Audition report--

• April 16, 2001
  

• "The Web"
  
• cd Bonnie Zane
  
• Aud for EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

The details of the story don't change much:

• I know somebody, in this case casting director Bonnie Zane and her associate Nelia Moraga. They both worked on Oh Grow Up.
  

• I am right for the part. I can play an up-and-coming young executive producer.
  
• I appear to be one of only a few people who read for the part. I used to love this in the old days because I felt like I was in the cream-of-the-crop and still rising. Plus, word would always come back quickly if they only had to see a few people.
  
• I gave a solid reading. The actual Executive Producer in the room laughed through most of my audition. When I finished, he apologized for laughing, confessing, ":I felt like you were channelling me." If that's not a ringing endorsement, what is?

But we are all very familiar with the now year-old Ducey Curse. No matter how the stars seem to align, they always get a bigger name, or a prettier face, or someone who happens to be one circle closer to the fire than I am. And it's back to the drawing board.

But a couple of things happened last week. One was the second audition for Seven Roses. The producers in that case were writers on Frasier and knew me from my Room Service heyday. They were also around for the creation of Encore! Encore! And I thought that history was going to work in my favor. I thought I did good work on both of those shows. But, in retrospect now, it may have worked against me. They may think of me only as the guy who wheels in the breakfast cart and drives the limo. Actually, come to think of it, they never even brought me back for the limo driver when he showed up 12 episodes later. So they were not my ticket to the big time.

And that leads me to the other event of last week. It involves a bottle of wine and a couple of friends. The bottle of wine was the bottle I was given as a gift when I worked on Encore! Encore! The show was set at an imaginary vineyard, and the (real) bottle of wine had a label form the vineyard in the show. I had been saving this bottle of wine for a special occasion, or perhaps I had it in my head that I would never drink this wine. Either way, there it sat, opened for the past three years.

I spent an evening last week at my friend Nicole's house, with her and her boyfriend Derek, and as I left my house that evening, I grabbed the bottle of wine. It was time. The curse of unsuccessful auditions had lasted a full year, and the boys from Frasier were bringing no relief. Time to take matters into my own hands. I popped the cork on my "Pinoni Vineyards" cabernet and set out to break the curse.

Who says drinking isn't good for you? One bottle of wine and I start work on Wednesday.

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