Details on a strange audition...

OK, so I pull up and the first thing I see is Corin Nemec (Parker Lewis) pacing in front of the office going over his lines. I roll up to him to shake his hand and he pulls me into this great big hug. I hadn't seen him since like, before 911.

Then I cruise inside to sign in and I see Richard Greico's name plus some others that I won't mention here.

Then an older looking fellow that I can't quite place keeps coming in and out of the holding area until he finally signs in and sits down to focus on his sides. He's wearing shades. I look at the sign in sheet and it's Parker Stevenson. I introduce myself and say hi. He's a really nice guy.

Then Booker comes out from the reading and he looks camera ready. I'm serious, his hair was all dyed black and he had on way too much jewelry for a guy. He sauntered out without acknowledging anyone in the waiting room.

Then Corin heads in to be put on tape, and I sit down and run over the scenes one more time because I'm up after him.

No nerves.

I guess I'm only nervous when I don't feel prepared enough. Incidentally, I believe we all had at least two days with the material before the audition... that is very rare these days and I can only attribute it to the fact that it was a bunch of old school actors going in who happen to remember the days when you would have up to a week before a call. That was the old days. Now, you get the sides late in the day for a next day audition, or in some cases... a same day call. Having some extra time to prepare probably helped me feel relaxed.

Before I knew it Corky was coming out after giving a solid read... you could hear right through the wall... and I, of course, was kind of listening in. Corin changed his name a while back but the casting director still called him 'Corky' when she saw him, I'm not sure if that bugged him or not.

Then Ian Ziering walked in and things got all West Beverly High. Ian and Corin seemed like they were old friends, I've never really met him so I didn't say hi. But I did say hi to Parker... who I don't really know. Perhaps I did meet Parker a long time ago... and the only time I saw Ian before was back in the 80's when I saw him walking down the sidewalk in Westwood. I'm intimidated by him... not by the guy himself... but the character he played on 90210. I'm scared of Steve Sanders. Ian's that good of an actor that I am convinced he's really a douche. Then I hear a really quiet, "Keith"... and it was time to do my business.

I will spare you all the details... mostly because it is a very, very private and difficult process to audition for real shows. It's one of the most intimidating, scary, thrilling, sickening, hopeful, crazy, ego pumping, and ultimately ego killing things an actor has to go through in life. I also won't go into it too much because when I get into character and things are going smoothly... I tend to black out and not remember much from the room anyways. But I do remember not even turning over the last 3 pages of my sides... so I must have been pretty into it.

The casting director and the assistant casting director said I was very funny. And that's all I really needed to hear.