[ Music ] [ Applause ] >> Hi, guys. I'm Jim. I'm 23 years old. I'm originally from outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And I am an actor. Now, that means a lot of things. But to me, I think to keep it simple, I have been trained to stand up here in front of beautiful people like yourselves and transport you, take you on a journey, tell you a story, so that at the end of two and a half hours, you and I will have changed. We will have experienced something together and we'll never be the same. And then I think that's pretty incredible, which is why I pursued this field. Now, as mentioned, I did attend Penn State. I graduated last year with my BFA in musical theatre, which I'm so grateful for. It's an incredible, incredible program that we have here. And one of the things that I learned is with my particular skillset, the place for me to be is New York City. So that's what I did. About a month ago I picked up with two roommates -- not a lot of money -- and I got an apartment in Queens. And I know you've all heard that all before. It's the most cliché thing in the world, but that's what I did. And the thing about it is I was pursuing a dream. Now, in order to pursue this dream, I can't just decide to be on Broadway; I can't just choose to be in the next Cameron Mackintosh musical spectacular. Hey Cameron, I know he's watching. He's going to watch it later, it's great. No, I can't do that. I have to audition. And what I learned is when you move to New York City, auditioning is not like the auditions I have had before. How many of you have ever auditioned for something? Yeah, about half. Cool. And so you know what it's like. And if you don't, it's a little crazy. You're putting yourself out there, you're putting yourself out on the line. But in New York City, auditioning is a lifestyle; auditioning is a full-time job. And so I found the experience so unique upon moving to New York, that I thought I'd walk you through a day in my life of what it's like to audition in New York City. Now, when you audition, you're auditioning for a casting team. A casting team is the unsung hero of a lot of theatrical productions. They put the cast together and the units that you see, which change you after the two and a half hours. So they're very particular, and they're always looking for certain things, depending on the show or whatever it is. So last week I woke up at 6:00 a.m., I brushed my teeth, I took a shower. I hopped on a subway in Astoria. I went into Midtown, Manhattan. I stood outside for an hour, which was awesome. I stood inside for an hour, which was awesome. And then I waited. And I was finally able to sign up for an appointment time for my first audition of the day. [Laughter] That's just signing up. Yeah. But once your name's on the list, you're in. And so I couldn't wait. I was revving and ready to go. The casting team gives out a breakdown. Now, the breakdown explains what they would like you to do during that day. So this first particular audition asked for 32 bars of a song in the legit musical theatre style. So I waited. Finally my name was called. I was ready. Hi, I'm Jim Hogan and this is ‘Love Can't Happen’ from ‘Grand Hotel’. [ Music ] Thanks so much. [ Applause ] That's audition number one. I have three more today. Now, that may sound like a lot to you; to me, it sounds like Tuesday. So that particular time the casting team asked for 32 bars. Sometimes they don't have enough -- as much time to see each individual actor. Maybe they're looking to see more people, whatever the case may be. So sometimes they knock down the music a little bit. The next audition that I raced over to asked for sixteen bars. And this is my favorite part: They asked for a legit musical theatre piece, but make it rock. Okay. [Laughter] Hi, I'm Jim Hogan and this is ‘Tonight’ from ‘West Side Story’. [ Music ] Thanks so much. [ Applause ] So the next audition I went over to was in a chorus call. Now, what that means is theatre's looking to fill out their ensemble for a particular show, whatever the case may be. And everyone in New York City goes to these auditions. I don't know why there's so many people. So the casting team definitely had to knock down the music on this one. They asked for eight bars of an '80s pop tune. [Laughter] Hi, I'm Jim Hogan. And this is ‘Take on Me’ by A-ha. [ Music ] Thanks so much. [ Applause ] You should see the reactions. Whenever I do that one, it's always a huge range from, "Whoa, that was crazy" to "What is wrong with you?" [Laughter] I don't know, I have red hair and a double ear lobe, whatever. Oh, you know, I just said it. Take a look. I know you're all looking at it now. Two ear lobes. I know it's weird. I was born with it. Anyway. So I go onto my last audition of the day. Now, this is something that has never happened to me before this point or after. It was the weirdest experience I've ever had in an audition. But I kind of loved it. I showed up and casting asked for four bars. So I said to myself, "How could you know someone in that amount of time? How can you decide if what they bring to the table is good enough or not?" I don't know. But I showed up and there just seemed to be a trend. We were all waiting in line, me and bunch of other guys. And we were just waiting. And I could hear from inside the room that each guy just seemed to be trying to one-up the other in terms of how high they could sing, which it happens in New York and that's fine. But what I didn't know is, like, I could tell that no one had time to introduce themselves, say anything, say "Thank you." So I tried to think "How can I tell these people who I am? How can they remember me in any way?" So this is what I did. [ Music ] Thanks so much. [ Applause ] I don't know. And that was it. Now, how long did that take me? Probably like five minutes to show you four auditions, right? That day lasts from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00, 6:00 p.m. So it's a lot of moving around, it's a lot of walking from audition place to audition place, and a lot of waiting. And that's another part that you that deal with. So I get back on the subway and I go home. I eat my dinner and I wait. And I wait by my phone and I wait by my phone. And it never rings. And what's so -- people ask me all the time "Is the rejection something that you get used to?" [Laughter] To be honest with you, it is a little bit. But that's not to say that it doesn't get to you a little bit. I'd be lying if I say I didn't dwell on it just a little bit. And I think other people would, as well. [ Music ] So why do it? Why put myself in the position where I'm constantly faced with rejection, constantly faced with cycles of unemployment? The short answer is because I have to; the long answer is because I am addicted. Performing is a majority of what I think about every day. It's a cycle that's -- I imagine it's similar to be addicted to anything, not necessarily a substance because I don't think that my health is being negatively affected, knock on wood. But it's not to say that I haven't had to make sacrifices. I don't get to see my family as much as I would want and I've had to end relationships. But the reason that I've discovered why -- and it took me so long to figure this out -- is belief. I found that I have to believe in two things: Believe in the art and believe in myself. The art thing is not very hard to get used to. I've always loved the art. Believing in myself is a lifelong battle. But once I discovered that I was good enough for something, I knew that I was never going to stop. I've done so many incredible things in my life, and I'm not satisfied. I just got to believe that everything will work out. [ Music ] Thanks. [ Applause ]
