this is what my entire audition looked like. how did i not get a callback?
Well, it’s come and gone – the thing that made me so nervous yesterday: Harold team auditions at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. I’m going to talk about my experience, but first thing’s first. I didn’t get a callback. It’s the way things work, nothing I can do. Besides “being better,” I guess.
UCB Harold auditions come but once a year, and with them comes a lot of anxiety and fears of inadequacy. I’ll be writing more about the actual audition and my preparation for it tomorrow after the whole thing goes down, but tonight I’m really just kind of living in this nervousness.
excellent photoshop courtesy of Megan Baker
Sundays are the worst. The entire day is mired in the inevitability of Monday, and the return to work or school that it heralds. Unfortunately for me, Sundays mean that I have to go back to work AND school. Because they’re the same thing, you see. So I think I can be excused for trying to take it easy on that last day of freedom. I was expecting today to be as lazy a Sunday as I’ve ever had – so lazy in fact, that I would almost write the same review twice. But life has a way of surprising you.
your standard multi-species orgy improv scene
This has been a pretty good year for me, creatively. But much like with The 25th Annual Spelling Bee, all good things must come to an end. My latest positive venture is Julie Brister’s Advanced Monoscene class through UCB.
i still don’t get it
Ahh, Indio. The armpit of Southern California. An excruciatingly hot destination that most people only know as the location of the annual Coachella music festival – the yearly opportunity for college kids to drink heavily and freak out on LSD. So much fun. But there’s more to Indio than a couple of music events. There’s also an improv festival.
these people could be doing improv or committing a murder. it’s really up in the air
I love improv. I won’t apologize for that. I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I personally believe that you ought to do things that make you happy. And getting on stage and making shit up with people that I like makes me happy. Sue me! I dare you! Good luck with that one, buddy. Have you calmed down? Good, because here’s the point. You can’t do improv without being on an improv team (surprisingly I’ve had no bites on my one-man improvised Shakespeare act), but – as we have previously established – I am not a social person. So what the hell am I supposed to do?
what an overwhelmingly white group of people
Look, I don’t know you (unless I do – in which case, forget about it), but if you are anything like me, you know that being a human being is hard. It is not just the fact that we have to work to make a living (do not get me started on that can of worms), but then you have to actually go through the trouble of talking to people. Can you say “exhausting?” Of course you can. That is like a fifth-grade word.
A friend of mine recently told me that he thinks improvised comedy is one of the most important art forms that we have. Two things: 1) this guy isn’t even an improviser (which raises the question of why I was even interacting with him), and 2) he was at least a little drunk. So, while I take what this anonymous “friend” said with a grain of salt, I do agree that improv has a lot of redeeming qualities that should bring it more attention than it currently has.
Steven Cohen's 365 Days of Reviews 