What I learned about... attending an open audition

A few weeks ago the following video was broadcast on the BBC's local news and social media for Hull and the area, seeking a brand new presenter for the City of Culture year 2017 - no experience needed.

 I instantly decided this was something I wanted to do. Remember those decisions I made in June? One was the start of a relationship, which unfortunately ended this week. One was to do with work - I got the job but it doesn't start for another month. There have been a lot of times over the last few weeks when I started to regret those decisions. But when I sat down and thought about it (and believe me I did), I realised that the risks had paid off. I could have missed out on those months with someone I really like. I could have gone back to my old job when it was offered to me and not gone through with the new one... The thing is, I took the risk. This was about putting myself out there and giving that calculated risk a chance to pay off.

I avoided making any other plans for Saturday 8th October so that I was free to attend the audition. The downside of this was that all my friends were scattered all over the place so I ended up going alone. A few days beforehand, I did a bit of research to find out who was on the panel and the kind of thing they'd be looking for. I wrote down all the things I wanted to say and thought about how I would get my personality across. My mum helped with suggestions of what to wear and lent me a City of Culture badge to pin on my jacket. Getting all the things I wanted to say into one minute proved more difficult. I had several practices recording myself which I've uploaded to YouTube. This also reminded me to remember some basic presenting skills like smiling, looking into the camera and leaving my hair alone. On Saturday morning I arrived at Hull Truck Theatre to find a large queue already there and it continued to grow as we were filmed for local media. That's my backside in the HDM's photo:

We were given a number but soon told to come back later as things seemed to be going pretty slowly. I finally got to audition at about 6pm.

It was by then pretty quiet in the theatre but inside the studio things were pretty X Factor, with a judging panel, spotlight, cameras and judge buzzers. I said hello, said my things, kept to a minute and that was it! I'm so glad I did it, as I felt really proud of myself afterwards and everyone I spoke to said the same. There were all kinds of different people there, and I spoke to some people I see around Hull all the time and that's what it's all about. The day was rounded off by taking part in a social media trailer for Middle Child (hanging around in an empty nightclub was suitably creepy) and playing a terrible game of charades at a house party.

What did I learn? I'm ok on my own, I have good friends and people are most often good.