Last week, I had an audition for a shaving product. The spot sounded like a lot of fun and the audition went very smoothly and quickly. I signed in 15 minutes early (parking was a challenge) and was out by ten minutes past my calltime. Cool. Over the weekend, my agent called to tell me I had a callback for the same spot. Cooler still.

Today, I arrived for the callback 20 minutes early (parking was still a challenge but I left a bit earlier -- a challenge for me) and the casting office was mobbed. The CDs were doing callbacks for my spot as well as another for the same client and each spot involved several people. On top of that, other CDs were auditioning for a couple other spots which also each involved several people. It was a mess and it was also quite warm and stuffy.

One of the nice parts of becoming a member of the Screen Actors Guild is that there are rules as to how long actors can be kept waiting during the audition process. When I was doing non-union work, it wasn't uncommon to have to wait 1-2 hours to audition. It was terrible and made it very difficult to plan other auditions. Usually, SAG actors don't have to wait more than 15 minutes. Usually.

Today was the exception. I ended up waiting three hours to audition -- along with dozens of other overheated, cranky actors. Thankfully everyone was well-bathed. The people organizing the headshots and cards had virtually no room to work, were sweating their butts off and I'm sure overheard all of the grousing. I think we all felt badly for them.

At the hour mark, I went out to my car to add more money to the meter and grabbed my Palm. I only had one line in the spot so I passed the time by chatting with other actors, listening to podcasts and surfing the Web. (The basement I was in had no phone reception but I did manage to find a hotspot so I could connect to the Web.)

When I finally went in to read, everyone was really nice and it went smoothly. The CD and the director were there as well as, I'm guessing, several people from the client company that were hidden behind one-sided glass. I left after signing out. Several people were buzzing about that SAG makes "them" pay you if you're kept waiting for more than a certain amount of time. I don't know exactly how it works but I made sure that I wrote down the time that I left on the sign-in sheet.

As I got into my car, I pulled out my phone to call my wife at home. When I left for my 3:30pm appointment, she asked me what time I was going to be back so that she could plan dinner. She was making fish and that doesn't do well reheated. I scoffed and told her that of course I'd be home in time for dinner and to plan as per usual. At 6:30pm, my regular dinnertime, I was calling her and preparing to sit in 90 minutes of traffic.

Thankfully, she hadn't listened to me so I wasn't eating cold fish when I finally arrived home.

Let me guess, commercial offices on Ivar in Hollywood? Only basement office I know of. Did I get it right? What did I win?

I've been auditioning like crazy this past week, with callbacks to boot. So far I've been lucky to be in and out. But I've had the dreaded come for 15m, stay for 3h. Ugh.