Eddie Brill Audition

Tuesday April 7th, 2009 - Chicago, IL

I can feel I’m making progress. I had yet another audition tonight in front of Eddie Brill who books the comedians for the David Letterman show and I totally took it in the shorts. Absolutely horrible. Six minute set. Five minutes of silence. To make it even worse I had a big brain blip and forgot my order and some new bits too. After all that I still feel great.

THAT’S progress. At one time having a set like that would have sent me into a funk but not tonight. Not in the least. I’m in a fantastic mood right now and realize the reasons that I didn’t have a strong showing were mostly out of my control. I also realized that I’m just not that good at auditioning. I’ve been too busy headlining to develop a solid audition set.

It’s kind of like the major league baseball player who can’t bunt. He may hit home runs in droves but a seemingly simple skill like bunting gets overlooked. Why? It isn‘t sexy to bunt. Chicks dig the long ball. Bunters make minimum wage. That’s how it is and there’s a similar formula in comedy. Headliners get paid. Auditions are for trying to get paid.

I make a living as a headliner in comedy clubs. Way more often than not I’m able to get laughs out loud from a room full (or sometimes not so full) of strangers several times in a minute for 45 minutes or more. That’s a skill level precious few people will ever achieve.

I’m not bragging about that, I’m just saying. There is a completely different energy that is put out in a headline club set than is required to be successful on television. I just went through a lot of this as the Late Late Show scenario unfolded and I’m familiar with how it works now. Some comics translate well on TV. Some don’t. Do I? It remains to be seen.

When my set airs I’ll see what my reaction will be but the fact is I’ve experienced it and nothing else can compare. I’ve auditioned for Eddie before tonight and he’s one of the big reasons I think I was able to pull off a good set on the Late Late Show. I am not too proud to take criticism and Eddie took time to lay some golden nuggets on me. I chose to listen.

I try to be the same way with my students. I don’t talk down to them and I try to offer an idea or two that will hopefully help them immediately. I’m like the sports coach that helps an athlete by pointing out mistakes the athlete doesn’t see. Many times newer comics who open for me can be rather green so I try to patiently offer them up some helpful insights.

That’s what Eddie did the first time I auditioned for him and I totally appreciated it. My audition skills are shaky at best and I really had no idea what I was doing but he sat us all down and if we chose to hear his critiques he gave them. Some of the other comics didn’t like it but I could feel that it wasn’t done out of anything other than wanting to help us.

I took what he said to heart and used it to shape my set for the Late Late show. It helped give me an idea of how to structure what to include and what not to. I never had to do the same audition process to get that show and if I did I might not have gotten it. This is a bit late in the game for me to be learning how to audition but it’s a weak point and I admit it.

I absolutely WILL get better at it though and I already have. Tonight’s show was not my best showing but at least I was not nearly as nervous as I have been in the past. I was a bit tight because Eddie Brill was in the room but then I thought of how I’ve heard quite a few of my former students tell me they get that way when I’M in the room. That shocked me.

That’s the last reaction I want. I’m there to cheer them on and I want them to go up and inflict punishment on the audience in a good way. I believe it’s the same with Eddie Brill. His job is to FIND comedians, not ignore them. He wants us to be good. I think too many comics get the idea he or anyone in a similar position is out to be an obstacle in their path.

The exact opposite is true. Eddie Brill is very encouraging and it really helps that he’s a comic himself. It’s not necessary though. Celia Joseph is the talent booker I dealt with for the Late Late Show and she was a sweetheart of epic proportions and super to deal with. I could feel she really cared and was very nice. What Celia and Eddie both share is warmth.

Eddie made it a point to come over to me tonight and shake my hand and say how much he appreciated me sending him a thank you letter after my taping. I told him I meant it all and I totally did. His face lit up and he said it made his day and that in turn made my day. He gets hundreds if not thousands of comics sending him stuff and he remembered ME!

That really made me feel good and I knew right then that I’m starting to arrive. Whether I get on David Letterman doesn’t matter at this point. Yes, I’d love to. Who wouldn’t? He is a TV icon and I’d cherish the opportunity but in reality it really doesn’t matter at all.

What matters is that Eddie remembered me and made it a point to come over and say hi before the show. He is also friends with my good friend Ross Bennett who I have always thought the world of and if he and Ross are friends that says it all. He‘s gold in my book.

Tonight’s audition wasn’t for the David Letterman show per se. There’s a festival going on in Johnny Carson’s home town in Nebraska and Eddie is out looking for comics to put in it. I’d love to do it and I’m grateful Bert Haas from Zanies gave me a shot to audition.

If I was going to have a rough audition set tonight was it. Bert knows me about as well as anyone and I’m the headliner at Zanies this week. He knows what I can do and he said I didn’t do as badly as I thought I did. I’ll take his word for it but I felt like I ate a bullet.

If Bert didn’t know me I’d be worried. But he does. And he’s still going to book me as a headliner. Eddie Brill is starting to know me. This won’t kill me with him. He knows how it is because he’s a comic too. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I got a booking but even if I don’t I still respect the guy. He‘s a pro and he has a heart. That‘s rare. I try to be the same.

It’s never fun to have a bad set but this one is already history. I know what I did and it’s totally fixable. I will continue to develop a strong four to six minute set that I’ll be able to use for both auditioning and a future TV set too. It’s only been a little under a month so it was stupid of me to even think about trying to pull it off. Live and learn. I‘ll bounce back.