"So, tell me: What do you have to offer to our workplace?"
"Well, I'm a straight-shooter, for one. I don't waste a lot of time with people telling them what they want to hear. I get right down to business, skipping any unnecessary introduction, or exposition, and say what's on my mind. A lot of people call that "keepin' it real," but I have never felt comfortable using slang not of my particular demographic, you know? Still, it applies. No one has to ask me a question to know where I stand."
. . .
"So, um . . .. What do you have to offer our workplace?"
"Didn't I say already?"
"Just that you're a straight-shooter."
"Right."
"Okay. Well, what do you need from us? What are you looking for in a workplace?"
"Oh, man. What DON'T I need? Fo' reals. Okay: I need a place that really, really needs my skills, so that I can work for them whenever they can get me. That's because I'll leave all of a sudden. I'll get a job acting out of town, or maybe even
in
town, but all-the-time-ish, and when I go away for a month or more at a time, I need to be sure said job will still be there when I get back. Plus, it has to pay as obscenely well as possible. I mean, like, you should look at the books and go, 'He gets paid WHAT? For doing WHAT?' 'Cause when I leave town, or go away for months, I'm actually losing money. That's right. I'm leaking like a sieve. What can I say? That's love. In addition, I need a place that's ready for me not to come in every morning, even when I am in town and available. Auditions, you see, and callbacks, occur in the mornings, and you just never know when one will crop up or prove fruitful. Hell; callbacks can go most of the day under some circumstances, with absolutely no warning. And don't even get me started on film and television schedules. Ninja please!"
"Ninja? Wait, go back . . ."
"OH! And I need health insurance. Because the actor's union is practically phasing it out for all but the most successful actors. We'd go on strike about that like SOME unions I know of, but it would essentially be striking against ourselves. And no one would show up, most likely. Unless there was a catering table. Also, 'kay, I need where I work to be cool."
"Cool?"
"Yeah. Not, you know,
hella cool
, or even
wicked rad
, but just . . .
cool
. 'Cause I'm thirty now. And I just can't be intimidated into furious activity by the implied threat of the dire importance of what we're doing anymore, you know? When your boss gets you to stay late or move more frantically just by looking a little bit like he or she might cry or scream at any moment?"
"Yes, actually, I do sometimes--"
"There you go. Can't do it anymore. Need cooler than that."
"Huh. Okay. Well."
"Can I ask you a couple of questions? Just to mix it up?"
"I suppose . . . yes. Ah, sure."
"Great. How's the coffee here?"
"The coffee? In the kitchen?"
"Yeah. The last place I worked, no kidding, it was like sulfuric acid, only more bland. I swear I must have spent about $400 on morning cups alone last year, just to avoid the home-brew."
"It's nice, I think. I drink tea."
"Weird. Okay, now, is this kind of lighting in the rest of this place? Because this is nice, and I'm not spending any more of my life in a fluorescent-tube maze. School was that way, almost every job I've had since has been that way--no more. I want warmth. I want glow. And I want it now."
"I'm pretty sure the rest of our facility is roughly like this. Lamps."
"All right! I'll take it."
"Well, uh . . . don't call us, we'll call you."
"Whaddaya mean?"
"Well, Mr. Wills, you just spent your audition time pretending you were in a job interview. Which was pretty entertaining, mind, but it doesn't really inform me as to your ability to portray Peer Gynt.. So: Don't call us, we'll call you. And thank you."
"Thanks, uh, thank you. It was fun."
"Okay. Bye-bye now."
"Bye, yes. Bye. I'll, uh, I'll wait for your call?"
"You do that."
fine