4-Week Session Dates:

WEEK ONE

Vicki’s hands-on class attacks every current need of both the casting director and her advertising clients, stripping away outdated layers of “commercial acting” formulas in which actors get stuck and focusing on that which authentically brings out your believability, personality, and flexibility of performance, essentials in today’s fast-paced, unpredictable and if done correctly, very fun, casting environment. Class material is pulled from Vicki’s thousands of casting sessions to date. Class outlines are subject to change, just like commercial auditions!

The Players and the Psychology – Learn how those you’re auditioning for think and what they need/want that only you will uniquely (and can easily) bring to the casting session.

Actors are introduced to the Players in, and the process of the commercial audition. They learn how to view their own and each other’s auditions using the eyes and mindset of Directors and Ad Agencies (the ones who decide who will book), as well as the Casting Directors.

Non-dialogue commercials – the on-camera interview. This is a popular audition for all those roles in which Performers don’t have lines but are still considered and paid as Principal actors. It’s also an audition towards which most actors innocently take the wrong approach. Actors learn that it’s not a test and how they’ll make it a slam-dunk rewarding experience for not just themselves, but also for those considering them for the role.

WEEK TWO

One Liner – One of the most common auditions, but even the most experienced actors don’t know how (or don’t bother) to nail it. Vicki shares the arsenal of simple [secret] tricks she uses in auditions to help actors breeze through and nail one-liner auditions (or any troublesome single lines in longer copy) with the believability, personality, and flexibility her Directors and Ad Agencies want.

Actors learn how to direct themselves with these tricks… and how to rise above the competition who just “says” the line. If time allows, students will also tackle the more challenging slogan-based one-liners.

QUOTES from Vicki Goggin:

• “Every commercial audition is a vehicle for your personality.”
• “In commercials, the character is you. Nobody does you better than you; heck, you’ve been doing it for 20, 30, 40+ years. Believe me, I know – I’ve seen plenty of others try to do Vicki, and no one does it remotely as well as me.”
• “In dialogue auditions, your screw-ups may be gifts from the gods.”
• “If you screw up, make it up. You’ll always find your way back to the copy, and no one will die.”

WEEK THREE

FULL-LENGTH (15-30 SECOND) DIALOGUE AUDITIONS

• self-tapes(thank goodness, you’ll already have grasped how to self-direct and take advantage of these competitive opportunities)
• improvisation with dialogue
• embracing/riding the wave when you screwup

WEEK FOUR

IMPROV-ONLY AUDITIONS: the more-than-typical non-comedic authenticity/believability driven auditions … ones with which most talents overact … if time has not allowed us to do these in Week Two or Week Three.
AND time-allowing: whatever participants collectively want or need based on their audition experiences. In the past, it’s been, for example, eating/drinking on-camera (or doing either with dialogue), two or multi-person auditions …..