Hm, Lessons for Me

As I am laying writing this, exactly 1 week since my graduation from Jacksonville University, I think about the road ahead. In this past week I applied for one job, auditioned at Disney, had a call back (will be discussed later) and was finally able to catch up on sleep at the beginning of the week.

SO what I learned from this audition at Disney:

1. The biggest lesson of all: Even if you mess up it's not the end of the world. So I sang "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" from Jersey Boys because it's poppyesque without resulting to Backstreet Boys (which one guy did and was really good and got a call back!). I knew I could act the song and the song shows off my top nicely. So what do I when I'm in front of the casting directors? Sing the ENTIRE SONG Under Pitch! KARMA! I'm not sure what happened but the guy was like "Are you nervous" and of course said "YES!" and he was like "Ok. Don't be just breathe. You have a great voice but you sang the song slightly under pitch. Do you have anything else you could sing?" Praise Jesus for being on side and helping me be prepared, and for Dr. Tudor for always saying "BE PREPARED!" so I had My Girl by the Temptations that I bought for Josh Guilyard like a year ago, and I sang that and was good apparently so I got a call back! for High School Musical?

Lesson 2. BELIEVE! So I was expecting to be looked at for Lion King so when they said "High School Musical" I was flabbergasted to say the least. But that goes to show, and points back to being prepared in a way, Expect the Unexpected! So they give me the callback material which has The Boys are Back, High School Musical (with a B flat at the end) and I Want It All (with a B Flat at the beginning!) Then they add to the "excitement" with "Callbacks will be at 10:00 a.m." I'm like are you serious?!?! One I've never trained as a tenor (stupidly) and just by the grace of God been able to make it through the past 3 shows I've been cast in as a tenor, and that was just with a A's, not even B flats, so of course I panic and freak out inside! So in the afternoon I look over the music get comfortable with it as much as I can, but can't really belt it out like it needs to be so it's easy to say the next morning I'm feeling ok..but not super confident! So what does Nina say, "Believe!" and as cheesy as it sounds I really thought about it and after reflecting on the prayer I had with my mother over the phone in Dunkin Donuts...I started to believe that whatever happened is in God's hands and if he wants it to happen it will. So I believe and I go in there and I do my thang! AND, of course, I mess up on some parts. My high notes aren't all there, I mess the rhythm but you just keep going and STAY POSITIVE! Which goes back to Lesson 1: just because you mess up doesn't mean its the end of the world. SO they call me back to dance! AND I'm the only they had to sing I Want It All...either because they realize that is mean to make someone sing that high before lunch, or because they liked it, or because I was so bad they didn't want hear someone butcher that song again. So two other guys get called back to dance with me.

Lesson 3 The Dance: SELL IT BABY!

So I always say I'm an actor first and everything with performing I come at it from an acting point of view. This is true with dance or "movement" as the Disney people called it. In this part I was of course worried because dancing is my weakness and this just pushes me to work harder at it, but I realized, selling it makes it easier! If you approach it from your best side it automatically becomes easier for you to handle. So that is what I did. The moves technically weren't that difficult. The pacing and the length of the piece was! So I got the steps and I could do it all, but I knew there were some parts I wasn't exactly comfortable with but you just got to keep on moving and keep on selling it. Unfortunately I don't know if this "technique" has worked out yet because I haven't been called with "Congratulations YOU GOT THE JOB!" but having reflected on it, I think it's a useful technique.

So if you read through all of this I hope you took something useful out of it! As the Title says this is mainly for me to have some documentation of my first audition after College Graduation, so as I prep for more in the near future, I can keep growing, because that's equally as important as booking the job in my book!