Steve Martin Titled His Autobiography "Born Standing Up". Mine Will Be More Like "Born Napping".

Well...

While it doesn't mean I didn't book the gig, yesterday's Orbitz callback did not feel good.

At all.

And that means I probably didn't book the gig.

I'll tell you something - I've been out here 7 1/2 years now, the bulk of my auditioning experience has been with commercials (followed by television, then, in a distant third, by movies), and in my opinion, commercial auditioning is, by far, the most difficult.

It's much easier to do scenes, like I do at casting workshops (Either reading with the casting person, or having an acting partner). In fact, it's so much easier that I'm going to make a bold statement here - If that's what I was doing every time I went in for an audition (Instead of commercial auditions and one-line co-star things), I would have broken through years ago.

Which means it's often frustrating, to be paying to do the thing I'm best at, while trying to make money doing the things I'm worst at.

At some point, I'm going to write about why that's the case.

But right now, since I don't want to dig myself into a pit of despair - which would be particularly silly in this situation, since I could still get a call from my agent by day's end saying I booked the job - I'm going to focus on why things could still work out, in spite of how I felt about yesterday's callback.

I have actually worked with Martin Granger, the director, before - I did a commercial for the Bahamas with him back in 2006 (A spot that was one of AdWeek's "Top 50 Commercials Of The Year") - so that could work in my favor; he knows I'm funny, and knows he can get what he needs from me, even if I stunk up the joint at the callback (Unfortunately, he's not the only "decider"; he could like me just fine, and still get shot down by the Orbitz people).

And I'm warming to something I was initially discouraged by when I went in yesterday - In the waiting area, the casting person handed me back my original headshot, which was now stapled to a Casting Frontier printout (Commercial casting is pretty much entirely digital at this point).

And on the bottom of the printout, there was a handwritten note - "Tour Member?".

In the spot, in addition to the guy playing the boss and the guy playing the envelope-licker-with-a-Masters-degree (The part I was up for), there are "tour members".

So, much like the Comcast promos I did last year, where I went in for the "hero" part of a tour guide and ended up being one of the tour members, I could get the "consolation prize" of "tour member" in this spot as well.

It really would be a "consolation prize" - I want to be the guy "bringing the funny", not just some schmuck in the background - but in this case, the "consolation prize" is cash, so I'll take it.

Speaking of cash, I got a small residual check in today's mail (For my co-star role on Monk that first aired back in January).

It's such a small check that it makes no difference in the grand scheme of things, or even in the medium-sized scheme of things. But it's still nice to have at least a little something come in from acting.

The other acting news right now is that ballots have been sent out for the upcoming SAG elections.

A faction has arisen - "Unite for Strength" - to challenge the current, "Membership First" majority.

I'm going to be voting Membership First, but the whole thing gives me a stomach-ache, since I feel like a vote for either side could end up being a terrible, terrible mistake, and there doesn't seem anywhere to get an unbiased view of the issues involved.

But that's material for another entry (Cause it really is an entry in and of itself).

I've started reading the Steve Martin autobiography, Born Standing Up.

He has a somewhat formal writing style that took me a few pages to get used to, but be that as it may, I heartily recommend this book to aspiring performers - Long story short, Steve Martin didn't become "Steve Martin" by accident, and it's instructive to see just how much dedication and effort go into making any kind of performance "effortless" (And if any young comedians are reading this, you'll get a good idea just how seriously you should be taking your comedy).