The Audition that Changed Josh Gad's Life Forever

when your post-college and you're trying to get work yeah are you just going on auditions and just not getting them and sort of haven't yet said that it was also just like crazy because my agents at the time with one exception this woman had her off terrible they they sent me to an audition once where I was I get there and I look down the role that I'm gonna play and I look over to the other person that's auditioning for it and it's Nick Lachey and I'm like have my agents looked at my headshot do they know what I look at what's happening so I was just miserable and so I called my mom say I'm gonna go to law school both my brothers went to law school but both of them got their degrees and I'm thinking my Jewish mother's gonna be thrilled she starts crying she says I'm so disappointed in you he spent fifteen years dreaming of doing this and only less than three years trying to live out that dream shame on you thank God you but it was true and for the better part of six months I kept getting these calls from friends who were going down to New York City and they were going to see a show on Broadway called the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the message was the same there's this show there's this lead character his name is William barfi there's this brilliant actor Dan Fogler who's playing him he just wanted Tony for playing this role Josh you have to go in for this the second he leaves because you are the only human being on earth who can play this role so a couple months go by I hear that Dan is leaving and my team had called them up and said josh is gonna be in New York for this role he would love a chance to audition for Broadway so I show up and there's one other guy and his credits are all Broadway ok and I have no credits so he's out there it's like 10 minutes 20 minutes 25 minutes I'm like oh god I can kind of hear it yeah laughter yeah and I hear it all and I'm like so he comes out and he's looking a confident I go out it's not only the director it's the director and like 15 producers a co-director so it's like all these people so I walk out I can make a joke to break the ice and I go up and I do the scene and four and a half minutes into it the director says stop and like okay and he goes can I see you for a second calls me up to the top of theater and he says I don't think you take this seriously I go excuse me because I don't think you take this seriously I don't think you actually really take any of this seriously and I go why are you saying that and he goes because you're coming out here telling a joke you're not you know and I go please forgive me 15 people are about to make the most important decision of my life I'm walking out more nervous than I've ever been in my entire life I figure I have two choices I can either break the ice and make a joke or I can projectile vomit over you and your colleagues so forgive me if I chose the former and I go you know you can question anything you want about me but I will not let you question my work ethic I have done nothing but devote myself to my craft for four years I've done nothing but fight to be here if I don't get this role on my merits fine but I've loved what I do and I take it very seriously and I got up walked out went backstage looked at the guy the other guy and I said congratulations you got the role went home the hotel started packing get a phone call from my agent and she says you have two tickets to see spelling-bee tonight and I go why though would I want to see that show she says because the director thinks you should probably take a look at it before you start in two weeks really is it hey folks thanks for watching if you like what you just saw then why not subscribe click right here for lots more off camera and if you want to see the hour-long version of these conversations I'm gonna give you the secret link here it is off camera comm check it out [Music]

Channel: theoffcamerashow

Views: 159,325

Keywords: Off Camera, Sam Jones, Josh Gad, conversation, talk, show, interview, tv, television, film, movie, act, perform, character, voice, scene, role, part, play, stage, theater, ER, Back to You, Woke Up Dead, Daily Show, correspondent, Good Vibes, Frozen, Disney, Olaf, Gigi, Comedian, Angry Birds, college, work, audition, agent, nick lachey, miserable, mom, law, school, degree, jewish, dream, shame, truth, NY, New York, Spelling Bee, lead, broadway, credits, laugh, joke, confident, director, produce, serious, career, ethic, craft

Id: wQyluRNtqFo

Length: 5min 9sec (309 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 01 2020