Nairobi Half Life’s Mugambi Nthiga’s Take On Auditions.

Yesterday I wrote about Jalang’o’s advice to fame mongers and although the title was a bit much, it was intended to grab your attention because of the weight which his words carried. Read that here.

Well today Mugambi Nthiga shared his two cents on auditions. Mugambi Nthinga by the way, is the the guy that pulled off that very controversial gay scene in Nairobi Half Life. If you haven’t watched it until today, you need to get your head examined.

This is what he had to say. ” I just received a text. I got turned down after yet another audition. It happens to all of us all. In fact, we’ll experience significantly more rejections than bookings. It’s the way of the industry. It’s not a testament to your skill. So keep moving. You’re an actor (or singer or designer or writer or dreamer) regardless. My good friend Nick puts it better:

“Sometimes you feel like a character was written for you. You pick up the sides, a measly 2 pages of the script, and the first time you scan it over, you get chills. You work your *ss off, memorizing the sides, getting your wardrobe just right for the day, figuring out fun directions to take the character, and you go in to audition.

And you freaking rock. Your preparation & comfort with the character & script means you’re so at ease that you’re ready to shoot this thing while others are still trying to figure out who the hell talks like this. The energy in the room is positively glowing. You know you’re killing it. They know you’re killing it. They ask you to improvise a bit and it feels like the character they created has now come to life before their eyes, and they can do nothing but follow. They’ve been waiting for you all day, they just didn’t know it until you walked in…..” I hope you’re still following.

“And then, high as a kite, you leave the tiny little audition room. Back to the waiting room, full of darting eyes, whispered lines, and palpable insecurity. You wanna celebrate. Treat yourself. Reward all your hard work, and then you remind yourself, “I haven’t booked it yet…

Because yes, it goes both ways. You NEVER know in this business. So you allow an hour or so of blow-by-blow recounting of this epic audition and then gather up all that positive energy and harness it for the next project. Always moving forward, looking back only briefly, to learn, and then moving forward again. Will they call? Who knows. You never know in this business. But I know that I put everything I possibly could have into that audition and that is a job well done.”

Wise words right there.