G

Last weekend, I went to my samurai class, left early around 3:30, and then went to a production studio in Santa Monica. I had an audition/interview scheduled at 4:15 and I don't know why I insisted on going to class and getting all sweaty before the audition, but that's what I did. I ended up washing my dirty feet with bottled water. What a fricking waste!

It turns out that 30 or 40 other people — mostly white women, but some black and Asian women, too — were there for the same time slot. We were instructed to take a photo with a name slate, take off our shoes and head into the "sanctuary" where we'd be introduced to the company and its mission.

The company is called G Living and it's on the Internet under the url GLiving.net. A friend had forwarded me an audition notice about a month ago. They were looking for 12 hosts for various topics, from health to technology to gardening. Since I have a news background, I emailed a headshot using the LACasting.com website. They replied back with a questionnaire to fill out, and after completing it, they sent a call time for the audition.

The guy who did the presentation said he used to be a commercial actor, but after doing — get this — 69 national commercials, he didn't want to shoot another one in his life. Can you believe that? Sixty-nine NATIONAL commercials! My guess is that he made somewhere between 2 to 3 million bucks on those. Funny thing is, you'd probably never recognize this guy. He's pretty plain-looking and nondescript.

Anyway, I don't really want to go into the introductory session because it was damn boring, but at the end, they gave us an assignment: produce a 2-3 minute video package on any topic we choose, as long as it's related to the website and its theme.

I asked a few friends if they had a video camera I could borrow, but by the time I could find one, the deadline was fast approaching. For practice, I used the video camera on my cell phone and just did several takes straight through on the topic of recycling your computer system.

After playing them back, I did a couple more and decided it was good enough quality for the audition tape and sent the thing in.

Now, I'm not gonna say it's professional or even very good, but I'm proud of what I turned in. It's been years since I've had any practice at this sort of thing. And now about a dozen people are checking it out, not to mention the 4 friends I sent a link to watch it on YouTube.

And no, I'm not posting it here. It's really not very good at all.