Like many voice actors, I do a lot of auditions. Sometimes, you do so many – whether through an online service like voices.com or through an agent – that you sort of have to purge them and you kind of lose track of all of them.

So on the rare occasion that you get a callback for an audition, it stands out. In my experience, callbacks are extremely rare. I think I’ve averaged on a year for the last three years. If you’re not familiar with a callback, it’s when, as the name implies, you’re called back to audition again. This is generally a good thing because it means they liked you enough to bring you back and have you read again.

But whereas the initial audition may have been a zillion people (that may be a slight underexaggeration), the callback might be a dozen people.

Now, I may have a goofy outlook on this, but when I audition for a voiceover job, I do the best audition I can, but I usually don’t get attached to it: I don’t sit around wondering if I’m gonna get the gig or anything like that. But callbacks are tricker. Something about knowing that the producer or casting director liked you enough to invite you back is enough pressure to make it infinitely more nerve-racking than the normal, everyday audition, because now there’s a sense of “Oh, I’m SO close!” In reality, that may or may not be true, but mentally it’s there and hard to ignore.

Which is why, in this case, it’s a bit disappointing that I didn’t get the gig, haha.