When auditions are good..

When they're good -- they feel so freaking good.

Example: just left Jeanne McCarthy's office -- once upon a time I was petrified to read for this woman. I remember my first read -- sitting in the waiting room for 45 minutes while looking up at posters of some of my favorite movies ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Friends with Money, "Lovely and Amazing"). Turns out she was running late from getting her hair colored. We'll just roll over that point.

Having sat there for so long, you lose all momentum, and end up feeling like a shell of the actor you were when you walked in the door.

Needless to say, I bombed the audition. Or so I thought. I actually ended up booking that job. And since then she's put me in a couple other projects.

So now I walk into that room comfortably. Knowing there will be improv, knowing I can relax and really just have fun.

And maybe this is the point of my meanderings -- you have to find the fun in these appointments. And trust me, I know how impossible that sounds.

If someone gave me that advice a year ago, I would have wanted to smack them for just not getting it. But the reality is, when you go in there and have fun, it shifts everything. The director and casting people have been hearing the same words from nervous actors all day long. So don't be that carbon copy nervous actor.

Enjoy it. Play, as though you're in class. Show them how fun you'll be to work with. And don't take yourself too seriously.

Trust me on this. And please, remind me of this.

(I often forget)