THE SECOND AUDITION - Philadelphia

I got to the audition site, a downtown hotel, in Philadelphia plenty early. I had time to take a walk and grab a cup of Starbucks coffee before time for the audition. When I made my way up to the conference room where the audition would take place, hopeful contestants had begun to gather in the upstairs lobby. I was focusing on being as “up” as possible (remembering the best audition advice I’d ever heard – I wish I knew who to attribute it to – “Be yourself, only bigger.”) I knew that Contestant Coordinators were likely to begin watching you even while waiting for an audition to begin; that’s why I moved away as quickly as I could from the gentleman complaining, much too loudly, about the supposed biases of the contestant coordinators. I was sure they were biased against negativity – who wants to see that on their television.

This audition was hosted by Senior Contestant Coordinator Glenn Kagan. Contestant Coordinators Robert James and Corina Nusu were there as well. Glenn was certainly not as energetic as Maggie (not that anybody could be), but he still made the audition fun and efficient. We started with yet another 50-question test (speculation is that this test is to weed out online test cheaters) which was not graded while we were there. Then all 19 of us got to play a mock game. As in DC, we had signaling devices like those on the show, and the clues appeared on video screen. I was in the second-to-last group of three to play; it was a lot of fun, and I hoped that the fun I was having was evident to the coordinators. Just to make sure, when we were done I said, "That was a blast!" I didn't have to fake any enthusiasm - it really was a blast! Playing on the show could only be better.

Each group of three was interviewed after we played the mock game. Glenn had asked several of the hopefuls about how they had gotten engaged. I have a pretty good story about that, so when my turn came rather than waiting to see what he would ask, I asked if I could tell my proposal story. He seemed to enjoy the account, but I wondered if I had taken too much control of the interview - I know game show coordinators want people that can follow directions as it makes their jobs much easier once people get on the show. Everybody got asked what they would do if they won a lot of money - while I listened to the earlier answers what I thought was a good answer formed in my mind:

"You know how different anniversaries have gifts associated with them? The first anniversary is the paper anniversary, 25 is silver, 50 is gold? Well, if I win a lot of money on Jeopardy! I'm going to convince my wife that our next anniversary is the Plasma Anniversary."

That got a big laugh, including from Glenn, which I figured was a good thing. After about 2 hours, the audition ended. We were told we'd be in the pool for a year.

The only negative about the audition was that we were supposed to turn in several forms at one point, and somehow I missed one. I had to get up and hand the form to Robert, whose look I interpreted as "Don't you know that we're watching to see if you can follow directions. Maybe next year."

But who knew. All I could do was wait and see if the phone rang.

To the next installment - WAITING