My Worst Audition

Actor, improviser, and native New Yorker Michele McNally (https://www.michelemcnally.com/) shares the stories of: the absurdly misplaced confidence she brought to her first cattle call musical audition (5:20), the time she was caught without a prepared monologue for an indie film audition and thought she was being pretty clever by making one up on the spot... until she was asked to repeat it (13:10), and her Andy Kaufmanesque commitment to the bit during her audition for the interactive show "Sleep No More" (26:00).

Michele can be seen in The Path on Hulu and Space Captain: Captain of Space on Amazon Prime. She is a co-founder and producer of Purple Crayon Immersive, an immersive theatre company here in New York, co-starred as Gary's horrible, obnoxious mistake of a wife in the web series “I’m Gay,” and played Princess Leia in the 3.8 million view viral hit "10 Hours of Princess Leia Walking in NYC" (the latter two of which can be found on our Cringe Factory YouTube Channel).

Actor/writer/comedian Craig Geraghty (https://craiggeraghty.com/) shares the stories of his "big" Sopranos audition (2:16), the time he accidentally scared the pants off some NYU students with an intense audition for the wrong student film (6:45), the time he came up with a Cajun accent on the spot that booked him a Popeye's Chicken commercial (9:53), and his experiences learning to play to his strengths as an improv comic to help overcome his problems with line memorization.

Born and raised in Woodside, Queens, Craig got his start in the entertainment field doing stand up comedy throughout New York City from Caroline's to Carnegie Hall. In 2003 Craig wrote and starred in the award winning short film, "From Woodside, Queens" which premiered at the Oscar® qualifying Aspen Shorts Fest in 2004. Craig continued making short films and in 2009 directed his first feature film. "When the Evening Comes" starred Emmy® winner Anne Meara and two-time Tony® winner Philip Bosco and won Best Feature-Comedy at the Kent Film Festival.

You've probably seen Craig on numerous shows including Ray Donovan, Iron Fist, The Deuce, For Life, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist: The Redemption, Boardwalk Empire, Law & Order, and The Last O.G. But you may best know him as the face of Las Vegas's commercial campaign for LasVegas.com, playing the role of Las Vegas.com.

Actor/writer/comedian Andrew Kimler (https://www.andrewkimler.com/ https://twitter.com/AndyKimy) shares the gut punch story of the time he completely blanked in the middle of a Shakespeare monologue (4:50) during an audition for a role he truly wanted. His story reminds Gary of the time he accidentally skipped over two pages of important plot dialogue in the middle of a play and what he did to try to fix it (10:13). Andrew tells the gross story of how is wisdom teeth stitches popped out onto his scene partner right in the middle of a show (13:25). The boys finish up by discussing the SAG-AFTRA strike (18:40) and getting pooped/peed on by our kids (25:30).

Actor/writer/producer Matt Van Orden (Law & Order SVU, The Affair, The Listener) shares the cringey and stupidly funny story of his first major Broadway musical audition at New York's premier Broadway casting company (6:40). Book? What book? This story ends with the casting director kindly taking the time to give Matt some valuable audition advice. Gary also shares the audition lesson that a very prominent and kind casting director took the time to teach him when he made a mistake early on (14:28). Matt and Gary also chat hair loss (2:10) and Gary learns that he was supposed to be using gloves with Rogaine this whole time. Yikes. Matt talks about the book and screenplay he wrote for the movie he's currently producing, The Kill Floor (20:04). Logline: "Haunted by a mission that cursed him with PTSD and left his brother comatose, Navy Seal Matt Bama returns home to work with his cousins in the local slaughterhouse only to become embroiled in their opioid operation. After a Navy Admiral's son overdoses, Matt is forced to choose between his family and his duty." We finish up with some inspiring stories about how it's best to be well prepared but then go in and let 'er rip.

Actor/writer/producer Rob King regales us with his first musical theater audition for In the Heights (5:53) and his first web series audition where he was asked to play a very different type of person than his natural corny self (11:53). And Gary tells the story of the audition 15 years ago that started him down the "My Worst Audition" road and inspired many fun (or cringey) auditions thereafter (20:04).

Rob King is a veteran actor/writer/producer who has performed on Law & Order, Alternatino with Arturo Castro, and in the Alexandra Daddario movie Can You Keep a Secret. He has written sketch comedy for Above Average and The Dad and he's currently raising money for his passion project short film Unsaid. You can learn more about it here: https://seedandspark.com/fund/unsaid#story