This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Justin Guarini: Hey, everybody. I'm sorry I'm getting this podcast out to you a little bit late this week, but I've been running around like the proverbial headless chicken doing some great stuff.

[0:07] Justin Guarini: I taught a wonderful audition workshop this week for some students, some high school students who are absolutely amazing at a local high school.

[0:17] Justin Guarini: And then the day after that, I did a performance Broadway night to fundraise for their high school.

[0:23] Justin Guarini: It was actually the rival high school in town.

[0:25] Justin Guarini: And I went to the other school on the other side of town, but these guys invited me to do something.

[0:29] Justin Guarini: So I put my ego aside and I said, you know what? I'm going to help out because it's artists helping other artists out.

[0:35] Justin Guarini: But hey, I got three major, major, major audition mistakes that people make in the room, outside the room, all around the room.

[0:44] Justin Guarini: And I can't wait to share them with you today.

[0:46] Justin Guarini: So let's roll the theme music and we'll get right to it.

[0:49] Justin Guarini: Welcome to Audition Secrets, the podcast.

[0:51] Justin Guarini: My name is Justin Guarini, and I'm an audition and performance expert with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry.

[0:59] Justin Guarini: You see me on huge television shows like American Idol, playing characters like Lil Sweet in national television commercials for brands like Diet Dr. Pepper, on Broadway, in six musicals and plays, as well as on Instagram and Facebook, where I bring you success mindset coaching on the regular.

[1:18] Justin Guarini: Each week on this podcast, you'll learn actionable strategies, mindsets, and tips that take the guesswork out of creating auditions and performances that make you stand out from the crowd and help to increase your odds of getting the job so that you can create the career and lifestyle you work so hard for each day.

[1:37] Justin Guarini: If you haven't picked up your copy of the book, Audition Secrets, Volume 1, then all you need to do is visit auditionsecretsbook.com to get instant access to your copy.

[1:47] Justin Guarini: The Audition Secrets book and this podcast are your secret weapons to rising above your competition, successfully navigating the entertainment business, and keeping your sanity as you rise to the top.

[2:01] Justin Guarini: So kick back and relax.

[2:03] Justin Guarini: Five, six, seven, let's go!

[2:07] Justin Guarini: All right, here we go. Three huge audition mistakes I see people making inside the room, outside the room, things that I have done inside and outside and all around the room, and how you can avoid them.

[2:19] Justin Guarini: Let's go.

[2:21] Justin Guarini: Number one, coming into the audition room with too much or too little energy.

[2:27] Justin Guarini: Now, casting is a numbers game. We know that the casting director brings in, or directors or whomever's running the audition, brings in people who are different sizes, different ethnicities, different all kinds of things in order to cast a wide net to find the perfect person for the role.

[2:44] Justin Guarini: We also know that casting is a talent game, right? You gotta come in, you gotta have some talent, some sort of something that makes you shine.

[2:50] Justin Guarini: We know it's a devil's in the details game. Sometimes you don't get the audition, or you do get the audition because you have all these wonderful things, but you're not a brunette, or you're too tall, or these little, little devil in the detail games.

[3:07] Justin Guarini: Matter of fact, I just heard a story about an audition where this young lady came in for a Broadway audition, and she killed it. She nailed it. It was amazing.

[3:22] Justin Guarini: She was so excited, and she was coming in for the understudy role. And yet, when she walked out of the room, everybody was like, this is so great, oh my goodness, she's great, we've got to hire her.

[3:30] Justin Guarini: And the producer turned to everyone and said, nope. And they were like, what? She was amazing! And they said, no. She's too pretty. And I'm not going to do that to our leading lady.

[3:42] Justin Guarini: Now, imagine all of the stories that this young lady came up with about why that audition didn't work, why she got such great feedback, and everybody was loving it, and she didn't get it.

[3:53] Justin Guarini: Do you possibly think that she thought, oh, I didn't get it because I was too pretty? And that's exactly what it was? Oh, it drives me crazy.

[4:03] Justin Guarini: But, like I said, this is a details game, and you never know why you don't get it, or why you do get it over someone else. But, it's also an energy game.

[4:15] Justin Guarini: Casting directors, people on the other side of the table, get a feel for an actor within the first 30 seconds that we come through the door.

[4:23] Justin Guarini: Now, does that mean that you're going to be cast or not be cast based on the energy that you walk in? No! But, the old adage, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, is so true here.

[4:33] Justin Guarini: And when we walk in with too much energy, or too little energy, it can have an effect on how we are perceived throughout the rest of the audition.

[4:42] Justin Guarini: If we walk in with too much energy, and what I mean is, when we allow the moment to be bigger than us, it is a high-pressure situation that we're in when it comes to auditions.

[4:50] Justin Guarini: Again, I will say it a thousand times if I have to, but it's true. Auditioning is one of the most barbaric things. It's like, we might as well just be gladiators walking into a room full of lions, with the sort of pressure that's put on us, that we put on ourselves, that everybody puts on themselves during the process.

[5:06] Justin Guarini: It's terrible. We do things without any scenery, without any context. It's crap. But it is the way that we have to do things.

[5:15] Justin Guarini: So, sometimes, we can allow ourselves to let that energy get to us. And let the moment be bigger than we are, and get swallowed up by the moment, and try to walk in and be as big as the moment, and be as big as the feelings that we're feeling, of nerves, and all these other anxiety-sort of ridden things.

[5:33] Justin Guarini: And we walk in, and they say, hey, how are you today? And we go, oh, I'm doing really great. And we put big smiles on our faces, and like, we are just the happiest frickin' people in the world, and this is the greatest thing that we could be doing today. And yet, we don't really truly feel that way.

[5:46] Justin Guarini: And it ends up being manipulative. And it ends up being something that just sparks a little bit of a strange energy in the room. And, yes, casting directors and people on the other side of the tables, the creatives, are used to seeing this.

[6:02] Justin Guarini: I've talked to so many of them. They put it in the back of their minds when somebody walks in and does that. But why are you going to do that? Everyone else does that. You have the opportunity to stand out if you don't walk in with this massive amount of energy, that trying to be as big as the moment, quote unquote.

[6:21] Justin Guarini: Now, the flip side of that is walking in with too little energy. Trying to play it cool, and like, hey, everything's great, no big deal, do a million of these auditions a day, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that.

[6:33] Justin Guarini: That's another sort of thing that, while you can look relaxed, you can look cool, you can look like, hey, this is what I do, it's not a big deal. It can lead to a low energy in your work, in the scene work, in the songs.

[6:47] Justin Guarini: And people on the other side of the table will be like, well, this person's really great, but they just don't seem to have a spark. They just don't seem to have, it's just, I'm not really feeling it. It's not coming off the page. Right?

[7:02] Justin Guarini: So, you see how walking with too much energy, or too little energy, can always make us lose. Now, I have this great guided meditation that I do in order to find and balance my energy outside of the room.

[7:16] Justin Guarini: Because, like I said, look, I still audition for things, and it doesn't matter what level in your career you're at. If you're just auditioning for a show in your local community, or a church show, or you're auditioning for huge movie roles.

[7:29] Justin Guarini: I had a friend of mine read, for the last Superman movie, or one of the last Superman movies, that Henry Cav... I can't pronounce his last name, I forget. But you know who I'm talking about, Superman.

[7:39] Justin Guarini: He came in, all these other actors came in, and my friend said, you know what's really funny? All of them were so super nervous. I mean, of course, they're going in for huge studio franchise movies that make actors, you know, certainly their financial lives, if nothing else, for the rest of their lives.

[7:54] Justin Guarini: And so, it doesn't matter. Those nerves, those things, they affect everybody, no matter where you're at. And one of the keys is finding balance.

[8:00] Justin Guarini: And one of the things that I do is this guided meditation that I call my nerve-crushing exercise. And it's actually available in the Audition Secrets online mastermind, which you can find out more about when you go to AuditionSecrets.com.

[8:14] Justin Guarini: But in the meantime, the big takeaway here, and look, you've probably heard it before, but I'm going to say it again. I tend to forget it and revert back to what we know when we're in the pressure cooker of the high-stakes audition.

[8:27] Justin Guarini: Remember, the people in the room are human beings with just as much at stake, if not more at stake, than you have. And we, as the performers, should not pretend to be or see ourselves as having to be perfect.

[8:45] Justin Guarini: We are creative people entering a room full of other creative people. And we're not there to beg for a job, or to show that we're perfect, or to make them like us, or to try to fool or manipulate the people on the other side of the table.

[8:57] Justin Guarini: We are there to have a conversation, a dialogue, a back-and-forth meeting of the minds to achieve the common goal of making great art. That's it.

[9:10] Justin Guarini: At the end of the day, that is more or less what an audition is. It would make us so much more relaxed as a community of performers as a whole.

[9:20] Justin Guarini: It would just make the process so much easier for the people on the other side of the table. When we walk in with the kind of energy that says, I am here not to prove myself to you, not to make you like me, not to beg you for a job, but I'm here to have a dialogue with you, my creative friend on the other side of the table.

[9:39] Justin Guarini: And we're just going to do this back-and-forth thing. YouTube Norm's entrance on Cheers from the old Cheers sitcom. And just watch as the character who plays Norm, whose name I can't remember right now, but you know who he is.

[9:53] Justin Guarini: As he walks in, everyone's like, No! And he's like, Hey! Well, I'm home! It's that sort of I'm home feeling. That's the kind of energy that is just so much fun to have when you walk into an audition room.

[10:05] Justin Guarini: And so much fun for the people on the other side of the table to feel. Alright? So, balance. Don't come in with too much or too little energy.

[10:14] Justin Guarini: Find your balance. And you will always, always set yourself up for success when you walk in the room.

[10:22] Justin Guarini: Okay. Two. Another one. And this is a bigger one. Maybe I should have made this number one because this is something that I see all the time.

[10:29] Justin Guarini: Lately, I've been spending a lot of time on the other side of the table. I did it in this workshop. I do it when I tour around with a company called VocalStar. And we will audition singers. We'll audition actors.

[10:40] Justin Guarini: And I see this virus popping its ugly head up every single, almost every single audition in some way, shape, or form that I watch. And that is this. Making excuses.

[10:52] Justin Guarini: Ugh! To err is human. To err in the audition room is also human. To err in the audition room and apologize is absolutely 100%, 1000, and bajillion percent forbidden.

[11:06] Justin Guarini: Do not apologize in the room. I literally made this the first chapter of my book, Audition Secrets. It's called Own Every Mistake.

[11:17] Justin Guarini: Failure can be your greatest asset, ladies and gentlemen. Do not ever apologize for messing up.

[11:27] Justin Guarini: And I'll get back to the whole failure being your asset in a moment. But the number one reason why you should never ever apologize or like make the ugh face or whatever it is when you mess up is because you walk in the room to be cast, right?

[11:42] Justin Guarini: But when you do that and you apologize or you indicate that you've made a mistake or something like that, you end up casting yourself in the role of the victim. Does it make sense?

[11:54] Justin Guarini: When you're like, oh, I'm sorry. Oh, gosh, I had it at home. Oh, ugh, all that stuff. You are casting yourself. You put yourself in the role of the victim.

[12:04] Justin Guarini: And guess what, folks? 99% of the people on the other side of the table care about you. They want you to do well. Like I said a few minutes ago, they're human beings. They have so much at stake, just like you have things at stake. They want you to do well.

[12:19] Justin Guarini: And guess what? When they see somebody who's apologizing and falling apart and feeling bad about themselves, knowing that they have come in and taken the time to come into the casting office, that they've prepared this material, what do they do?

[12:32] Justin Guarini: They see a victim and immediately want to, in some way, shape, or form, be the hero. Oh, no, it's okay. Oh, no, it's no problem. Okay, blah, blah, blah. And that is not the dynamic that you want to create in the audition room.

[12:47] Justin Guarini: You do not want to be a victim that has to be rescued by the casting director or creative team heroes because these people are sitting on the other side of the table trying to do a job and most likely have been doing that job for anywhere from eight to ten hours.

[13:02] Justin Guarini: And you don't want to make them expend that kind of energy, first of all. And then, going further with that, when you start to cast yourself in the victim role and you begin to fall apart or you apologize and you start to show the cracks, the things that we're all thinking but that we don't necessarily need to show, the people on the other side of the table, whether it's consciously or subconsciously, make a little tick in their minds and say, I don't know about this one because, look, if they mess up on stage, is this what's going to happen?

[13:39] Justin Guarini: If something goes horribly awry, are they going to fall apart? Now, again, that might not be a conscious thought, but, I mean, think about it. Any situation where you're relying on someone to provide you a service, right? Like the casting director is relying on us, the performers, to provide a service and to do it without fail, right?

[14:02] Justin Guarini: It's like if I went to the dentist, right? I am paying a lot of money to make sure that this person takes care of my business so that I can go about my life. Imagine how you would feel if the dentist was cleaning your teeth and they got to a certain point and they went...

[14:21] Justin Guarini: I'm sorry to say, this is a video that I filmed in the middle of the night. So there's a couple of people in here who are like, I'm so sorry I missed this piece of plaque. And they started apologizing, and then they kind of started falling apart. And they were just like, I did this perfectly in dental school. I bet that look, there were three other people in here whose teeth I cleaned perfectly today. And they start giving all these excuses. And then after they give you all the excuse and you're like, oh no, it's okay, hey, look, whatever, it's a little bit of plaque. No, but that's not drill. As the dentist is wiping away tears or trying to stop hyperventilating, I would be like, we need to reschedule.

I'm sorry, I'm gonna go now. Thank you, you did a great job with my teeth. I'll call you. It's the same sort of thing, right? Of course, that's an extreme example. But that's the kind of energy that we're putting out when we victimize ourselves. And when we say sorry in the audition room and indicate that we've made a mistake. They know that we've made a mistake. They don't care necessarily. And you will do yourself a huge service if you own every single mistake and you push through your failure, which like I said before, is your greatest asset. When you fail in the room, that is an opportunity for you to do something that no one else does in the room like you, right? That no other actor can walk in and do exactly like you can.

And that is push through the moment and rely on all that training that you've taken. Rely on all those classes that you've gone to. Rely on all that work that you've done to get you out of the situation that you're in. If it is a horrible train wreck, keep going until they stop you on the other side of the table. At the very least, you will have shown that you can push through and that you're not willing to give up and that you're committed to the material and everybody might have a good laugh about it and it will just ease the tension in the room. There's so many good things that can come from royal screw-ups if you don't allow them to stop you. If you push through them. If you mess up and forget a word and you don't happen to have your sides on you, which you should at all times anyway, regardless of whether you memorized it or not, keep going.

Figure out something the character would say. Figure out something the character would do. And do not stop unless they stop you. I'm telling you. It's a great, great, great lesson that I had to learn the hard way and that I see people who are really great, who are doing great jobs and who otherwise would have had a phenomenal performance, even with the mess up, do themselves a huge disservice and make their performance less than, audition rather, less than what it could have been by just stopping, taking everybody out of the moment and casting themselves as the victim. All right? Makes sense? All right. Third and final point. Under preparation and over preparation. Finding the balance. The Boy Scouts always say, be prepared.

And yes, I know. You've been told this a million times and stick with me. What I'm talking about is the lack of preparation that comes from saying yes to too many things. Woo. Let me tell you. I've had to learn how to become what I call a no ninja. That's right. I'm my own worst enemy on this one, folks. And I've come into projects giving less than my best because I fall into the trap of either trying to please people or help people out or even just make as much money as I can in the hustle that comes during the feast and famine cycle of this business. And under preparation is a huge disservice on a couple of different levels. It's a disservice to your mental game because you really, I can't speak for you, but I know for me, when I'm under prepared or I'm not quite sure, there's so much stress that comes with that.

This is hard enough, folks, what we do. Why are you going to add the extra stress of being under prepared? It's one thing to just not know it. You know that, right? Give me the just, I'll look at the music. I'll look right at the signs. But if you kind of know it and aren't sure and you're going to try and do it off book and trying to, oh man, it is a recipe for disaster. And even if you do make it through to the end without messing up or it just, you feel like crap and it messes with your head. And this is a mental game. There's a lot of games we play in this business. And one of them, one of the biggest one is the mental game. And if you keep putting yourself under that kind of stress, that kind of mental strain, it is going to have an effect on all that you do in life, but certainly on your performances and how you are able to be in the moment and alive and creative and flexible.

It also messes with your brand. And this is something, again, I speak from experience on this one. I've come in under prepared to help a friend out for a concert somewhere else. And I'm stressing out because I'm trying to do it off book and I'm trying to memorize. And instead of trying to be alive and enjoy myself and discover new ways of delivering the material, I'm just trying to save face. And people notice that. Especially other people on your level and people above you are like, man, this person's really good, but it always just seems like there's a drama or something goes wrong and they just don't. I can't quite rely on them. Right? And I don't know. Look, they've had a few weeks or a month.

I asked them a month ago to do this thing and then they're coming in. They don't know what's there. They're screwing things up and they feel stressed. I'm not sure I'm going to ask them to do something again. And I'm sure I have not been asked to do things again because I have exhibited that type of behavior. As much as I try and cover it up, it just doesn't come off really well. And it hurts my brand. I know the game is the branding game. I can do a whole podcast about branding yourself as an artist. But the last disservice that it does is to the people bringing you into the audition room or bringing you onto the project and the project itself that you're working on. It's a huge disservice to come in underprepared for a casting director because they will, in their minds, crucify you for that.

Because that's their reputation on the line. And it's, oh, don't let them talk about you before you walk in the room and sing your praises and then you walk in and you give some underprepared performance. That is one of the kisses of death, right? And so when you walk into an audition room, specifically, that casting director has brought you in on purpose because they believe that you are a viable candidate. And if you walk in and you're underprepared and you're stressed, it's not quite as good as it should be or could be or has been in the past and that has made the casting director call you in, you might not get called in again or you might get called in less. And we don't want that, right?

What's the point? What's the damn point? Just don't come in. If you are underprepared, it is better to not come in than to come in and be underprepared. I have called casting directors directly and said, I love this project. I love you. Thank you for bringing me in. But I've been doing too much and I do not want to walk in there and do a disservice to you, to myself, and to this project. And you know what? They've been like, hey, I totally get it. Thank you so much for that. And I get to save face and not look like an anus when I walk in the room, okay? The other side of the coin on there, of course, is overprep. And that is a killer because you don't leave yourself any room to play. I've watched singers and actors and been a singer and actor that have come into the room and have had all the right notes, hit all the right notes, had all the right moves, hit all the right beats in the scenes, and made all the right choices, then completely fall apart or do some sort of bastardized version of all the right choices.

I'm making air quotes. After they were given a note, you know, in essence, told to try something different. The material that we present in the audition room and on the stage or anywhere, whenever we're presenting material, it's a living thing. It's alive. Does this make sense? It's like a living, breathing piece of art. It might not always be good art, but it is alive. And the more we are prepared, which is knowing what we're supposed to say and when we're supposed to say it, why we're supposed to say it, what we want, our character wants in the scene or in the song, having some idea of how our character can go about getting that thing that we want. And there's a million other things, but that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

When we are prepared in that way, we can truly shine if we're alive to the moment. And there's a little bit of, I don't want to say lack of preparation, but just not over preparing and not setting things in stone. There's a little bit of the unknown that we always have to leave ourselves. And the more we can get comfortable with leaving a little bit of the unknown, the openness to play, the openness to completely making a choice that in the moment that may fall flat and be the worst thing ever, the more that we are able to be alive to the moment and the more that we work that muscle, the more that we begin to trust ourselves that, you know what? I'm just going to go in there. I know what I'm supposed to say.

I know why I'm saying it. I know what I want as a character. I know how little different ways that I can get it, but I'm going to go in there and I'm going to play and I'm going to see what happens. That is alive and it is electric in an audition room and also on a stage, whether you've been performing the material for six weeks, six months or six years, there is that same ability to be alive and open and to play and to try new things that makes it not only exciting for you, but exciting to watch, exciting for your cast mates to be a part of. You know, if this reminds you of something, I don't know why it reminded me of this, but there is a really great trick that one of my mentors gave me a long time ago, and she's a phenomenal actor in her own right, a wonderful coach, wonderful director.

She's just fantastic. Her name is Mimi Lieber. She's, I love her. I love her. I love her. I love her. And she told me this trick that she uses where she'll walk into the casting room and say hello to the casting director and they'll chitchat as we do. And then before she starts reading the side, she'll say, hey, look, I've got some thoughts and ideas on this, and I'm just going to, I'm just going to give it to you this way and blow through this one. And if you don't like it, we can try something else, but I just, I want to try this and see how it works and see how you feel about it. And that's a really interesting script. And again, she puts it in her own words and I'm putting in my own words.

It's an interesting way to show the casting director or director, whoever's on the other side of the table that you're coming in with ideas and that you're coming in with ideas that you're willing to be flexible on. And it buys you the opportunity to maybe get the chance to do it again before you even start. It's like you're priming the pump and you're setting yourself up for, hey, I've got these thoughts, boom, boom, boom. And again, it's that sense of dialogue. It's that sense of back and forth. And that is so vital to success in the audition room. It's so vital to get to that, even that next round inside the first round of the audition room where you get to do the scene or the song again after getting some notes.

And so the whole point of this entire podcast really, but this under-preparation versus over-preparation is just finding the balance and the willingness to be alive to the moment. The willingness of being prepared as we all should be, yet the willingness to also leave room and space for the void and the unknown and the infinite possibilities that can happen when we are just alive to the moment and just alive and willing to fall flat on our face and completely make a wrong choice. But learn from that choice and show the people on the other side of the table that you can at least really make a strong choice in the moment. And it really, truly will go a long way towards making you stand out, towards making casting directors remember you, and making them call you in again for other things if you don't get this job.

All right. So one, coming in with too much or too little energy will kill your auditions. Find that balance. Two, making excuses will cast you as a victim. And ain't nobody got time for that. Three, under-preparation or over-preparation will also cause you a tremendous amount of stress or keep you pinned into a very small box that you'll have a difficult time getting out of. Find that balance. Be willing to be alive and in the moment and prepare as we all should, but give yourself that space to play. Stop acting and start playing. Well, I hope that makes sense to you. If you have any questions, you know you can always email me at justin at auditionsecrets.com. I would love to hear what you have to say, your thoughts.

As always, thank you so very much for listening to this episode. If you'd like to take a screen grab and share it on social media, let people know that you're listening to it and that you're getting something out of it, that would go a long way for me. If you'd like to leave a review on iTunes, I would appreciate that so, so very much. Thank you again for listening to the pod. As always, you can go to auditionsecrets.com to find out more about the Audition Secrets book, more about the Audition Secrets online mastermind, and all the other things that we offer in the Audition Secrets world. My name is Justin Guarini. You've been listening to Audition Secrets. Remember, at the end of the day, you're just one audition away.