Well, I drove into DC (well, actually into Greenbelt to park in the Metro lot and take the train in…don’t even ask about traffic on 95 and 695!) today to audition for Jeopardy at the St. Regis hotel on K Street. Beautiful hotel! Wow!
Anyway, I was one of the 11:30 crowd. We filled out an application-type sheet with our personal information and such, then we were let into the conference room and sat at the tables. A very funny woman named Maggie was our “MC” for the day and she explained how things were going to work.
We then took another 50-question test which I’m sworn to confidentiality about (they use the same test for all the auditions so we can’t spread the word about it), but it was a little easier than the online test, I thought.
Then we did mock games and mock interviews. I was in the last group of three to play the mock game, and I swear to God I’m an idiot…I just COULD NOT REMEMBER to follow the first rule of Jeopardy: Phrase your response in the form of a question. I was mortified…out of about 8 questions I answered, I think I remembered to phrase it right the first time about twice.
My interview went okay…I got at least one laugh line (Maggie picked up on my “4 people, three cats, a dog and a rabbit” thing and asked me which I liked better, the people or the animals? I answered, “It depends on the day.”)
Overall, I’d say I did okay. Of course, I thought I did okay the last time, too, but they never called…
I went in years ago, early ‘80’s for the testing. Went all the way through, did great on the tests, fine on the game, but didn’t get on. I was told they wanted more "colorful’ contestants. Apparently the question I blew was what would I do with money if I won. Pay bills and finish college wasn’t exciting enough.
OH! That’s too funny…we should have set up a secret gang signal or something here on the Dope so we’d know (“I’ll be wearing something chartreuse” or something like that).
I think timing had a lot to do with it. At the time, it seemed all female contestants had to be squealy, bouncy and excitable, while males were allowed to be calm and sensible. The only two in my group to go on to test shows were a male who did slightly worse than me on the tests and a woman with big blonde '80s hair who vibrated, said she was going to use her winnings to buy a hot air balloon, and scored about a 50% on the tests. Oh well.
They are making casting decisions, and not just based on how well the game is played. They are looking for people who will make interesting television.
I will have a shot when there is a shortage of pudgy, middle-aged white men trying out.
They have changed this, btw, although I don’t know when. Now everyone at the audition does the mock shows, regardless of how they did on the written test.
And let me tell you, there is a HUGE difference between sitting at home shouting out answers and standing there in front of the board with the signalling device in your hand, even when it’s not in front of a huge audience on a television set with Alex. Like I posted above, the requirement for question form just completely jumped right out of my head, despite being prompted for it the first couple of times. I just could not remember that over the stimulus to a) hit the button at the exact right time, b) be the FIRST to hit the button and c) answer the clue.
Here is the Sony Pictures chat board: http://boards.sonypictures.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=11
They talk about the games themselves and individual contestants, as well as giving tips for auditions (Speak up! Keep the game moving! Worship Maggie!).
I’m sorry to say it, but that probably means you won’t be called. Back in the old days, the fact that people were eliminated at each stage made it clearer what they were looking for, and the ability to phrase the responses correctly and keep the game moving are top criteria. In that stage of the test, answering correctly wasn’t important to them. They wanted to see your energy and how well you handled the mechanics of the game.
When I took the test, there was an attractive woman who made it to stage two. I thought she’d be a shoo-in to go all the way, but after responding to the clues in the mock game, she’d hem and haw in choosing the next category and amount. “I’ll take umm, uhhh, Music for uhh, uhhh, 200, please” Apparently just on that basis, she didn’t get to the next step. (FYI: in 1991, they didn’t play the mock game with computers and real signaling devices. The categories and amounts were written on large index cards on a table in front of us, and the signaling devices were desk bells we held on our hands and tapped to respond.)
About 100 people started in my try-out, they narrowed it down to 10 or 11 with the written test (mine was the last name called!), and knocked out another five or six in the mock game. I think only five got to the point of doing the sample interview. After that they said (in effect), don’t call us, we’ll call you. I was pretty buzzed at going all the way, and it wasn’t until an hour or so later, as I was driving home, that I realized they had probably eliminated a couple of us on the basis of the interview, too. That was a bit of a buzzkill.
As it happened, I got the call about a month later, but since I didn’t memorize the names or faces of any of the other people who were in the final five, I never found out how many of the original 100 actually got on air.
Oh, fun but disappointing moment from yesterday. When we were doing the mock games, there was one category called “You Tolkien To Me?” A TOLKIEN CATEGORY! Perfect for one of the bigger Tolkien enthusiasts on this board, right?
Wrong! The category showed up about 1/3 of the way into the mock games and I was in the very last group of three to play, so it was long gone by the time I got up there. I was moderately bummed out.
I auditioned in 1991 or 1992, I think it was, in suburban Cleveland. I did very well on the test but looking back, I don’t think I was perky enough in the mock competition. I’d also read that, at least at the time, they were trying to not have quite so many lawyers appear on the show, so I emphasized different stuff in my bio to make myself more appealing: Civil War reenactor, prosecutor (a lawyer, but a cool one! ;)), met my wife on a semester abroad, etc.
Didn’t work. I was never called in the following year. Ah, well, it was fun while it lasted.
I wonder if they do this in LA also. I auditioned at the studio, and a lot of people took the test - many for about the fifth time, hoping they’d get lucky, I guess. Perhaps they feel that those coming in for a one time deal deserved a shot at a sample game. I auditioned in 1997, btw.
Sorry for the hijack, but for those playing along at home, do you phrase your responses in the form of a question? I do at home when I am alone, but when I watch with someone else, it sounds too pretentious.
I have hear they want interesting people playing but some of the contestants that I have seen over the years can make a bologna sandwich look titillating.
Maggie is super awesome. She got me over my nerves when I was on.
Yes, I was on the college tournament a few years back. It was awesome. When they asked me what I would do with the top prize, I said I’d give some of it to my campus literary magazine for a larger print run (I was an editor at the time). I was the token small-public-college student. There’s always one. They fill it up with Stanfords and Columbias and FSU and a handful of small east coast private schools… and then there was me, from University of Wisconsin Green Bay. Small. Public. But I had a great time, excluding my strong dislike for the Pacific Ocean and Charlotte Bronte (and by extension Jane Eyre.)
It was an experience I wouldn’t give up for anything. It was amazing. I hope you get a phone call soon saying they want you! It took a couple months before I heard back, but I did… and it was a blast!
