Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | August 27, 2026
The last time I had an in-person audition was six years ago, and it was pretty great. Everyone in the room was very friendly. I had a good relationship with the casting director, so she was really trying to help me, and I got lots of laughs. I ended up getting the gig (a pilot/reboot), and my scenes were set to shoot on March 26th, 2020. So, as I'm sure you can expect, my scenes did not shoot that day (but my kids were born on March 26th, 2021, because life is full of weird coincidences).
My last taped audition was this past March (March, man), and I was really excited about it, and it could not have gone more poorly. I had to get it taped under a tight timeline; the energy wasn't the same, and I had gotten into my head about the character description and didn't... really have anyone in the room to talk to about it. I finally sent in the tape and never heard back, even though it was the same casting director who had cast me six years ago.
Auditioning is crazy. You're excited, but also nervous. You want to be confident, but not too confident as to let your guard down. It's a lot. And when you're auditioning for something that could change your life, and it doesn't go well, it can feel like an absolute nightmare, much like Jeremy Culhane went through for his Saturday Night Live audition. He recently explained what happened on Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett's podcast (Dustin's favorite), and let's just say at least we know it has a happy ending.
Culhane went into his audition with a character named Giuseppe Cheese, an international roast comedian who requires audience participation. The writers' strike was happening at the time, so he was only performing for producers, and he asked during tech if he could ask them their names (as part of the bit) and was told, basically, "Yeah, sure." Then, when he went to ask a producer their name, they just... did not respond.
The comedian kept trying and eventually turned to a member of the crew, got them to give him their name (after a struggle), and it was also Jeremy. Culhane did eventually get cast on the show, but the whole experience sounds like it was incredibly uncomfortable, and he didn't even hear back for several weeks. It could have been worse, though, as Kyle Mooney went on to describe his audition for SNL, which sounds even more painful, and resulted in him having to audition again the next year.
The most pleasantly surprising thing from all of this is that Mooney and Bennett's podcast sounds like it's... normal now? I feel like when it was first introduced, they were doing more of an awkward parody thing, which I wasn't really into. Them telling stories and just having normal conversations with guests sounds far more intriguing. I might have to check out more!
