John Gardner, better known as Common Jack these days, is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, composer, dancer, and all around nice guy. John graduated from Ithaca College and immediately landed a coveted spot on the Off Broadway production of Once and spent the next 2 years on the road across the US, Canada, and Japan. More recently John's sometimes solo sometimes band Common Jack has released two albums, Bowl, Holland and Strange New State. In this wide-ranging discussion we talk about everything from growing up under the same roof (he's my brother after all) to how to tip the odds in your favor for tough auditions.