No Actor Parking

On auditioning: “The events surrounding your brief period of performance congeal into a vast and disjointed perception of your own work day: three hours to get ready and get there; three hours after to cleanse my brain of any psychic wounds. In between, the audition itself: ‘Carol, I didn’t know you were a coffee drinker!’ (To which the client casting this coffee ad replies ‘I wasn’t but then I discovered the delicious new taste!’) Carol, I didn’t know you were a coffee drinker! Carol, I did not know you were a coffee drinker! Carol, oh Carol, I didn’t even know!”

Author: Tess Lynch
Source: n+1
Published: Feb 2, 2011
Length: 16 minutes (4,072 words)

PR for the PRC

During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, I worked as a speed typist for the Chinese Ministry of Propaganda. It was my job to type, in English, everything that was said during an endless blur of press conferences where the Middle Kingdom celebrated its logistical triumphs.

Author: Anonymous
Source: n+1
Published: Sep 27, 2010
Length: 12 minutes (3,010 words)