Essay completed in Humanities. Express and Reflect.
The
AUDITION
Daniel Cohen
“My dad called out to me from his office and asked if I wanted to drive to LA for an audition.”
“You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo.” - Eminem. This quote is taken directly from his song “Lose yourself”, the soundtrack to his movie, 8 Mile. Eminem says you only get one shot, but in his movie he received two, and so did I.
I was sitting on my chair, while on the computer mindlessly searching youtube. My dad called out to me from his office and asked if I wanted to drive to LA for an audition. Being the twelve year-old self I was, I preferred to just spend a nice day relaxing and playing my Nintendo DS. “ No thanks,” I screamed from my room. He told me it was too late and he had already signed me up. When I heard that, I got upset for some reason. Probably because I didn’t want to drive two hours, but none the less I wasn’t excited. Well I wasn’t excited until he told me it was a feature film. I knew what that meant: I would appear on the movie screen.
As soon as I heard that news I was excited. I rushed over to his desk to look at the production company to see who was going to be making the film and it said “Happy Madison Productions”. “Thats weird,” I thought. I had never seen that name before so I quickly did a Google search. The results only excited me even more. The people that asked me to do an audition, were the same people that produced my favorite film, at the time, Happy Gilmore.
I was like a kid waiting for Christmas, except Christmas came early for me that year. About seven months earlier. As the date finally approached, my excitement quickly turned into fear. As I arrived at the studio, I looked up at the big sign that read “SONY”. I felt like I had already made it even though I hadn’t even auditioned yet. This audition, however, was not like many others. The casting agents told me to come dressed in basketball friendly attire which was perfect for twelve year old me. As we navigated our way through the giant studio lot, we found the studio gym. I thought it was a joke when a man helped us find it, but as I walked in I was immediately overwhelmed.
I look around and see at least 100 other kids that looked similar to me. How could I compete? They had to be looking for something extremely specific since we all looked alike. I turned to my dad expressing my fear with both my words and my face but he told me to calm down and just have fun with it. After about twenty minutes of pure fear, I finally got called up to play basketball. I looked through the net that blocked off the sitting area from the basketball courts and saw kids lined up like they were in the military. They had straight faces and a man went by quickly saying “You can go,” or “Stand over there”. The majority was him saying that they could leave. Oh boy this was going to be terrifying. I got into the court and they lined us all up. “Great, they’re going to pick us off right away without even getting to see my mad skills,” I thought to myself. Then he began. Like a chef choosing which dishes he wanted to serve and which should be thrown away, he quickly discarded the first six kids. They didn’t even get a chance to play. Then they got to me. My heart skipped a beat as the man looked at me and within a split second he told me to stand off to the side. Wow, the relief I had was immense. But the nerves did not go away since I was left with the biggest competition of all.
After it was just me and three other kids, they told us that the more difficult part was coming up which seemed hard to believe at the time. But he paired us up on two teams of two. We started to play basketball and the first pass to me was a total bust. We had no chemistry since we had never played. The other team got the ball. I was covering a man and the first pass I stole and made an easy lay up. From there I gained so much confidence. One after another, I was just draining shots. After the first game, they told only me to stay and I had to play another game with other kids who were previously picked. Once again I displayed my knowledge and skill of the game.
The room that once had 100 kids, now dwindled down to four, excited, kids. I could tell this was the biggest thing anyone in that room had ever auditioned for. So once we were all sweaty from basketball, we were brought to a building. As I walked through I saw tons of memorabilia that was from old movies I had seen and loved. We then were sent into a room one by one. I was the last to go into the room. There was just a man standing behind a camera, with a big smile saying, “Okay can you look into the camera, give us a nice smile and slate please.” If you don’t know what a slate is, it consists of your name, first and last, your age, and your representation. If you do not have an agent or a manager you would say you are independent. Then he had me read a line or two and I was free to go! I nailed the audition, or so I thought. I sat at home every night eager to hear if I got it, but the phone didn’t ring for three months so I was convinced they went with the other clone of me.
One day, when I was upstairs, my dad got a call. The phone seemed like it screamed louder and louder with each ring. He seemed more interested than usual so I went out of my room and down my stairs to eavesdrop. I heard the word Boston so I quickly lost interest, thinking it was a business trip. I went downstairs and my mom told me to think good thoughts. Sometimes the world would have mysterious ways of teaching me patience. As soon as she finished saying that my dad called down to me. “Daniel, we’re going to Boston, YOU GOT THE PART!” he exclaimed as he came down the stairs. I quickly turned around to see my brother running towards me with, what I remember to this date, the biggest smile I had ever seen on his face. He ran up and tackled me while congratulating me at the same time. I ran over to my mom and dad and hugged them both, I recall being overjoyed. I can truthfully say that was the best moment of my life, well almost better than meeting Brad Pitt on set, but that’s a whole other story. I was blessed that my dad signed me up for the audition anyways. If I had rejected the idea I would have never gotten this life changing experience. You may get some second chances in your life, but none of them will come easy to you. I got a second chance from my dad by signing me up and I worked hard, to eventually end up with a role in Grown Ups.
AUDITION
Daniel Cohen
“My dad called out to me from his office and asked if I wanted to drive to LA for an audition.”
“You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo.” - Eminem. This quote is taken directly from his song “Lose yourself”, the soundtrack to his movie, 8 Mile. Eminem says you only get one shot, but in his movie he received two, and so did I.
I was sitting on my chair, while on the computer mindlessly searching youtube. My dad called out to me from his office and asked if I wanted to drive to LA for an audition. Being the twelve year-old self I was, I preferred to just spend a nice day relaxing and playing my Nintendo DS. “ No thanks,” I screamed from my room. He told me it was too late and he had already signed me up. When I heard that, I got upset for some reason. Probably because I didn’t want to drive two hours, but none the less I wasn’t excited. Well I wasn’t excited until he told me it was a feature film. I knew what that meant: I would appear on the movie screen.
As soon as I heard that news I was excited. I rushed over to his desk to look at the production company to see who was going to be making the film and it said “Happy Madison Productions”. “Thats weird,” I thought. I had never seen that name before so I quickly did a Google search. The results only excited me even more. The people that asked me to do an audition, were the same people that produced my favorite film, at the time, Happy Gilmore.
I was like a kid waiting for Christmas, except Christmas came early for me that year. About seven months earlier. As the date finally approached, my excitement quickly turned into fear. As I arrived at the studio, I looked up at the big sign that read “SONY”. I felt like I had already made it even though I hadn’t even auditioned yet. This audition, however, was not like many others. The casting agents told me to come dressed in basketball friendly attire which was perfect for twelve year old me. As we navigated our way through the giant studio lot, we found the studio gym. I thought it was a joke when a man helped us find it, but as I walked in I was immediately overwhelmed.
I look around and see at least 100 other kids that looked similar to me. How could I compete? They had to be looking for something extremely specific since we all looked alike. I turned to my dad expressing my fear with both my words and my face but he told me to calm down and just have fun with it. After about twenty minutes of pure fear, I finally got called up to play basketball. I looked through the net that blocked off the sitting area from the basketball courts and saw kids lined up like they were in the military. They had straight faces and a man went by quickly saying “You can go,” or “Stand over there”. The majority was him saying that they could leave. Oh boy this was going to be terrifying. I got into the court and they lined us all up. “Great, they’re going to pick us off right away without even getting to see my mad skills,” I thought to myself. Then he began. Like a chef choosing which dishes he wanted to serve and which should be thrown away, he quickly discarded the first six kids. They didn’t even get a chance to play. Then they got to me. My heart skipped a beat as the man looked at me and within a split second he told me to stand off to the side. Wow, the relief I had was immense. But the nerves did not go away since I was left with the biggest competition of all.
After it was just me and three other kids, they told us that the more difficult part was coming up which seemed hard to believe at the time. But he paired us up on two teams of two. We started to play basketball and the first pass to me was a total bust. We had no chemistry since we had never played. The other team got the ball. I was covering a man and the first pass I stole and made an easy lay up. From there I gained so much confidence. One after another, I was just draining shots. After the first game, they told only me to stay and I had to play another game with other kids who were previously picked. Once again I displayed my knowledge and skill of the game.
The room that once had 100 kids, now dwindled down to four, excited, kids. I could tell this was the biggest thing anyone in that room had ever auditioned for. So once we were all sweaty from basketball, we were brought to a building. As I walked through I saw tons of memorabilia that was from old movies I had seen and loved. We then were sent into a room one by one. I was the last to go into the room. There was just a man standing behind a camera, with a big smile saying, “Okay can you look into the camera, give us a nice smile and slate please.” If you don’t know what a slate is, it consists of your name, first and last, your age, and your representation. If you do not have an agent or a manager you would say you are independent. Then he had me read a line or two and I was free to go! I nailed the audition, or so I thought. I sat at home every night eager to hear if I got it, but the phone didn’t ring for three months so I was convinced they went with the other clone of me.
One day, when I was upstairs, my dad got a call. The phone seemed like it screamed louder and louder with each ring. He seemed more interested than usual so I went out of my room and down my stairs to eavesdrop. I heard the word Boston so I quickly lost interest, thinking it was a business trip. I went downstairs and my mom told me to think good thoughts. Sometimes the world would have mysterious ways of teaching me patience. As soon as she finished saying that my dad called down to me. “Daniel, we’re going to Boston, YOU GOT THE PART!” he exclaimed as he came down the stairs. I quickly turned around to see my brother running towards me with, what I remember to this date, the biggest smile I had ever seen on his face. He ran up and tackled me while congratulating me at the same time. I ran over to my mom and dad and hugged them both, I recall being overjoyed. I can truthfully say that was the best moment of my life, well almost better than meeting Brad Pitt on set, but that’s a whole other story. I was blessed that my dad signed me up for the audition anyways. If I had rejected the idea I would have never gotten this life changing experience. You may get some second chances in your life, but none of them will come easy to you. I got a second chance from my dad by signing me up and I worked hard, to eventually end up with a role in Grown Ups.