were right by hiring us as their voiceover choice to do the job. So… in my humble opinion, the only two things we know for sure are: we got the job, and we didn’t get the job. If you thrive on uncertainty, well then, you’re in the right field of endeavor. On a daily basis, your life and time as a voiceover actor comes with a single certainty: AUDITIONING FOR WORK!
Taking the audition is what it’s all about. Taking the audition is your job, and will remain your job for as long as you choose to pursue your career as a voiceover actor. Journeyman actors rarely book a job without having auditioned for it. Make sure the person who advises you about professional procedures that actors should follow has an in-depth knowledge of our industry.
Advice from da harv—given to him by his mother back in 1948, after our early arrival in Los Angeles from Brooklyn, New York: “Stay away from ‘Bullshit Blvd’.”
Harvey Kalmenson
Leave a Reply