Short of drinking a gigantic bottle of Vodka… it’s a a bit tough to walk into a major network television audition completely relaxed.

And you know what?  At an audition, you don’t really want to be completely relaxed… the natural energy stirred about by being excited and nervous at the same time is a good thing.  The trick is channeling the nervous energy into excited energy, is allowing (not forcing) it to tip into the latter stages before any negatively can consume you.

The night before an audition, you want to envision yourself doing well — swimming through the lines without breaking character or thinking about the experience as an audition.  Go through the lines in your mind, think about what the casting room looks like, and get into character in your head.  As strange as that sounds — athletes have testified to positive mental thinking and “envisioning” many times over.  If it works for the running dreaming of winning the race — it can work for your audition, too.

There are different schools of thought to audition preperation… some actors don’t like to know what material they’ll be presented with to “stay fresh”.  Honestly?  In the end, I think that’s the lazier of the attempts.  If you know the lines cold — and we mean I Pledge Alegence To the Flag cold — you can interact with the reader in any way you wish.  They’ll be so in your body you don’t have to think one iota about the lines, and can layer any kind of emotion or “ping pong” reaction to the person opposite you that you want.

Unless you thrive on lack of preparation — and trust us, casting never likes an actor to dip down to sides (it breaks your character in their mind, too) — MEMORIZE YOUR LINES COLD.  Spend the time.  You want the role that badly, right?  Put in the work, or someone else will do it better!

Spend the time thinking about the little oddities your character might encompass.  Think about what he or she might wear, dress, accesorize with.  As silly as it sounds, we’ve heard ‘personalizing’ your character can help a great deal.  Go to a thrift store, pick out a ring, a necklace, and temporary tattoo… an odd shirt that you wouldn’t potentially wear, but the character might.

Take a little bit of the Bob, Joe, Francine, Gertrude — and infuse him or her with you.  Make it a habit to give each character you audition for — or need to represent in class — a trademark.  It will begin transforming your various characters slowly.  A little method for the experimental actor.  Try it.

One actor swears by combining Dayquil and a Henekin.  Uh… whatever works (?).  We don’t condone mixing dangerous chemicals, medicine or alcohol — but  sometimes a beer pre-audition can calm the nerves by just the right amount.  An actor friend we know couldn’t nail an agency meeting before she got there an hour early, holed up in an Irish pub while waiting, and walked in after three gigantic Guinness.  Twenty four hours later?  ”WE LOVED HER!’  was the agency email.  And she was signed.

Not saying to develop an alcohol dependency — but hey.  We’re from Manhattan.  Enough said.