Aaron Marcus arrived late to a New York TV audition after a delayed bus and bad weather. He apologizes to his agent, negotiates a pause before entering, and uses his script sides to stay focused. He emphasizes building generous travel buffers and arriving early enough to breathe and mentally prepare.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and no, I'm not a doctor. I just play a lot of roles as a doctor. I've been a full-time actor for over 30 years, booked over 1,200 jobs. I just finished doing— shooting a home audition for an HBO show as a doctor, and something that just came up for me today was on my mind, and I thought this would be something really good for you to know about, so I want to share it with you. So just really quickly, I've been making my living as an actor for over I've booked over 1,200 jobs. And, and by the way, if you are watching this on YouTube, uh, and if you haven't subscribed to my Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel, make sure you click the subscription button and also the notification button. And that way, every time a, uh, a new video gets uploaded, you'll be notified. So here's the situation. Um, I've been traveling a lot recently, been doing a lot of driving, um, for jobs and auditions. And I had a last-minute audition in New York today, and it was for a TV show. And I had 2 options. I decided I was going to take the bus. I just couldn't get back in the car. I also needed time to study the sides. I also wanted to be able to nap a little bit because it's just been pretty long, long days for me recently. So I had 2 choices. One was an early morning, um, bus ride that would get me to New York about an hour, a little bit, a little over an hour before I had to be there at the casting office. And I was only about a 10 or 15 minute walk, uh, to the facility. So that, that, that seemed pretty good to me. The other, I would've had to have gotten up really early and it was a 2 and a half, it was 2 and a half hours before my audition. And I thought, you know, I wanted to sleep in a little bit, take it a little bit easy. So I wound up going with the one that got me there an hour early. Well, as you can imagine, things happen and the bus was late, weather was horrible, pouring outside, lots of traffic, road construction, and now I realize I'm going to be late to my audition. And this was actually the first time I was submitted by this agent. I've known her for a long time, first time she submitted me, and it couldn't be worse. I mean, being late for an audition, it's unheard of. I'm never late for an audition. So just so you know, I did contact— I emailed the agent and I said, look, I apologize. I didn't give reasons or excuses. I just said, I just feel horrible about this. I'm probably going to be 15 minutes late to my audition. I wanted to let you know, but I'm heading up there right now. And so Yeah, I wound up getting there 15 minutes late, and as it turned out, casting director couldn't have been nicer. She said, no problem at all. Um, she said, why don't you come on in? We can start the audition. And then I said, actually, can I just have like 3 minutes? Because I, I was running. I was running up and I'm holding an umbrella because it's raining outside. It was, it was horrible. And it's, it's not the way you want to go into an audition. Plus, for this particular audition, It was tough dialogue. And typically, I'd want to get there really early. When I say really early, at least 25 minutes early. Sit, relax. I wouldn't necessarily sign in as soon as I got there. I just want to be able to take some deep breaths, go over what I wanted to do, my game plan, my thoughts about the character. I mean, just really prepare. But I did ask her because I just wasn't— I just couldn't audition in that second. And she said, sure, no problem. So I went back out to the waiting area and there was nobody there because I guess they had finished auditions. And I took a couple of minutes and went back in and I read. And I, like I always do, you know, unless told otherwise, I've got my sides with me and I'm actually holding the sides up like this. And that way, if I need to glance over for a second— and you know what, I think at some other time I'll probably probably do a video just talking about using sides during an audition. You know, should you, shouldn't you, how to, certain techniques that I use that I found really helpful. And so I did have the sides, and that, that made it really helpful. So that way, when I wasn't 100% sure what the next word was or the next line, I just, you know, just easily glanced. And it did take me I'll be perfectly honest, I goofed up a couple times. It was just like a little tongue tie just because it was just hard, you know. It's a hard way to go into an audition like that. So here's, here's the deal. I am never going to do that again. I'm never cutting things that close. I mean, typically, even when I'm driving to a place, I'll give myself, you know, depending on where I'm going, But I might give myself an hour to get to a place, especially if it's much closer. But a place like New York, that's 3.5, could be 4 hours away, and there are just so many factors that could delay things that I just wanted to share this with you. Always give yourself so much time. I'm not saying show up 5 hours early. I'm not even saying show up 3 hours early. I mean, that would be nuts. But if you're traveling a long distance, then you've got to give— you've got to build in some extra time for you. If I have a local audition, you know, I'll give myself 45 minutes to be late, you know, just, you know, just, just some extra time. But you just never want to be in a situation where number one, you are late. And then number two, when you're just rushing in there, because it makes the audition really tough. Give yourself plenty of time. Sit, relax, breathe, get comfortable, go over whatever you need to go over, and that way it will give yourself your best opportunity to give a great audition. You know, give an audition that you are happy with. Uh, very last thing I just wanted to mention. As you can imagine, keeping the channel up running, making it look clean, making it easy for people to access, you know, I do have expenses with that. And I wanted to ask if you would, I'd greatly appreciate a donation, uh, just to help support the channel. It's up to you to decide whatever you want to give, whether it's $2, $5, $10, $20, whatever is good for you. There is a PayPal link below and you just click on that, takes you right into PayPal. Even if you don't have a PayPal account, you can use a credit card, whatever is good for you. But anyhow, I would really appreciate it. And also feel free to share this link With, you know, all your friends, social media platforms, email it out to people. Look, my goal here is to build a community of, you know, having people help each other in the industry. I mean, that's why I'm doing this. That's why after an incredibly long day and then shooting an audition, I am, you know, uh, shooting this one because it was on my mind and I thought this would be really helpful to you. So please share it. I want to have a large group of family members, who are helping each other out, sharing information, giving feedback, and just trying to make things better for all of us in this industry. So anyhow, I really appreciate you doing that. If there are any topics that you specifically can think of that you want me to cover, feel free, let me know. Just shoot me an email at aaron@howtoactandmodel.com, and I can't wait to talk with you guys again soon. See ya. Bye.
