Obama is casting actors for town hall audience per Nielsen's 'Back Stage'

By Arlen Williams

What are you doing, October 14th? Would you like to be a "town hall meeting" shill for Barack Obama? According to this official casting notice in Nielsen's Back Stage site, you still have time to apply and/or audition.

Here is the link to the live listing in the Back Stage casting call.

Here are elements of screen shots of this notice, taken betwen the hours of 1:00 and 2:00 am CT, today (10/8). We will pan out, as we go. You should be able to click twice, to enlarge the wider (and condensed) shots.


A bit bigger, for more context:


And bigger yet, to see the page's header:


After the last one he had, who could be surprised that they have decided to be more careful for the next?

Not much need be reported, the pictures being worth their 1K words. It checks out, according to investigators clicking in.

However, we will update at this page, in a few minutes. Perhaps they have specified the kinds of acting criteria they need required: roles played in the past, live audience, etc.

Update, 4:51 am CT:

For background, we see on their "About Us" page, that "For nearly 50 years, Back Stage has been the most trusted place for actors to find performing arts and casting information." Nothing but the best for the U.S. Presidency, after all.

And as for the talent a president may tap, "Back Stage is a place where actors, singers and dancers can connect with the greater performing arts community." It is appropriate that our Commander in Chief is considered part of the "greater" and not, say, any lesser performing arts community — American exceptionalism after all, Obama style.

Nielsen takes pains to point out their own exceptional attention to screening those who place such casting notices: "Actors are, unfortunately, highly vulnerable to all kinds of sleazy operators and scam artists. Back Stage takes particular pride in trying to prevent that." Well, not even Nielsen is perfect. But they go on to explain:

We offer every actor our unique Back Stage Casting Pledge: We check out all casting notices before we publish them.

We never simply publish a casting notice as submitted. We ask questions, check references, and refuse to publish calls that seem less than reputable. No other publication takes the steps we do to protect actors.

For instance, we ask production companies to indicate if roles are paid or not; if any roles require nudity; are they seeking union or nonunion actors (and if it's union, under which contract); and so forth...

No mention of nudity is to be seen in the Obama casting call, thankfully. However (and this may be very difficult to accept, among his chief supporters) no union scale will be paid.

And, still noting the "About Us" page, we have the following warning to taxpaying American Citizens: "You should never go into an audition wondering if the person behind that door will try to take your money — or worse." Thank you, Back Stage, but it is too late for that to be a mystery.

All this being the case, they conclude with the following confession: "Despite our best efforts, con artists and creeps occasionally fool us."

And so must many voters in the 2008 Election concur.

© Arlen Williams