JDP Mania
08-15-2006, 10:16 AM
I am new to these forums, but not new to the site. And after attending and auditioning for American Idol, I figured I should fill you all in on how the experience went!
After weeks and weeks of build-up and nerves and song selection, it all came down to one lunatic-ridden day in East Rutherford, NJ. Allow me to take you through the series of events that took place on this day…
4:00 AM- Wake up. Yes, ugh. Wound up rolling out of bed at a respectable 4:12.
5:30 AM- Arrive at Continental Airlines Arena. Not surprisingly, there are already tons of crazies already in line.
7:00 AM- Get Yo-Yo from random Idol representative. I don’t know how to Yo-Yo well. I place it in pocket and continue to wait.
7:30 AM- Mark my words, you will see a red-haired fool named “The Chad” when they air the NJ auditions on FOX. This guy was not afraid to make a complete ass out of himself and anyone standing around him. He danced, he gyrated, he sang poorly and loudly, he did everything someone trying out for AI should do. And for that, he will get more air time than the rest of us combined.
8:15 AM- A group of people approaching the arena starting a sing-along of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and then “You Give Love a Bad Name.” Ya know, just in case any of us FORGOT WE WERE IN NEW JERSEY.
8:30 AM- Arrive at front door of arena. We found out that, while we’re allowed to have bottled water, we are not allowed to have CAPS on them, which last time I checked, pretty much defeats the purpose of even having bottles. So, while we were already carting collapsible chairs, a cooler, and a bag of food, we now have to juggle 4 bottles of water and a Gatorade without caps as we tried to coolly stroll into the Continental Airlines Arena.
8:37 AM- Take our seats in section 121, row 13. And remember all that aforementioned crap- bottles, water cooler, chairs? Well, we had to somehow cram that into the one foot space that our seat allowed us. And everyone had lots of crap. Which made it basically the plane ride from hell, with lots of people singing in your ear, and climbing over you to hit the toilet.
8:37 and 15 seconds AM- Realize we left the portable DVD player in the car. I somehow was not blamed for this oversight. I quietly celebrate the victory.
8:39 AM- Some guy was leading the crowd in shouting such things in unison like, “Welcome to the Big Apple!” and “Pick Me Simon!” Neither of which made sense considering we weren’t even in New York and 99% of us wouldn’t even get in the same zip code as Simon. But we played along. And then all sang the chorus of “Can’t Smile Without You” by Barry Manilow until we all thoroughly hated it and wanted to strangle Barry for originally singing it.
9:00 AM- Auditions begin. Now, how the auditions ran was there were 14 tables on the main arena floor. People were brought down according to what section they were in. Four people would approach the judging table at a time, each person would sing for about 15-20 seconds before getting mowed down like in the opening scene of “Saving Private Ryan.” Yes, 15-20 seconds. This after they told us to prepare two full songs start to finish. We now had to be selective and find the most impressive part of our songs. This didn’t sit well with many people. And everyone in the arena would be watching as this happened. What sat even WORSE with people was that, after seeing the first slew of people audition, about 200 people came and went in two minutes. Not one went through to the next round. It was getting scary.
11:15 AM- I spot a contestant from two seasons ago. Remember that guy who did the Cher impression? Well, he was two rows in front of me. And at this point, I also realized that, out of about 4,000 people that had already auditioned, only about 20 had been selected.
12:00 PM- A guy steps up to the judges whose entire audition is just him doing the chicken dance. I chuckled.
12:45 PM- In a potentially disastrous move, I took a spoonful of honey to coat my vocal chords. Somehow, it went down the wrong pipe and I started to choke. So much so that I couldn’t breathe. No one else seemed to notice or care but Sonia. I regained breath, but my voice wasn’t all there. Don’t worry, it came back just in time for me to be rejected.
1:30 PM- I audition. At this point, none of us expected much. We had enough time for all our hopes to be dashed already, so we went in with a “nothing to lose” mentality. I stepped up, sang 15 seconds of “Oh Girl” by the Chi-Lites, and I was done. The judges called us to the table and began his polite speech of, “Thank you for your time, blah blah blah.” It was what I expected at that point. Another girl in my group was outstanding and didn’t get considered, so I didn’t feel too bad. I just wanted to actually go to sleep.
When all was said and done, I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised. I did well and plenty of fantastic performers (some of which were Broadways singers) got turned down for whatever reason. Maybe Sonia said it best when she said, “The way I see it, they don’t think you’re poppy or cheesy enough for the show, which is pretty much a compliment.” Now I know why I married her! She knows what to say to a complete loser!
-Joe
After weeks and weeks of build-up and nerves and song selection, it all came down to one lunatic-ridden day in East Rutherford, NJ. Allow me to take you through the series of events that took place on this day…
4:00 AM- Wake up. Yes, ugh. Wound up rolling out of bed at a respectable 4:12.
5:30 AM- Arrive at Continental Airlines Arena. Not surprisingly, there are already tons of crazies already in line.
7:00 AM- Get Yo-Yo from random Idol representative. I don’t know how to Yo-Yo well. I place it in pocket and continue to wait.
7:30 AM- Mark my words, you will see a red-haired fool named “The Chad” when they air the NJ auditions on FOX. This guy was not afraid to make a complete ass out of himself and anyone standing around him. He danced, he gyrated, he sang poorly and loudly, he did everything someone trying out for AI should do. And for that, he will get more air time than the rest of us combined.
8:15 AM- A group of people approaching the arena starting a sing-along of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and then “You Give Love a Bad Name.” Ya know, just in case any of us FORGOT WE WERE IN NEW JERSEY.
8:30 AM- Arrive at front door of arena. We found out that, while we’re allowed to have bottled water, we are not allowed to have CAPS on them, which last time I checked, pretty much defeats the purpose of even having bottles. So, while we were already carting collapsible chairs, a cooler, and a bag of food, we now have to juggle 4 bottles of water and a Gatorade without caps as we tried to coolly stroll into the Continental Airlines Arena.
8:37 AM- Take our seats in section 121, row 13. And remember all that aforementioned crap- bottles, water cooler, chairs? Well, we had to somehow cram that into the one foot space that our seat allowed us. And everyone had lots of crap. Which made it basically the plane ride from hell, with lots of people singing in your ear, and climbing over you to hit the toilet.
8:37 and 15 seconds AM- Realize we left the portable DVD player in the car. I somehow was not blamed for this oversight. I quietly celebrate the victory.
8:39 AM- Some guy was leading the crowd in shouting such things in unison like, “Welcome to the Big Apple!” and “Pick Me Simon!” Neither of which made sense considering we weren’t even in New York and 99% of us wouldn’t even get in the same zip code as Simon. But we played along. And then all sang the chorus of “Can’t Smile Without You” by Barry Manilow until we all thoroughly hated it and wanted to strangle Barry for originally singing it.
9:00 AM- Auditions begin. Now, how the auditions ran was there were 14 tables on the main arena floor. People were brought down according to what section they were in. Four people would approach the judging table at a time, each person would sing for about 15-20 seconds before getting mowed down like in the opening scene of “Saving Private Ryan.” Yes, 15-20 seconds. This after they told us to prepare two full songs start to finish. We now had to be selective and find the most impressive part of our songs. This didn’t sit well with many people. And everyone in the arena would be watching as this happened. What sat even WORSE with people was that, after seeing the first slew of people audition, about 200 people came and went in two minutes. Not one went through to the next round. It was getting scary.
11:15 AM- I spot a contestant from two seasons ago. Remember that guy who did the Cher impression? Well, he was two rows in front of me. And at this point, I also realized that, out of about 4,000 people that had already auditioned, only about 20 had been selected.
12:00 PM- A guy steps up to the judges whose entire audition is just him doing the chicken dance. I chuckled.
12:45 PM- In a potentially disastrous move, I took a spoonful of honey to coat my vocal chords. Somehow, it went down the wrong pipe and I started to choke. So much so that I couldn’t breathe. No one else seemed to notice or care but Sonia. I regained breath, but my voice wasn’t all there. Don’t worry, it came back just in time for me to be rejected.
1:30 PM- I audition. At this point, none of us expected much. We had enough time for all our hopes to be dashed already, so we went in with a “nothing to lose” mentality. I stepped up, sang 15 seconds of “Oh Girl” by the Chi-Lites, and I was done. The judges called us to the table and began his polite speech of, “Thank you for your time, blah blah blah.” It was what I expected at that point. Another girl in my group was outstanding and didn’t get considered, so I didn’t feel too bad. I just wanted to actually go to sleep.
When all was said and done, I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised. I did well and plenty of fantastic performers (some of which were Broadways singers) got turned down for whatever reason. Maybe Sonia said it best when she said, “The way I see it, they don’t think you’re poppy or cheesy enough for the show, which is pretty much a compliment.” Now I know why I married her! She knows what to say to a complete loser!
-Joe