God, I hope I get it!

"God, I hope I get it.
I hope I get it.
How many people does he need?
God, I hope I get it.
I hope I get it.
How many boys, how many girls?
Look at all the people!
At all the people.
How many people does he need?
How many boys, how many girls?
How many people does he...?" 

NEEEEEEEED!!!   It's audition time, peeps!

Whether you're auditioning to be a member of the chorus line or the leading part, you have to audition.  It's not the most fun you'll have in this wonderfully crazy world of show business but its arguably the most important.

There are two ways to audition for a singer and/or dancer job on board a cruise ship.  The first is to attend a General Audition.  A general audition is simply a live audition.  This is, in my opinion, the best way to audition.  They see you live and in person.  They hear you singing or watch you dancing right in front of them.  They can call you back and have you sing or dance more for them right then and there.  It's a win-win for both you and the cruise ship company! (To clarify:  "they" are the panel of people conducting the audition.  They usually work for the company and/or represent the cruise ship company you are hoping to work for.)  A general audition is usually announced/posted in advance and will contain fairly detailed instructions for you to follow regarding preparation for and what you should bring to the audition.   Visit the link below to check out a good example of a General Audition notice:

http://www.royalcaribbeanproductions.com/auditions/general

The second audition option is to submit a video audition.  Most, if not all, cruise ship companies will accept video auditions.  A video audition should be no more than 5 minutes in length and showcase as many varieties/styles/genres/songs as possible.  You can video yourself singing in front of a blank wall or if dancing, a dance studio is perfect.  (Don't video yourself against a wall or in a room with a lot going on behind you.  It's too distracting.  You want the viewer to be concentrating on you, not focusing on Grandma's ceramic plate collection hanging on the wall behind you).   I do recommend, if you can, including as much actual performance footage on your audition video as well.  It gives the viewer a much better understanding of you as a live performer if they see you at work.  When editing your video audition, you should place your best clips toward the beginning of the video.  You want to grab their attention right away!  And by 'best' I mean the ones that show you off the best.  Not the best video quality necessarily, although that is important also.  You don't want to send in a video audition that is grainy or out of focus, or include clips that make it difficult to find you in the shot.  That can be distracting for the viewer, too.  Remember, you are not the only one submitting a video.  The casting folks will be reviewing many videos and I can't guarantee they watch every second of every video they receive, so be sure to show them your best stuff up front with footage that is easy and pleasing to watch.

Below is a link to my most recent video promo.  Keep in mind, I would not use this promo video as an audition submission due to it's length.  It's too long to submit as an audition but it's a good template to follow when putting your video together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPNMv3ugA8Q

Please do not stress if your video isn't professionally produced and edited. It doesn't need to be nor does it have to be.   You're not submitting a film to Sundance.  You will not lose points if it's not perfect.  Make it clear and easy to see and/or hear you, make the transitions from clip to clip as seamless as possible,  make sure it's less than 5 minutes, and you, my friend, have your audition video.

Disclaimer:  I'm not concerning you with a lot of details right now (I'll go into more details as this blog evolves) because I want to give you as much information as I can to get you started, so feel free to post any questions, comments or concerns that you have and I'll try to respond to them and/or cover those points in future postings.

Research and Development

Okay, so you have your dream and you're ready to make it a reality but you're sitting there on the couch reading this blog written by a guy who thinks he's an author but wishes he was a professional puppeteer (I really do!) and dreams of owning his own bar somewhere in the South Pacific, where he can sit and listen to podcasts about 'how to be a vegan without giving up cheese', while playing Scrabble with my wife all day, and you're thinking "What the &*^%&^$!!!  Who is this tool?"

Fair enough.  First thing I would recommend is doing a bit of reconnaissance aka Google search.  I would get on the ol' laptop and find all the cruise ships out there that have entertainment on board and figure out when and where their auditions are.

"But, Mr. Blogger man, I don't have know any cruise ship companies."  Oh, be patient, young grasshopper.  Remember, it took young Daniel-son four long and grueling days to go from knowing hardly any karate to being an expert black belt in the "Karate Kid" movie.  You can't expect to know it all the first day.

Here's a list of cruise ships that offer on board entertainment:

AIDA
Carnival
Celebrity
Costa
Crystal
Cunard
Disney
Holland America
Norwegian
Oceania
Princess
Regent Seven Seas
Royal Caribbean
Seabourn
Silver Seas

There may be more companies out there and you'll probably come across more, but hopefully this is a good list for you to start with.

Scour these cruise lines sites for any and all information you can find.  Check out their photo galleries.  Look at the different itineraries they each offer.  You can even take virtual tours of the ships themselves, but most important, find that audition information.  Some companies post it.  Some don't.  Don't get discouraged if you don't find audition information on every site.  We'll find it.  But that's for another blog!  For now, just have fun looking at all the great stuff cruise ships have to offer.

Stay tuned!

So you wanna perform on a cruise ship?

Now what?  You have the dream.  You want to take your dream to reality.  That's where this blog comes in.  My name is Patrick and I spent 7 years singing and performing on cruise ships.  My cruise ship career took me to nearly every part of the world where I was able to visit 172 cities spanning 6 continents.  I was fortunate and blessed to be able to share this amazing time of my life with my wife, Tracy, who also sang and performed on board.  We were both born and raised in the midwest so cruise ships were not something we were familiar.  We knew they were out there, but other than watching episodes of "Love Boat" on the television as kids, or fantasizing about winning a cruise to the exotic Caribbean on "The Price is Right",  they didn't mean a lot to a couple kids raised in the landlocked heart of America.

My hope with this blog is to inform and direct you, the reader with the dream, to begin your amazing journey and career singing, dancing, performing and traveling on cruise ships.

I don't claim to know everything about the cruise industry.  The cruise industry is ever growing and it's always evolving to keep up with the times, but with my experience as well as drawing on the experiences and the knowledge of my friends who are still cruising and performing I believe I can successfully steer you in right direction.

Stay tuned for more as I help you navigate your way to the high seas of cruise life and the wonderful world that awaits you.