28
Feb
2006
21:50

Baby Steps

After my last whiny spell, some small amount of progress has been made. I’ve asked around about some open mic nights here in Austin, and started rebuilding my solo acoustic song list.
Then today I saw a casting call for someone to play Tom Cruise in a short spoof about him and Katie to be aired on a local access comedy/improv show. I initially deleted it. Then I remembered over the years how many times people told me I looked like, or in some way reminded them of Tom Cruise (I lost count after about 15). I figured, what the hell, I’ll throw my hat in the ring. I may not be a dead ringer but if it’s a comedy caricature, then I could probably at least do something interesting with it.
Later as we were about to meet some friends for our monthly writer’s meeting, I got the call that the people from the show wanted to meet me to scope me out. I had to leave the get together with our friends to go meet them. I grabbed my Tom Cruise sunglasses, and prepared for the audition. I watched Ben Stiller’s hilarious turn as Tom Cruise’s stunt double from the MTV VMA show. On the way to the audition (I was just meeting them at a coffee house) I started improving as Tom Cruise in the car, and I gotta say, I came up with some good stuff. I may have to do my own Tom Cruise skit just to use it!
When I met them, we chatted for a bit and then they handed me the pages. I was hoping for a chance to improv and riff a little, but that was alright. I looked them over, they summarized the scene, and we started to read through it. I launched into my best over-enthusiastic Tom Cruise and read the first set of lines. That was it. They decided that I was the man for the part. Now I don’t know how many other people they saw, if any, but it was still cool to get the part after reading one set of lines.
So tomorrow I get to be crazy Tom Cruise in a skit which will air on a local show. And to think, I had deleted this email, and only retrieved it because of all the crazy people on crack over the years who have told me that I reminded them of Tom Cruise. Crazy, man. Like Tom Cruise.

8 Responses

  1. Jess says:

    I’m so glad you’re not really Tom Cruise.

  2. Annika says:

    I am also delighted that you are not Tom Cruise. But most pleased that you will be playing him.

  3. Min says:

    That is so freaking awesome!

  4. Annika says:

    Ooh, hey – any chance you might post the skit at some point? (That is assuming that it is in a digital format, of course.)

  5. Jupe says:

    Dude! Rock out.

  6. andi says:

    Well done, and probably took about the same amount of time as writing a whiny post, yeah??? 🙂

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