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This piece was first posted on my website in 1999. The advice is still good, for any improvised audition, really. Good luck. Hope it helps! - JRC (8/17/01)
PETER GWINN started performing with the ImprovOlympic in 1993 and was a member of the legendary team Faulty Wiring. Peter was hired to be a Second City touring company understudy in February 1996 and became a full TourCo member in January 1997. He recently quite the Second City and is currently a member of the ImprovOlympic resident team, Baby Wants Candy. As you read this, Peter is performing with BWC at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest. He has never taken a Second City Training Center class.
Survival Tips for the Second City Touring Company Auditions
By Peter Gwinn
Jason asked me to write something to people about to audition to be Second City TourCo Understudies. So, here's my advice. First off, some absolute truths about the experience you are soon to experience:
You are going to put far too much pressure on yourself.
Despite your constant reminders to yourself that you improvise all the time, you are going to be really, really, nervous.
After your audition, you are going to think you could have done better.
And, you will think that someone else in your audition group did much better than you.
Embrace these truths. Don't fear them. They can be your friends or your enemies-- that's up to you.
DON'T PANIC. Relax. The worst thing you can do is to get in your head and freak out, so that during your audition, you (for example), never stop talking, or deny your partner because a move he/she made was not the one you were expecting. When you panic, you destroy not only your own chances, but those of your scene partners as well. And as we all know, improv is about making your partner look good.
A friend of mine has twice gone out for a scene with someone freaking out so badly that Mick stopped the scene and had two different people go instead. She was then not called out again. Both times, because of the freak-out, my friend didn't get a chance to be seen. Don't be that freak-out.
Some advice to help you relax:
If this is your first audition, you will not be hired. I know exactly one person who was hired on his first audition. Your first audition is a chance to introduce yourself to the producers, so that they will be aware of your development between now and the next auditions.
Last set of auditions, approximately 400 people auditioned for 8 slots. So not getting called back or hired doesn't necessarily mean that you're no good. The odds are against you.
Since Pinata Full of Bees, I am loosely estimating that there have been between 150-200 people hired as performers on the Mainstage, etc, TourCo's, and as understudies. Of those 150 people, four have been hired as actors on Saturday Night Live. So 2% of the people who audition will get hired, and less than 3% of those 2% will get hired by SNL as a performer. So, you're not going to be on SNL. So bombing at this audition will not prevent you from being on SNL. So there's a little less pressure.
You are auditioning for the position of Understudy to the Touring Companies. There is no promise that you will ever even join a touring company, much less a resident company. Only 7 of the twelve current members of the mainstage were touring when they were cast in a resident company. This means: You don't have to tour to be cast on the Second City Mainstage. Your future as an improviser is not riding on this audition.
So remember that you are just auditioning for TourCo. And also remember that TourCo is one hell of a crappy job. You will get up at the crack of dawn to travel for ten hours and then do a show in a cafeteria for a bunch of stupid drunk kids who think that the ultimate in clever suggestions is "dildo." You will then vainly try to find entertainment for yourselves at 11 at night in Laramie, Wyoming, until you go to sleep in your Best Western for five hours in preparation for tomorrow's ten hour drive. And for this experience you will be paid $75. Do you really want that?
We have already agreed that we will not panic. The next step is to prepare for when our scene partner panics. Unless everyone who auditions reads this thing, there's a good chance that your scene partner will never stop talking. Or, having decided in the lobby to showcase her object work skills, will blindly prepare guacamole the entire scene, ignoring the fact that you have cancer.
Take some time right now to come up with a bit to do if your scene partner won't stop talking. Come up with another bit to do if your partner won't listen to you.
All righty. Now let's assume you are in a scene with someone who is not a total nightmare. You are now in one of three situations:
1. Your scene partner is awesome;
2. Your scene partner is horrendous;
3. Your scene partner is average.
If you wind up in #1 or #2, you're in great shape. If you are in #1, just have fun. With a great partner, you can create a great scene. Just remember, you don't have five minutes for this scene, so you'd better be ready to establish the specifics of your relationship right away, and make some bold strong moves to get to a game pretty quick.
If you are in #2, realize that the auditors are aware that this guy is awful. Therefore, if you make this guy look good, you yourself will look fantastic.
I watched one audition 2 years ago (of the guy who got hired on his first audition). He got hired largely thanks to this exchange, with a guy who had apparently never taken an improv class:
(A is playing darts)
B: What are you doing?
A: I'm just playing darts.
B: How do you play?
A: Well, you just stand behind this line, and throw the dart at the board.
B: Is that the line?
A: Yes, yes it is.
B: Is that a dart?
A: Yeah, this is a dart.
B: Can I try?
A: Sure, here you go.
[excised-- two minutes of B not throwing the dart] (Finally, B throws the dart, and it is clear from the look on A's face that B has thrown a bullseye)
B: I missed the board!
Everybody appreciated the fact that A had just let this guy drive the scene, supporting his moves, since B wouldn't support A's. Then, A made this guy a darts prodigy; he made him look great, B's last line notwithstanding.
Where you are in trouble is in Situation #3-- An improviser who is good enough to keep a scene moving, but is not good enough to make it interesting. If this happens, it's up to you to make it interesting.
Remember the basics.
You need to find some high emotional stakes somewhere in your scene.
Something had better be very important to you, so it can drive you on an emotional level. If you are talking about trivial things, or about the past or future, or about someone who's not there, you will not have anything is that immediately, deeply important to your character. If you can't find anything at all in the scene, invent something. Flip out, get mad at the fact that your scene partner sat down; suddenly declare the love for this person you've been hiding all these years; get jealous of the newspaper. Anything, as long as it's emotional and intense. That'll give your scene a nice kickstart.
These suggestions for #3 actually would work pretty well in sits #1 and #2, too. 90% of the improvisers in Chicago today stand back on their heels zinging out funny lines with no emotional depth whatsoever. So the ones who can actually act with emotion will stand out in a crowd.
You may not be in the same audition group as your friends, so decide ahead of time: Last Act or Ale House? Good luck to everybody in the TourCo auditions!
--PETER GWINN
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