The thing I love most about being an actor is that every week is different. Monday I got to be an extra on the AMC show “The Killing” and play a detective. Tomorrow I am going to photo-double on the CW show “Supernatural”, and today I had a commercial audition.

I got up at 7am, got my picture and resume organized, figured out where the studio was, had a hot shower and a cup of coffee, put on a shirt and tie and headed to the studio.

I always find auditioning humorous because they often have one holding area for all the actors and then several different studios, each one filming auditions for different commercials. When your name is called, you go into the door corresponding to the spot you are auditioning for. You often end up waiting in a room where half the guys are dressed like cowboys and the other half are dressed like lifeguards.

Today there was an audition for “hot chicks”, an audition for “good-looking guy in suit” and an audition for “middle management type with a dead-pan face”. I was in the latter group…

You always run into the same actor friends at these auditions because you are always auditioning for the same commercials since you are the same age and type. The humour comes in when the waiting room starts to fill up with nervous actors sitting in rows on folding chairs.

I was chatting with a gay model friend of mine when he realized he had signed in for the wrong commercial. There was an awkward moment when we both went, “oh, of course! Why would you and I be auditioning for the same commercial? You’re an international male model and I’m… I’m… well, break a leg!”.

You have never seen young girls be more competitive than when they are competing to see who is the hottest and the prize is a very lucrative TV commercial. When they entered, each girl grabbed an empty chair in the room full of 40-year-old dudes and then stared daggers at the other girls while competing in a toss your hair, apply makeup competition.

The casting assistant would call the girls up one by one to get a still photo taken. This was a great opportunity to strut the cat walk in front of the other girls, strike a pose and then ask important questions like “do you think this shirt is small enough or should I just go in my sports bra?”. (I really heard that today).

I was quite happy to be out auditioning today though. The number of union commercials shooting in this city has really dropped in the last few years. The casting director I was seeing had 4 different commercials auditioning today. That seemed like a good sign.

You can expect film and TV work to slow down considerably in the next few months in Vancouver. Most of the pilots that were being shot in March/April have wrapped and a number of TV shows are wrapping as well.

Make sure your credit card is paid down and you have a few bucks in the bank. I myself am going to use this slow time to go on my annual vacation to Hawaii.

Show shooting in Vancouver in May

• Grave Encounters 2
• Hacked
• Level Up
• Lucille’s Ball
• Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters
• Primeval New World
• Seventh Son
• The Devil You Know 3
• The Haunting Hour
• Tom Dick and Harriet