My wife and kids were thrilled and appalled that I got a call back for "My Life is a Sitcom". Never having done this before, I can say that I was surprised as well. There were about thrity fifty year olds at the audtion this morning when I arrived at Faneuil Hall at around 10:00 am. Lots of disorganied crew members were running around with walkie talkies, trying desperately to get themselves organized for the audition. All the actors and comedians went first, they were told not to say that they were actors or comedians, just to say that they were regular people. Remember, this is a scripted reality sitcom, so professional actors, I guess, are required to make it funny.
After the stand up comedians and the actors, the wannabes stood getting ready for our 2 minute date with Joe Mozian. We stood in the hallway outside Fanueil Hall, being told to be quite every few minutes. How can you stay quite, while also building up your energy to audition for a roll as a Dad in a Sitcom? It took all our energy away. Also, a lovely women kept coming out saying, THIS SHOW IS A COMEDY, BE FUNNY!
What a gas.
Finally it was my turn. I walked in with a big smile, and Joe said, HI DAD! I introduce myself, talked about being from Boston and described the business I am creating on ebay. Joe asked me two questions I wasn't prepared for: "So Ralph, what's wrong with kids today?" ..and.. "Ralph, What should every kid know, that they don't know right now?"
Of course there are many things I could say, but here are the two things that I said: For the trouble of kids question I did a riff on the fact that as a old man, kids are noisy and do noisy things. It gets worse as they get older. For the question on what kids should learn to do, I did a riff on tinkering and fixing stuff, since no one knows how to fix anything anymore. I've lost perspective on how I did, (remember, I am not an actor), so I don't know if I was funny or not, hopefully I had good energy.
Next we looked a picture of Joe's Dad and I was instructed to at the camera and look worried, angry, and disgusted. As a Dad, these are all things I know how to do.
I'll be surprised if I get called back.
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