Saturday, June 20, 2009

No Deal!

If anything, trying out for a spot on a popular game show is more grueling that trying out for a film role. For the Boston tryouts for "Deal or No Deal", held this past Saturday (June 20th) at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, the wait was close to four hours before you were seen by the first level of casting agent. There were three hours waiting on the street (where I was about 1/3 of the way down a line of several thousand), one hour going through a maze of a waiting line inside the hotel, and about fifteen minutes in a second room where you were finally given 30 seconds to make your mark. I made it through that first review and received a yellow ticket that gained me access to the third room for a second interview. In that final room the wait was only about ten minutes before getting another 30 second shot at fame and fortune. By that point the 'contestants' were pretty much played out, and few had the same level of energy they had a few minutes before. Whatever the case, none of the ten in my final group was given the final nod. It could have been a function of the hour: though we were in the first 1/3rd of those who showed that day, that put us about 1000 or so back and there were only fifty to be chosen all total. So perhaps by the time we were seen the second round of casting agents knew they had be less generous - or the 2000 that were yet to reach that first interview would have no chance at all. Regardless, it was an interesting experience. Interesting for the people I met, their different levels of energy, their different approaches to the quest. In front of me in line for most of the day was the Sullivan family (mother, son, fiance). They had special tee shirts which helped identify them as a group - something that seemed a good idea byt - as it turned out, did not seem to have an effect on the judges. But having family or friends did seem to help some of those I heard interviewed maintain a certain natural spontaneity. Included with this posting are pics taken during the day, and one of the form that the producers asked participants to fill out. Let me know if you were there that day, and what your experiences were.

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