Eight hour line, 20 second face-time... priceless

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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This Saturday I had a unique experience. It was the Deal or No Deal open casting call. I waited in line eight hours to get 20 second face-time with one of the show’s producers. It was a chance at a chance at one million dollars.

There were 10,000 other people who waited. They all had their stories, their acts. Some looked like the Deal or No Deal models, others had props, guitars, batons, ect. As you probably would have expected, while waiting in line I heard a lot of bs. Anything for a million dollars, I guess. An eight hour line - eight hours! The last hour was really interesting.

We were the very last of the line. We approached the door and entered the theater. It felt like entering a movie premiere. It felt meaningless, surreal. During the six or seven hours I felt so insignificant, just a number. Talk about de-personalization. :eek: I quipped, “This is going to be the job application of the future: waiting in an eight hour line”. Somebody said, “I hope not!” To me this experience was like a ludicrous job application and a ridiculous movie premire, at the same time. So we entered the theater, cheering like idiots, like we were VIPs or something. Then we sat down to watch a Deal or No Deal promo and listened to one of the NBC producers. He gave his little spiel about what they are looking for in a Deal or No Deal contestant.

The problem, or paradox, I have is how to set yourself apart from the thousands of other people. 20 seconds. Your life in 20 seconds.

My strategy was to think like a producer. Instead of thinking what I was going to say, I *listened * to the other auditions. You know, there is nothing quite like listening to someone sum up themselves in 20 seconds or less. Everyone was (apparently) honest and pouring their heart out. We were standing around the producer backstage at a table. One said she never took her kids to Disneyworld, there was a couple married for twenty years, a guy showing off his red car, a lady that spoke nervously, and a girl that shouted and jumped like a maniac. This last audition was right before mine. And, the strange thing is, I look the nervousness of the one person and the excitement of the other, and I combined them! I wasn’t too over the top but I wasn’t too bland either.

The producers laughed saying, “I love this guy”. Remember, he only has 3 minutes with the table and for him to say something, anything is really significant. Think of Simon or some Hollywood producer saying this to you. So what do you think, Dopers? Does it sound promising? At least I gave it a shot, at one million dollars. What do you make of the whole experience?

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How exciting for you!
I wish you the best of luck with it all!

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I think, if out of 10,000 you only had to wait 8 hours, you were one of the lucky ones, considering that it would take 55.555 hours to get through everyone giving each person 20 seconds of time. :wink:

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That’s assuming only one producer is taking one person at a time. If there are two producers simultaneously taking the applicants, it’d be faster, and three faster still.

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There were at least 10 producers, and each producer saw 10 applicants at a time. The Millennium Centre theatre has a 1,000 person capacity, it functioned as a holding room. So there were ten sections which were ultimately divided into 10 groups of 10 persons. For example, 1…2…3…4…5…5th group…Go! It was surprisingly well organized. But, then again, it was a theater; other casting locations in other cities apparently were Casinos, Stadiums, or Outlet Centers. Did anyone else audition for Deal or No Deal?

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A week ago I participated in a live audition for “Jeopardy!”. I think I aced the written tests, and I did well on the trial games, but my performance in the one-minute “introduce yourself” segment was deadly dull. There were other would-be contestants there who were so much more interesting and colorful than I am: a retired police officer from New Orleans, an airline flight attendant who publishes a neurophysiology journal, a gourmet chef (originally from Nicaragua) who owns a restaurant. I felt like a dull-witted schlub next to those people.

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I think comparing what the producers for Deal or No Deal want in a contestant to what the Jeopardy producers want in a contestant would explain alot.

I have to agree that pinkfreud is dull but all the other applicants would be dull too, and so would I. There is not much excitement that can be put in answering “What is Runnymede”. Maybe what Jeopardy is looking for is people who cook or travel, and who would naturally know mundane facts from experience.

Deal or No Deal is all about picking numbers. You start out with 26 cases and you end with one case. The amount of money you get is determined by your choices. Tonight is the 100th episode of Deal or No Deal. It will be interesting to see the “memorable” personalities from the show again.

My theory: the producers are looking for the anti-personality - someone who isn’t too serious or too funny, someone who is animated but realistic. I basically was a non-sequiter on the surface but with deep meaning below, or vice versa. Hence… The producers laughed saying, “I love this guy”.

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When do you find out if you made the call back?

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I would audition for Deal or No Deal but a million dollars isn’t enough to get me in a room with Howie Mandel.

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I’d do it for a million bucks. At least I wouldn’t have to shake hands with him.

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UPDATE

Tonight on NBC - the Deal or No Deal Season Finale at 8/7. I’ll be here.

So this means the producers will be spending the rest of the summer narrowing down the final choices for Fall 2008. No word yet on being picked, though I am in the top consideration.
This is very, very interesting: Deal or No Deal Open Call Auditions next week! I don’t know whether to think of this as good news or bad news. Apparently, they need contestants from SoCal. I don’t recall seeing Califorinia on the Casting Tour but, then again, what would be the point. So what do ya say? Think you Doper celebrities can show me up? Yeah, my MidWest mild-mannerness is no match for your Califorinia coolness. But it’s how you play the game.