Friend of the show Jean McDonald and she’s a friend of the show for a variety of reasons one because I’m just a huge fan of hers and two because She used to buy podcast ads for me a thousand years ago three because she hooked me up with them the micro blog account For its first year that I used to to host this very podcast and my micro blog And now I’m a proud paying member of my grown-up blog, but Jean is great and Jean had written to me Yesterday I guess saying and I quote the audition suspense is killing me way to engage your podcast audience So thank you Jean for that.

That’s very kind of you to say and I am gonna dish more on last night’s callback.

So Here we go I guess the only thing that’s left to do and I as I’ve said I hesitate sometimes to Kick into you know to tee off the the theme music.

It feels like it’s a little bit too cute So that doesn’t stop me from doing it.

So here’s the team’s on your Daily Lex I’ve mentioned it before but I do think it would surprise some of you The effort and time that I take to make sure that the music kicks in at exactly the right second where I wanted to from When I teed up anyway, so last night was callbacks for Avenue Q I’m assuming that the folks who run that show aren’t listening to this podcast I don’t have anything like mean or bad to say The the short version is I don’t really know how callbacks went and I went in I would say Like I said, I had some some nerves and I worked through that nervous energy before I got there And then I went in feeling Confident and also, you know knowing that there would be other great folks there and that was true There were other great folks there a couple other puppeteer folks somebody who had done You know the professional version of the Sesame Street musical and he’s obviously great at voices and great at puppeteering And I enjoyed seeing some of those folks audition, but the way the audition was runner the callback was run Didn’t instill me with confidence in a couple of ways.

I mean it started late, which I thought was odd, but That’s also just me.

I struggle with late things, but You know, I was given a packet of hey Here’s all the things that we’re calling you back for and delightfully the things I was being called back for included the parts that I want Trekkie Monster and Nikki And so there was dialogue and songs for them and stuff that I had prepared like I knew those songs and I knew those Scenes in fact, I was also given sheets for Brian who is a human male character in the show as opposed to a puppet based character and it’s not I mean Listen, if I were offered the role of Brian, I’d take it um but it’s it’s not the role that I get excited about in the show because I want to be a puppet guy but Brian is I think by the creators considered the heart of the show.

It’s a great role it’s just I certainly if I did that role, I’d have to have some emotional mourning of uh, mourning with you, uh, and I’m not british of Of uh, you know, oh i’m in this giant show with puppets and i’m not controlling any puppets, but that’d be okay Uh, so those are the three things And I have some time because they were dealing with other callback stuff first And then eventually they have all the trekkie candidates sing and you watch everybody sing Uh, and that’s a funny way to start which somebody commented on during the audition process Wait, you’re having us blow out all of our voices right away because trekkie can be hard on your voice So you’re gonna have us do that before we see anything else.

They’re like, yeah, sorry Um, and I thought my my trekkie singing went very well uh, then They eventually brought in all the bryans and instead of having bryan sing they had him do Uh a scene.

Okay.

No problem.

I did okay with that.

I thought um, then it’s like, okay all the nickies come in And you’re gonna do this scene that we gave you and I had to like raise my hand and say you gave me a different Nicky scene not that scene.

I’m like, oh, sorry Here’s that scene, uh that you didn’t have we’ll give you that Several of the packets of papers they’d given out to auditioners were messed up But they gave you know, I didn’t have that page and like lex Why don’t you go first to read the scene so i’m handed the scene and then asked to read it right away Uh, I only mentioned that because I still think I did well, but it was funny It helped that I was familiar with the show already and familiar with the script already because I had about 12 seconds maybe with that script before I had to start reading it Um, and I was proud of how I did that that nicky script scene the scripted scene the dialogue scene then I know they went through a variety of permutations of rods and nickies the the two kind of burton ernie-esque characters, uh, and Uh, then they asked everybody to leave and then called one person back and had just that person sing Uh the big nicky song if you were gay, that’s the name of the song.

Um We had heard that person sing other stuff for other characters that I wasn’t auditioning for And that person didn’t seem to me like a very strong singer Um, definitely didn’t seem like the person they were landing in for nicky but they didn’t have anybody else sing the key stuff and I don’t know if that meant to them that this was their guy or that they uh had already Uh heard enough from other people for that.

I don’t know.

So it’s just weird like it’s just that wasn’t a confidence inspiring vibe That you didn’t sing that song And they had nobody sing the brian song and brian has a fiance slash wife in the show Depending on what time in the show and they didn’t have anybody Who anybody they were considering for the brian’s go with uh, the character of christmas eve who is his fiance slash wife Um, so all that stuff felt odd Uh, and then eventually, you know I was sent home in a group of people who went home at one point while they then later auditioned And um for very high-pitched parts, uh, the bad idea bears So, I don’t know it would truly and this is not false modesty or anything else It would not surprise me based on just the vibe.

I felt at the callback Uh if I got no part, uh, or if I got offered so I think there’s probably a 60 to 70 chance I would get offered either no part or an ensemble part I wouldn’t take an ensemble part not because i’m like i’m too good for the ensemble but there isn’t really an ensemble in that show so it’d be kind of a little bit faked or maybe you could just be the the second hand of a puppet and that’s Uh, I think that’d be too emotionally taxing for me to be the second hand of a puppet that I didn’t get to voice Uh, so there was that um There was a little bit of puppeteering near the end of the callback where you got like Where they looked at everybody puppeteering for about 30 seconds, uh, and I did great with that They had some fun puppets there They weren’t the avenue q puppets, but they were fun professional puppets and I enjoyed that part very much So I don’t know like I said, I think there’s 67% chance that I either won’t get cast or will get an ensemble role that I decline and then The other chances are various permutations if I could get one of the two parts I want I think there’s a zero let’s call it a one percent chance that we get both the parts I want And then a low percentage chance that I would get uh, brian the human so we’ll see I did have time to think you know on my way home last night because I Even though I saw that they were auditioning for parts that I was in no way eligible for When you’re sent home and the audition the callback isn’t over it feels like a total defeat And i’ve talked about like not just the nervousness but just the whole audition process And like I’ve said a lot of people don’t talk about auditions until after they have Gotten cast or then they don’t talk about all they don’t get cast I was pretty public at least as far as this podcast and my friend circle goes Hey, i’m auditioning for the show I really want to get it And i’ve spent you know in various ways months working on it Not that it was non-stop work for these months, but you know, I thought about the show listened to it a ton Arranged my own uh audition song did a lot of puppet practicing all those things and it could all be for naught right?

And then there’s there’s like truly impressive Then there’s there’s like truly embarrassment involved, right?

If I don’t get cast at all, I think that you will not think less of me or judge me dear You’re a daily lex listener, but it’s still like It’s emotionally taxing if you go through that whole process and then don’t get cast Uh, I went into all this knowing that but I definitely had some moments as I was driving home Last night like oh I have to tell that you’re dealing lex I mean somewhere that I really don’t know how callbacks went and then at some point I have to figure out if i’m getting I mean i’ll find out if i’m getting cast or not Uh, and like I said, I think the likeliest chance is that I really won’t uh, which is a bummer Um, but hey, I can own it with you and it’s fine and it will be sad and then i’ll move on and we’ll all survive Especially me and you too.

I’m not wishing any anyway, you get it.

So anyway, enjoy the rest of your wednesday.

We’re all gonna live and uh forever maybe Uh, I don’t know hold a good thought I guess but what’s done is done lex