mostly david ephgrave

I’ve enjoyed the last few advert castings I’ve had, including the one I did today. I go in and out of phases with them. It usually depends on how many are coming in. If I have a few audition-dry weeks, I start to go off my game. Another factor is how right - or not right - the jobs are for me. I’ve always felt very comfortable doing small-scale, naturalistic, comedic stuff to camera – regardless of how good – or not good – I may be at it. I like the spontaneous, minimalistic, reaction-based nature of an advert casting; there’s generally not much dialogue to remember and little time to over-think what you do. Strangely, the sort of characters that tend be right for me in castings are slightly at odds with the persona I adopt for Doggett & Ephgrave’s sketches, or our duo-based / my solo stand-up. I usually play the strong-minded, sarcastic and faux-arrogant one of the two of us, whereas my breakdowns tend to be for awkward, nerdy, self-conscious ...

I had my first casting in a while today, and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. Auditions have been thin on the ground for the past few months. This wasn’t a bad thing when I was preparing for my Brighton show, as I had a lot to think about, but now that’s done, I could do with some more coming in. I could do with the money that would come with a job - and the great thing about getting an advert is it’s not a big commitment. It was nice to do a bit of acting today, even if it was only for the brief moment that I was in the casting suite. The script involved very little dialogue, plus the chance to play with some off-the-cuff comedy reactions, which was right up my street. I probably won’t get the job – it’s got to the point where I cease to believe I ever will – but I got a few laughs while I was there, and some positive feedback. I’ve been very unlucky with adverts of late. I’ve been penciled for so many jobs that I’ve lost count, and not got a single one of them. It’...

Going for castings at the moment feels a little bit like pissing into the wind. The process of doing them I really enjoy. I feel most comfortable in front of a camera, doing something small, naturalistic and throwaway. Most of the stuff I go up for is quirky or comedic, which suits me. Yet I’m not getting any jobs. It’s beyond disheartening. The frustrating thing is a lot of them seem to go well. I often make the casting director laugh, usually for the right reasons. I’ve been penciled for jobs so many times I can’t look a stationery shop in the face (which is good as they don’t tend to have them). It doesn’t make any difference. No pencilling turns to pen. It’s hard to keep upbeat about it and not let it affect your performance. It's starting to feel like an endless unbreakable cycle. I’m bored of it. I just need one job to break the seal. I keep reminding myself that I’ve got them in the past. I also keep getting close. It’s n...

I feel surprisingly Zen after today's casting.  I think this is because, despite telling myself this constantly, I'm finally starting to accept that there's no point in giving an audition a second thought once it’s done. Particularly when you're up for an advert. There are so many reasons why you might not get the job; the casting director might, for example, just have taken a particular dislike to your shirt. It’s that fickle.    It's all about maintaining a sense of self, both inside and outside of the room. A casting is a chance to give a handful of people a very brief window into your ability, however great or small that ability might be. You're either right for the part or you're not. There's nothing personal about it.  There's something Phil Kay says in his Autoblography that rings very true for me. He defends his occasional bad publicity by reminding the reader that he has been a...

Today I had my first casting in a couple of weeks - and it didn't go very well. At least I think it didn't go very well. Sometimes it's hard to tell. There have been a handful of occasions over the past year where I thought things went as well as they could and consequently heard nothing - and other times when I've not been pleased with my performance and ended up with a recall. The most frustrating one happened about six months ago when I was up for a corporate video for a building society. I was sent three long pages of script to learn, to be delivered straight to camera. The dialogue was intricate and jargon-packed. It took me quite a while to get to grips with it, but I persevered and finally committed it to memory.  The casting was one of those few occasions when everything went perfectly. The director and crew were lovely - and I felt relaxed from the moment I walked through the door. I got through all the dialogue on...

Recently, I caught the train into Central London with the express purpose of holding a fish.  I walked to my local station, bought a peak-time Travelcard (£31.00), took the train to King’s Cross and then the tube to Farringdon, located the right address, pressed the buzzer by an unmarked door, walked up four or five flights of stairs, held the fish (a mackerel) - and then reversed all of the above (minus buzzer and Travelcard) until I was back where I started. All-in-all it took about two hours, and the key moment – the fish moment – was filmed for posterity. Why? I was after a job, that's why. I've recently signed with a new agent who specifically represents me for commercial castings. As a result, for the first time in about nine years, I’m often to be found trudging my way into town with a similar objective to this dangling of a mackerel in front of a high-definition camera. Imagine the detail it must have captured. All those shiny, tessellating scales...