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Sandra Omo gets duped at a casting call

Other than a very hectic week at my normal job, my week was spent looking forward to a casting at the end of the week. I had missed a casting call the previous day owing to the fact that I had no time to check my emails, as I had to work the whole day. Therefore attending this casting was the only remedy to curing my guilt, and the fact that it was for a fashion show just made it even more exciting because I am confident of my ability to walk any runway, and I love it.

So, after my regular job on Thursday, I grabbed my bag and headed to The Kingly Club in Soho where the casting was billed to take place between 4pm and 6pm. I arrived at 5pm and met other models standing outside, but there was no event organiser present for the casting. We kept ringing the buzzer for another 15 minutes without any reply.

Then it occurred to me to walk down the stairs to see what was down those stairs anyway. On getting to the end of this dark staircase, there was a door that led to the main dancefloor of the club. I opened it and saw a woman with three men drinking and chatting away. I interrupted them and inquired about the casting. She claimed she was just the club promoter and had nothing to do with the casting, but that she had called the organiser because so many models had been turning up, and had only been able to get to the organiser’s voicemail.

“Boy, it’s in moments like this that I just want to throw in the towel. But it’s not worth it because, as a model, there will definitely be times when you get rubbish from people who have no respect for what you do”

Anyway, she offered for us to sit down and wait. While we waited, I couldn’t help being angry that I, and other models, had come for one of those casting calls done by unserious people who claim to be organisers but do nothing apart from wasting their time and our precious time.

Thirty minutes later, another woman arrived. She was not the organiser, but a friend of the organiser, and had come down to help with the casting. She too was very disappointed there was no one there. At this point, the event promoter for the club asked us to leave and wait outside because she had to leave and could not leave the club door opened. So after waiting almost two hours for an organiser that did not show up, we were put outside with only one option left: head back to our various destinations.

Boy, it’s in moments like this that I just want to throw in the towel. But it’s not worth it because, as a model, there will definitely be times when you get rubbish from people who have no respect for what you do, and this reflects in the way they organise their events. I have had to do shows where I get paid nothing but, once again, this is not a problem because the exposure and experience is often worth it. However, I just cannot stand those organisers who do not show any appreciation for models. They expect the models to show up at least seven hours before the event for make-up and fittings and won’t even offer a sandwich or a cup of water. Believe me, I have done shows like that. Moreover, when the models go out to get food to eat, the organisers think they are undisciplined. It is laughable.

So after that annoying casting call, I headed back home to start writing this column hoping that the coming week will definitely hold something better for me. Like they say, you lose some and gain some. I hope my gains will come next week.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 11:43 am and is filed under Model City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.