Break a Leg

Hey, all.

The new episode is out and ready for your devouring. Watch Mint try to use what he's learned from Chase to win a girl of his own! Be dazzled by David's failures with Amber! Be amazed at the awkwardness of a date in the sewers! All this and more on the latest episode!

Watch it right here on our website: www.breakaleg.tv (make sure to Digg the ep and leave us a comment!)

Or watch it quicker, but in lower quality here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMLmuIapWNI (where, as always, we ask you to comment, rate, subscribe and favorite!)

Thanks, guys!

Enjoy. And I still wouldn't mind tomorrow being Fan Day for you, the fans, to blog us something, anything about you, your life, the show, not the show, anything you want.

Just send me an email at yuri@breakaleg.tv and I'll put up the best one.

Thanks, guys!

-Yuri

Here's a blog from our very own Hugo Martin -- though you may know him (albeit briefly) as Mint's bandmate, Tahko. He was also the guy who we almost ate in the Halloween minisode.

Hugo is a local actor (as well as musician) here in San Francisco and he's going to try and write weekly about his experiences. Perhaps we can get the other actors to join on their acting experiences.

Here we go:

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 In the short time that I've been auditioning in the professional world of theatre in the Bay Area, I've learned a few important thing.  Although rejection stings, and the point of auditioning is getting the job, a "failed" audition is an invaluable learning experience. Besides toughening you up to be the war-battered veteran actor you aspire to be(actors love military references, at least those who feel they let daddy down by becoming an actor) a rejection, with perspective, can teach you how to prepare the next time around and hopefully get a little closer to landing the gig. Here are a few rules that I've learned from going on only 5 different auditions. "What?" you say "5 auditions?, should you really be doling out advice after so few experiences?" I answer: probably not, but here it goes anyway, with the reservations that its a short list of advice and it applies perhaps only to my region's theatre scene.

Lesson number 1:  Expect nothing.

If you know someone who has auditioned with sed theatre company before you, consult them, taking their advice with a grain of salt. Even if you think you know how its going to go, be prepared for a number of twists.

Twist number 1:  They may ask you to prepare 10 songs and a dance sequence, but when you get there, they ask you to recite a monologue (you hadn't prepared for) and bark like a dog to Beethoven's 5th. It can and will happen.

Twist number 2:  Your gut, or your "source" told you they audition in a large room with great reverb, but when you get there their air-conditioning is out and they've relocated to the alley behind the building where boeing jets pass every 5 minutes. You can hardly hear the sound of your own hyperventilation.

Twist number 3:  They are ahead of/behind schedule and you come late/early and have to wait way past what they told you to expect. You seethe at the injustice.

Twist number 4: They Lost your headshot and/or resume you previously sent them. All you have is your prom picture in your wallet.

Twist number 5: You get into the audition room and there are much more/less people than you expected. They are quieter/louder, friendlier/meaner than you expected. This startles you.

And there are many many more twists that I'm not thinking of or haven't yet experienced.

My advice, in order of twists.

Twist 1) Prepare everything they ask you to prepare, thoroughly and expecting to perform it(didn't you say expect nothing?). However,  do not be dissapointed if they decide to nix it all and make you bark like a dog instead. It can happen. Have an additional monologue/song that you can perform, even if they didn't request it. It is not so unusual for a director or casting agent to say: "what else you got?" Also, wear comfortable clothing in the off-chance that they ask you to do movement/dance. It is pretty rare that they ask you to do dance moves when it was not stated before, but at least wear clothing you can move in. The point is: Artistic types like to change their mind rapidly, in any other field it would be a warning sign to fire the person, in the arts it is a sign of creativity. If you want dependability go work at UPS.

Twist 2) Rehearse your monologue in a variety of venues. Shout it over the waves at the beach or in the cozy intimacy of a bathroom stall. Be prepared for the eventuality of both extremes. If its possible to rehearse at the actual venue(like for a shakespeare festival) do it. If not, inform yourself to the best of your knowledge and be prepared to use more or less projection to fit the space.

Twist 3) This happens frequently. Stake out your audition spot early! If you can, put aside time before and after in the eventuality(it will happen) that it goes over-time. Bring a lunchables and the play or your favourite harry-potter. Though, if you're the kind of actor who is 28 and spends your spare time reading harry potter over chekov you might consider that there's more than one reason why you aren't being cast more often, or your parents don't take you seriously.

Twist 4) Always bring an extra copy of your headshot or resume.

Twist 5) This is the variable that may be the least predicatable until you actually get to the audition. You may want to ask whoever is at the desk how many people are casting, or perhaps someone who went before you to set your mind at ease, but most likely your experience will be completely different than anyone elses. Don't ever depend on their being more than one person casting you. If you wanted to adress your monologue to an actual person, don't. Looking an auditoner in the eye can make them nervous, so its never a good idea even if they give you permission, but that's audition skills and is a whole other story. There may be one old artistic director that is fully awake and receptive of you, or ten measly interns who rudely talk over your audition. Just prepare what you've got and deliver it. In my experience, I'm usually more surprised at how friendly people are when they're auditioning you. Don't be afraid, but don't expect a cuddly atmosphere either. You really never know what you're going to get.

The moral of the story is: Be prepared and be flexible. Be an informed and fully prepared actor, but buddhist enough to abandon all your artistic possesions and adjust to what is asked of you.

Next time: (My first professional audition out of school) 42nd Street Moon.

So, I was thinking.

We like having a measure of interactivity with you and we're also, coincidentally, trying to get to a point where we have some good blog posts at least once a day. Keep you entertained. Keep you coming back for more. Keep you reading and your eyes exercised.

So, I was thinking. And I thought -- wouldn't it be fun for one day a week to be fan blog day, where we'll let one of you write whatever you'd like in the Break a Leg blog? It can be about the show, it can be just about your life, it can be how the show is related to your life, or how your life is almost identical to the show. I don't really care what it's about -- as long as its a good read and written with the audience in mind.

I'm not sure how to do this yet. I'm thinking, for now, you can email me entries and I'll start lining them up every Tuesday (if we get any).

How's that sound? Anyone interested?

You can email entries to me personally at yuri@breakaleg.tv

Let's try it.

-Yuri

Later, when Yuri and I were playing around with ideas for Jennifer, many of my more radical ideas were shelved, but the beret you've all come to know and possibly love stayed in.

Currently, I am in a production of "Moonlight and Magnolias".  It's a show based on actual events about 3 guys locked in an office for 5 days trying to rewrite the screenplay to "Gone With The Wind".  The writer (Ben Hecht) hasn't read the book, so the producer (David O. Selznick) and the director (Victor Flemming) have to act out the book for Hecht as they go along. The characters are fed nothing but peanuts and bananas and gradually slip into a sleep deprived state of madness.  This is another zany comedy with a slap fight and banana-peanut free-for-all thrown in for good measure.  I happen to be playing (guess who) the director.  And I happen to be wearing (guess what...are you guessing?  You're guessing, aren't you?) yes, The Beret.

Three roles as a director, each character dramatically different from the others, and in each one, my beloved beret has been with me to see me through.  Just thought I'd share that little tidbit.

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Jennifer

1. If you bring an air mattress to the airport, you might as well throw it on the plane.
For some reason, it was decided right before take off that we probably wouldn’t need it.  Gino’s (Director at FYI) hardwood flooring proved otherwise.  Which brings me to my next lesson...

2. Apparently “personal space” is something Dashiell, Yuri and I do not possess.
This is something we learned when having to share one couch for the first 3 nights staying in Brooklyn.  Let’s just say, at least we were warm...  

3. Be careful, because you might just end up getting married in a cab.
So upon entering a cab the 3 of us being myself, Yuri and Dashiell are handed 3 scarves to wear.  Being polite, and still slightly inebriated from the nights festivities, we put them on with out question.  We’re then told by the cab driver that we are united or “married” as brothers.
Heh, when in New York.

4. New Yorkers aren’t fans of imitations.
For some reason, they don’t like it when you sit in a café at 3 am jokingly telling each other, “Go @#$% yourself” in stereotypical New York accents.  Or maybe they were Boston accents.  Who knows?

5. “Ewoks: The Caravan of Courage” might possibly be the best movie ever!
From its amazing costume designs to it stellar acting performances, “The Caravan of Courage” is yet another testament to George Lucas’s masterful storytelling.
And perhaps the best example of the amazing acting portrayed in this movie can be seen
here at the time of 06:53.
“IT MUST BE A MONSTER OR SOMETHING REAL BIG!”
Never has such a performance been delivered with such monotonial (look it up) tenacity.

6. Never challenge the bartender to a Sake Bomb contest.
You will lose.

7. Make sure to bring your resident host to every tourist attraction you see.
They might say they hate every second of it, but you can tell deep down they have always wanted to walk in the icy wind across a bridge that they drive across every day.

8. Carry an up to date driver’s license when departing a New York airport.
So while my driver’s license says it expired in 2006, I do have papers saying that it is current.  (long boring DMV story I will not get into)
And while the San Francisco airport had no trouble with this minor paper infraction, the New York airport was a completely different deal.
Upon showing airport security my license, a conversation almost identical to this ensued.
“Go to that back wall sir.”
“Uhmm where?”
“That wall at the end.”
“And..... do what?”
“Just go to the back wall sir.”
So I walk to the back wall at the end all the while newspaper images fly into my head reading “Chase Cougar: Terrorist?!”  At this point Dashiell and Yuri who have made it through security decide it’s best to heckle me as I make my long walk of shame past hundreds of people to the dreaded back wall.
Once at the wall, I realized it was just another security waypoint, but with the difference being I had to wait in a plexiglass security cubicle while a very bored and heavyset woman waved a “magic wand” around my carry-on bag.

-Justin

Coming soon: A fantastic and sentimental slideshow of our trip!