Aaron Marcus keeps audition scripts after rejection and memorizes them anyway to stay performance-ready. He rehearses lines in different rooms and outdoors to practice adapting to varied environments, building the muscle memory that makes future jobs easier.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I know I'm a little bit more dressed up than usual, but I just got finished auditioning for the role of an attorney. So I had this idea and I wanted to share it with you. And by the way, if you're watching this on YouTube and you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, make sure you click the subscription button below and the notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you're going to be able to— you'll know about it. So Here's what I want to share with you. I know this really isn't done very much, but I really like doing it and I want to share it with you. So typically you do an audition, you know, you get the sides, you read them over, you prepare, you know exactly what you're planning on doing, do the audition, and then after you've learned that you haven't gotten the job, you throw the stuff away. You know, I used to hold on to those things all the time, and then I just thought, Why? Why am I holding on to these things? So, um, I've changed a little bit, and instead of tossing them out, here's what I do. Typically for an audition, I don't have my lines fully memorized. It's not, it's not performance ready for the set. It's performance ready for the audition. It's really good. But I'm not off book. The only exception to the rule that I've ever experienced— there have been a couple, but the biggest one was House of Cards. For that particular show, the casting director demanded that your lines are memorized and that you are off script for the audition itself. That's unusual. Most of the time, if you need to, you can just refer to the sides. I just hold them up like this, and if I need to refer, then I come back. But I do my best at memorizing them. But here's what I'd like to do. So I just had an audition for a TV show and I was a priest. Words were a little tricky. It wasn't plain English as I'm giving the sermon. And so when I auditioned with it, I was pretty close, but you know, there were a couple times I did glance over at the sides. So afterwards— and actually, to be honest with you, I really don't know if I booked it Yet, um, but I'm not doing it in case I do book it. But here's what I'd like to do for all my auditions. I will spend time with it afterwards, even when I know I didn't book it, and memorize it. And for me, it's just a good exercise. It keeps my brain in the same kind of format that I need it to be in, in case I do book the job. And also it makes it more enjoyable for me when I can completely be Off paper, I'm not looking at the sides. And so for me, it's just a really good exercise. Once I've done it, I've got it, I feel comfortable with it. I like to walk around in different places in my house. Sometimes I might go outside. I like to be in different locations, and that holds true if I'm memorizing for an actual job as well. Because if you just sit in the same area, if you're sitting by a desk or something like that, or in the same chair, It has a very, very different feel when you walk onto a set. So I really like to be in other areas when I'm doing it. And once I have it, then I'll throw it away. But I just find that it's really helpful to never get to a place where if you don't book the job and you don't book a lot of jobs, you stop memorizing. Because once you stop memorizing, it's like any other kind of muscle. It takes it a little while to start retraining. So I like to stay in shape. And especially— and look, this happens to everybody. Where you go on tons and tons of auditions, you don't book anything. I mean, that just happens all the time, you know, even for well-known actors. So staying in shape is a great way to do it, and it's— I think it's just really good to use the sides that you have auditioned with. So anyhow, I wanted to share that with you. The other quick thing is I just wanted to let you know, if you can, I greatly appreciate it. I have a donation link And as you can imagine, you know, it takes a lot of time, effort. I have to hire some people to help me make the site look good, my channel look good, to make it functional, to organize it for you. And so there are, you know, there's a lot of time and expenses that goes into this. So if you can, I'd greatly appreciate it if you would join me and be a part of the channel, make a donation. It goes straight to PayPal. There's a link right there. Even if you don't have a PayPal account, You can always just use a credit card. It doesn't make any difference. And whatever you can afford, I greatly appreciate, whether it's $1, $10, $20, $50, $100, whatever you want, whatever you want to give, I'd appreciate it. And it just helps allow me to continue sharing really helpful acting and modeling quick tips. The other thing too is please share this link with all of your friends throughout social media. If you have an email list, send my channel to them as well, so that way we can continue to build a family of actors and models who are trying to help each other, which I think is a great thing to do. And that's why I'm doing all this. So anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus. If you do have any topics that you want me to discuss, any specific questions, if it's something that I think everybody will benefit from, I will definitely create a quick tip video for you, and I will upload it into my Acting and Modeling Quick Tip channel. So I'm Aaron Marcus. This was fun. And hey, let me know if there are some special things that you do as far as memorization goes that you find helpful. Share it with others, and you can also share it on my Facebook page. It's facebook.com/howtomodel Or leave a comment, uh, right here. Anyhow, talk to you soon. See ya. Bye.
