August 12, 1997
The saga is not an interesting one, but here it is... (Skip this paragraph at any time to ignore this part of the story.) My agent called on Friday with the details on this audition happening Tuesday, August 12, at 1:30pm. Fine. When I then went to get the sides for the audition, the assistant told me my audition would probably be changed to Monday night at 8:30pm. Fine, except for the fact that I would be returning from Vegas that day. I would just have to be sure I got back by 8:30. Cut to Monday afternoon and I have received no official news that the audition has been changed. My agent can't get a hold of the casting office, and I am at the Stateline preferring to relax and get some lunch instead of rushing home for an audition that i don't even know if I have. Not so fine. The decision was made that, since I had NOT heard from them, the audition was NOT changed, so we stayed at the Stateline for a little bit and relaxed. That put us in Los Angeles at 10pm, and once reaching my apartment, we heard the voice of my agent saying that he tried to page me (in the desert) because it was, in fact, tonight. Not fine at all. The disappointment lasted until 10 o'clock the next morning when my agent called to let me know they could see me that night at 8 o'clock. Very fine. No damage done.
At 8pm this evening I found my way to the writers' building on the Paramount lot and discovered two other people there ahead of me. One, a young guy like myself, was reading for a different young-guy part. The other, a large, older black woman, less like myself, was reading for a part of her own. No one else there. No one else showed up. Three actors, three roles. Pretty good odds.
Allison Jones began the audition pointing out that Al Franken and I
both went to Harvard. There was some discussion of what house, etc,
and then we began. The scene went well, they laughed TWICE in three
lines, which is a pretty good ratio. Then, they mentioned a second
scene in which the paramedic has one line. They told me it, Al
Franken got up and acted it out with me, and they laughed again. So
without exaggeration, they honestly laughed and then laughed. There
was another mention of Harvard and how "useful" the
education is in Hollywood and that was that.