TRUE TALENT? Or just good TV? Well, for those of you who are interested in the process and how it all works, here's a play by play of my audition (if you call what happened yesterday an audition...)
First, we lined up at 5 AM and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Come to find out, nobody REALLY needs to be there until 8, even though when we registered, they made it sound like if you weren't prompt, you wouldn't get in. So, from about 8-9, we were herded in to the arena (along with 6,000 other auditioners plus their family & friends) to sit in our seats for another 6 hours. (Oh, but first, they search our bags & make us throw away all outside food & drink- but, not to worry- you can purchase food at the concession stands for $$$) At first, they had us doing take after take after take with Ryan & the crowd. We were supposed cheer & scream & be excited about being treated like a bunch of cattle...
Which is exactly what we felt like, especially once the "auditioning" process started. There were eleven booth-like tables set up. They had groups of four people singing at each booth. Apparently, we were singing for "producers," although some of the tables had only one person "listening" while others had 2-3. We were in the middle of the crowd and as we sat there, our jaws literally dropped as we watched what was happening. Hardly anyone was making it through!(And there were some dang good people who didn't even get a chance!) During the time we were there, we probably watched 30 out of 4,000 people who made it to the next round (which will be held in September, apparently). Half of them were freaks. About 20 of them were guys. About 5 were black girls. About 4 were brunettes. We saw 1 blond. I thought, "well, they've filled their quota for blondes singing country"
When it was finally my turn to sing, (around 3pm) I was "lucky enough" to sing for the booth that we had noticed had only been sending on the freaks... As I watched the singers ahead of me, I noticed that the lone girl at our booth (who was definitely NOT a producer) was dinkin' around with her cell phone- not even watching the people in front of her. She looked like she was just "bored at work" and didn't even seem to be listening to them. In the back of my mind, I held on to a tiny bit of hope that maybe she would look and listen to me, but I was wrong. She didn't care what my name was, she didn't care how I sounded, she was entirely disconnected and cut me off after 10 quick seconds. Then, just as I thought, she said "Okay, next." and that was that. Looking back, I wished I would've told her off- maybe that would have made me stand out...
Because that's what you have to do, if you want to get on the show. Unless you're lucky enough to sing for the few booths who are actually listening for talent, (they might as well have drawn our names out of a hat) you have to resort to drastic measures to make it. Next season, we'll be watching for the muppet girl (yup, you guessed it- she got through). We'll also be watching for the cross-dresser, (disgusting!) the black cowboy, the weird dorky dancer boy, and the white-trash girl.
For the rest of us who actually have some real talent, (but were just unlucky or uncreative enough to make it) we've learned a lot about show business. Don't do it.
On a more positive note, at least I didn't waste my money flying all over the country to have the learning experience. Oh yeah, and it was maybe a little bit fun to see how they tape and edit the show and how it all works and what not. But still, IF they ever came to SLC again, I wouldn't want to waste my time. Had I never been there, I would've blindly believed that your average joe-shmoe really has a chance to make it.
It's not about simply looking good and singing well- its about controversy & entertainment. So, is it really about a serious search for undiscovered talent? Or is it simply about good TV?
For the news version of this story (and to hear another amazing cute singer who didn't get through,) click here:
http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=F8E657C72E1214924996E04E965DAD5D?contentId=7088279&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1
Here we are on our wedding day- we look like such little kiddies. Wow, we've grown up a lot (maybe).
I took out my old journal- and thought it would be funny to jot down a few:
