An Audition Road Trip Story

Most of Zach's auditions take place in and around the Los Angeles area. However, he had a recent commercial audition that required a road trip to San Diego. The amount of money for the role was enough to make the trip worth our time so we hit the road to the former home of the Chargers. 

The only areas of San Diego I've spent much time in are the downtown area and Point Loma. Both of these areas can be reached by driving the 5 from our area of Los Angeles. I decided to use the Waze app to monitor any traffic issues, Imagine my surprise when the app decided to not put me on the 5 going to San Diego. My journey took me from the 101 to the 134 to the 210 to the 71 to the 15 to (briefly) the 79 and then back to the 15. 

In other words, I had no idea where I was going in terms of getting to San Diego. 

It was a fun drive because I got to see parts of California I didn't know existed as well as the locations of a few casinos I had heard of but didn't know where they were located. The trip took about two and a half hours which isn't bad for a drive to San Diego.

We found the audition location in the Sorrento Valley area of San Diego. Zach entered the building and came out about 15 minutes later drenched in sweat. He explained that part of the improv audition involved acting like he was passing out and having water thrown on him in order to revive him. He seemed to feel good about his audition and I left the studio with a wet kid in search of food.

Even though I didn't know it at the time, that is when I made my big mistake of the day.

There is a place in San Diego that has tofu with a great thai peanut sauce. Since I was in town, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to eat there. The restaurant was about 10 minutes away from the audition location which took me just far enough away from the 15 that Waze decided to put me on the 5 going home. 

Good news: Easy to navigate all the way home

Bad news: Traffic on the 5 is often a nightmare

Remember how I told you it took me two and a half hours to go the 135-140 miles to San Diego? It took me almost double that time as I spent over four and a half hours driving the same distance on the 5. On the plus side, it gave me some serious bonding time with Zach in the truck. 

Whether or not he books the commercial, it was nice spending the day with him since he is always off on an adventure at school or a comedy club or acting or with his friends. He even stayed awake and talked with me the whole way. A teenager talking to a parent for more than 5 minutes! What are the odds of that happening???

New Zach Louis headshots on his IMDb page.

An Overnight Hospital Adventure

We had an interesting weekend as Dana ended up at the emergency room on Saturday night/Sunday morning due to intense pain. It's become a joke in our family that something always happens in March that requires her to have surgery.  It is now March so (of course) we ended up at the hospital.

We arrived around 1AM and I let her out at the front door so she wouldn't have to walk from the parking lot. I parked the car and was approached by the security patrol. They started asking me all about my exciting night. I had no idea what they were talking about but they whooped loudly, gave me a high five and left to bother other people. I saw a security guard as I entered the building and mentioned that my wife had just walked in the door. Before I could ask how to get to the emergency room, he pointed down the hallway and sent me on my way. I went down the hallway where a nurse grabbed me before I could say anything. She told me my wife was upstairs and put me on an elevator. When I exited the elevator, I found myself in a maternity ward. Two nurses approached me so I could see my wife before the baby was born. I explained my situation and they seemed disappointed in me after they realized I wasn't there to be a new father. I reminded them there was a guy somewhere in the building looking for his wife and maybe they should go find him. They ran off to look for the dad and I went off in search of the emergency room.

I finally found Dana as she was being admitted to a room. She put on her patient gown and went to the bathroom to give a urine sample. I waited in the room as a "Code Gray" came over the intercom. "Code Gray" means there is a combative person that needs to be calmed down or restrained. I could hear a woman loudly yelling that "they didn't know what she had been through", "she doesn't like to be tied down" and "she'll kick people in places they didn't know they had on their bodies". Dana missed all of this because the combative person was restrained by the time she got out of the bathroom.

The rooms started filling up as the night continued. The guy next to us had to be a cocaine addict. His nose was bleeding everywhere because "he hurt his nose and had to put some packing in it". When asked which side of his nose he hurt, he replied with the left side. Five minutes later, it was the right side. Wait, maybe it was the left side. At one point, the doctor asked him "Do you have any idea if you actually hurt your nose or can I have the real story?" I do know the guy was the biggest wimp in the world as he yelled for the nurse every 10 minutes because "he was hurting".

While Dana had x-rays and various tests throughout the night, there were more all star patients entering the emergency room arena:

• The guy telling a long winded story about the 3 times he was struck by a car
• The patient who lost a finger or two in a combine accident
• The person who swallowed a goldfish belonging to a neighbor before coughing up blood
• The rocket scientist who fell off the back of a truck while sitting on a washing machine (his brother didn't have ropes so he was sitting on the machine so it wouldn't move)
• One guy who kept saying the words "California Chicken Wrap" in relation to his emergency but was unable to give more details

My favorite person was actually not in the emergency room. I went to the cafeteria around 4AM to get a snack and some caffeine. I walked in to find a guy standing all alone in front of the vending machines. He was yelling at the soda machine for taking his money, the snack machine for talking back to him and the coffee machine for being a "demon filled with the hot liquid that the wicked and unjust will get after death". He turned around and looked at me in silence. I calmly said it looked like he was having a moment with the machines and I would come back after he was done showing them the error of their ways. I calmly turned around and swiftly made my way back to the emergency room.

Dana was discharged at 7AM and we still don't have a definitive answer to her March medical mystery. Any good thoughts you can send her way would be greatly appreciated. Also, let me know if you have any idea how a California Chicken Wrap can result in a trip to the emergency room.

This actor stayed home to keep the dog calm while mom was at the hospital.

It Takes A Village To Do An Audition

It amazes me sometimes how the simplest audition can turn into a big production. This was the case for Zach this past Friday.

He received a callback for a print job. The audition was pretty straightforward because the main part involved recording a 30-second video on his iPhone. The callback notice was emailed to me at 8am and it was due by 5pm.

Zach doesn't have school on Friday morning so I decided to let him sleep until 10am before I would wake him up with the audition info.  Imagine my surprise when his alarm went off at 9:45am. He was going to spend the day with friends but could record the video before leaving.

I had some work fall into my lap between the time I got the email and Zach's alarm went off so I wasn't going to have time to record him. However, one of his friends was coming over at 10:30am so he could handle the recording. All the teenagers had to do was go outside to a nice sunny spot, record the audition and email it to me when it was finished.

Zach walked outside to record at 11am. About 20 minutes later, I got the audition emailed to me but didn't have time to watch it thanks to work. I finally saw it at 2pm and the first thing I noticed was the recording was shot from far away so you couldn't see any of Zach's facial expressions. I called him to record it again but at a closer angle.

He sent me the new recording and it was great except for the fact that he was standing in front of a fountain so all you could hear was running water. (ARGHHHHHH!)

I called again and asked him to go inside and record the video. About 15 minutes later, I got a new video with a closeup view of Zach and no running water.

It was now 3pm and still well before the audition deadline. Dana was home by now and went to the submission site on her computer to upload the video and some full length shots of his body. She then discovered the audition required his resume , a talent reel and a headshot which were all on my computer. I sat by her and emailed all of the info because she was far enough along in the submission process that it didn't make sense to start the process over on my computer.

We finally got the submission in at 4pm. The entire process took us 6 hours and involved:

• His management team sending the audition info
• Relaying the info to Zach
• Zach and his buddy recording the first video
• Watching the first video and realizing it needed to be recorded again
• Zach recording the second and third videos in two different locations at the home of another friend
• Dana using her computer to upload materials that I emailed to her from another computer as I sat next to her

It's amazing how many people and steps it took to get one 30-second video recorded and submitted. It was definitely a combination of teamwork and persistence that got the job done!

Keep your fingers crossed that this actor hears good news about the audition.

The Week In Acting Review For The Artist

Zach had a big audition this week for a comedy project that is also a dream gig for him. As with most auditions, I can't give too many details but it involves some of his favorite comedy folks currently working. Fingers and toes crossed.

The audition itself was on the former NBC Burbank lot. The production facility is now known as The Burbank Studios. They currently film "Days Of Our Lives" there and I've seen the back parking lot used for a crowd scene on "Superstore". The building was the home of The Tonight Show for Johnny and Jay for many years. I was there for a work meeting once and got lost trying to find my destination in the building. I somehow ended up on the set of "Days Of Our Lives". The show crew was very nice to me after it became obvious that I wasn't trying to crash the set. 

As with most auditions, it is now the "wait and see" game when it comes to hearing whether or not he gets a callback. I was happy he got the audition because it was his first chance to pass out his new headshot.

The new headshot for auditions

He won't need a headshot this Saturday because he is not going on an audition. He is attending his first class at The Groundlings Theatre on Melrose Avenue. Zach has been doing improv since 2012 and was a cast member at Second City for 2 years (before he aged out of the teen troupe). While he enjoyed these opportunities, the chance to take some classes at The Groundlings to improve his sketch writing skills is very exciting to him. Zach doesn't even mind getting up early on a Saturday morning!

The final bit of actor related business this week was the arrival of his new computer. The one he used for a few years worked fine but Zach needed an upgrade to a computer with better editing software. As part of his sketch writing plans, he wants to film and edit some sketches and put them on YouTube. Be on the lookout in the near future for Zach's videos online. He also plans to videotape some of his stand-up comedy gigs and put them online as well.

Dana and I will be uploading his new demo reels to IMDb soon so you can take a look at the reels that get sent to casting directors when Zach is submitted for a part. 

So long (for now) from Hollywood!

This Actor Likes To Write Comedy Material.