There are minor disasters, like wearing a mismatched outfit on a non-laundry day, and then there are major ones, like a long, awkward pause in the middle of an audition.It’ll take $80,000 right out of pocket. So let’s avoid that, by getting comfortable reading cue cards.
We’ll start with the basics. I thought it might be interesting to share what a cue-card looked like. The one above is from a commercial audition I went on for Verizon’s NFL app, and the concept was a takeoff on Drew Brees’ pre-game military-tribute chant. In the audition, I was one of four businessmen on a train watching football on a phone who suddenly break into the chant just like Drew.
Cue cards are drawn in marker on large conference-room pads, with different colors differentiating each actors’ lines. There’s a skill to grabbing words off the page so that your eye contact is smooth and stays prominently on either the actor opposite you or directly into camera. Practice this. A lot. Take paragraphs from magazine ads, which tend to be about 30 seconds in length, and read them out loud over and over as keep your eyes focused on one spot on a wall, simulating the camera lens. Even better, record yourself with your cell phone and check your eye contact. You’ve got to do this religiously, and you’ve got to make sure you’re not just reading but selling the product, and finding the funny moments and coming off natural and watching your pace.
Got all that, Rain Man? Good. Now forget it, because once you walk into the audition, don’t over-think it. Take charge. This Verizon audition was not easy, what with the rapid-fire alternating words between my co-stars and me. So I took charge, snapping a quick pic of the cue card so that I could read it off my phone as I pretended to watch the game instead of looking up at the card.
And there you have it. Grab a magazine ad and get to work. Unless of course you’re not particularly fond of making 80k to have fun on a set all day. In that case, good luck, hippie.
