It isn't just one of your holiday games.....

What draws a person to a particular audition piece? 

This is one of those questions that Tom Robbins insists will eventually go a long way to solving the purpose of the moon; though, not AS important as "how do you make love last?"

Prior to my marriage, no relationship ever lasted as long as my relationship with audition pieces.

You take them; you read them; you cut them.  You curse and swear and paste and re-cut and look at the clock and wonder how much more you can gut it before it becomes less the material you like and more the material that lasts less than 60 seconds.

You attempt to strike a balance between giving the material the attention it craves, it DESERVES, and making sure that those that sit in the darkness watching don't dismiss you because you didn't plan for the time constraint.

Because there is nothing like missing the meat of the matter because some college sophomore staring at her BlackBerry's stopwatch application just yelled "TIME!" with just enough enthusiasm to make you believe that she actually enjoyed it.

So what DOES draw a person to a particular audition piece?

I like the humorous...and when in doubt, I go for the funny.  The truly memorable auditions I've watched were the ones that made me laugh.

One of my favorite guys, now a PhD and working at a college down in FL bonded himself to me forever by performing a monologue in St. Louis in 1994 that made me laugh out loud.  In my mind's eye I can still see him doing it.

Memorable works.  Funny works.

I'm okay with the "Dramatic"...(capital letter intended for effect) monologues; if possible, I like to throw in a short one with the slightly longer humorous contribution.  It shows range; but I'm also a believer that "Dying is easy....Comedy is hard."  And if you can get the laugh, you can get the tear.

There are exceptions to every rule, of course.....but generally speaking......if you can make 'em laugh, you can make 'em cry.

But never in ninety seconds, which is what you got.

So, no music this time around...it was either the waiting list for singing or getting in on the non-singing audition.  And this has never been about the job.  It's been, since I first decided that perhaps I wanted to try this, ONE MORE TIME, just to see if I still have the heart, and the stuff, to do it.

This is about getting up and doing it.  So, I didn't want a waiting list. 

I wanted the light.

Comedy first for 45 seconds; then the other for about 40.

I just have to make sure to fight against my instincts to hold for the laugh. 

Because the clock is ticking.