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.

Math Is Easy...Getting To Class Is Hard

Zach had an audition recently that, in theory, was at a great time, The audition was scheduled for noon at a casting studio in Los Angeles. It was the perfect time in-between two college classes. Plus, they had an open audition window until 2:30pm so Zach didn't have to be there right at noon. One class ended at 12:10pm and the other class started at 1:40pm

Like I said, this was a good audition time in theory. It still worried me a little bit because the distance between the two locations was 12 miles. He would also have to take care of all these steps in that 90-minute window:

• Walk to the parking lot nowhere near his class after the first class ended
• Drive to the audition
• Find a parking space in an area where there is only street parking 
• Do the audition
• Drive back to college
• Find another parking space nowhere near his class
• Walk to class from the distant parking lot
• Be in the classroom at 1:40pm

The 8 steps listed above offered way too many chances for something to go wrong. The three of us discussed a plan of action and decided the best solution was me driving him to the audition. He would drive himself to school that morning and I would pick him up at 12:10pm and start the race to the audition.

I left for Glendale around 11:30am to give myself plenty of time in traffic. I arrived at 11:50am and proceeded to completely fail at getting him some lunch. The first fast food place I drove to was out of business and the second place had a line all the way out to the street. I pulled into a gas station and got him a bag of potato chips and a drink so he would have some sort of snack on the way. (Dad of the Year material)

I knew exactly where the casting office was located but wasn't sure about the best way to get there from Glendale. I don't know where Google Maps thinks I am in America but it informed me that we would arrive at our destination in 13 hours. I didn't have time to determine the problem so I decided to get the Waze app. My phone then let me know that service was not available at that moment. I finally pulled out my old school Garmin GPS and entered the address. It gave me one route that seemed way too complicated so I restarted my phone and was able to get service as well as Waze.

We headed off down the 2 to Glendale Blvd and then Waze helped us beat traffic with a scenic tour of some neighborhoods, a dog park, skateboarders, a photo shoot, a guy dressed as Ben Franklin and what I can only assume was a demonstration on how to cook meth in public. We eventually hit the 101 to Santa Monica Blvd to our destination. We arrived at 12:40pm which gave us plenty of time for the audition and the drive back to school.

I sat outside and did some work on my computer while waiting on him. The minutes were ticking by as actors that arrived after us entered and left the building before Zach came back outside. Was he having a great audition or were the casting people having him read the lines over and over again until they were happy with it?

While he did end up having a good audition, it took so long because the camera broke and the casting folks had to find a new one before they could record his audition. Our time that we had to spare on the drive back to Glendale had vanished. We were now going to arrive 15 minutes late to class. We jumped into the truck and made our way past Hollywood Blvd, the Ford Theatre and Forest Lawn Cemetery (final resting place of Bette Davis, John Wooden, Morey Amsterdam, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Walker and many others). I quickly switched lanes way too many times in a vehicle that size in Los Angeles traffic, honked at cars and generally drove like an idiot but I made it to the 134 and the last leg of the trip to school. 

We arrived at the college at 1:38pm. I pulled up to the drop-off lane and kicked Zach out of the truck. The class started at 1:40pm and he made it only a few minutes late instead of the 15 predicted by Waze. I can't say I'm proud of my behavior behind the wheel that day but nobody got hurt and I beat the clock to get him there on time.

While I certainly hope he gets the part thanks to his acting ability, there should be extra credit with the casting director for our successful trip to and from the audition!

We're waiting to hear about the audition and his math test results as well.