Spicin' Things Up

Lately I've been feeling the need to spice things up in my life. Sometimes the daily grind cramps my spirit of adventure and spontenaiety. So guess what -- I tried out for American Idol today!!! As you might have seen in my last post, I had so much fun at the concert last week, and I saw they were having auditions for next season in San Francisco today, so I decided to go for it! I wasn't chosen, but I'm not upset because they were turning down people more talented than me left and right, which tells me there must be another factor involved. But of course no one knows what that factor is. It became obvious to me today that the rumors are true: you have to have whatever the producers are looking for and being a good or even a great singer just isn't enough. (Contrary to what it looks like on TV, you actually have to go through several rounds and days of auditions in front of the producers before you can even be considered to audition on camera in front of Randy, Paula, and Simon.) Today they chose about 40 people out of thousands. It seemed like there was no rhyme or reason for who they chose and why. Like I said, there were MANY incredible singers that were turned down by the producers. It's all very mysterious, but it was still really fun to be a part of it and it was a great growing experience to get out of my comfort zone. I'll explain what the day was like:
I got up at 4:30AM and drove 2.5 hours to the Cow Palace. As I walked up to get in line, I was talking on the phone with my mom and a camera man came over and filmed me and had me put my mom on speaker phone and say why she thought I would be the next American Idol. It was exciting. When I got inside the building, I found my seat and the producers had us cheer and say things like "Welcome to San Francisco!" and "Randy, I'm your Dawg!" as the camera swooped over head. We also sang, "Get Ready" and "We Built This City" as a group. I was sitting in front of a guy who made it to Hollywood 2 years ago and he gave me a lot of the inside scoop. (He said when he was cut in Hollywood, they were told that they were good singers, but American Idol needed to pick people with more interesting stories because they need to produce a good show).
After many takes of us cheering and singing, they had the first section of contestants begin lining up to wait for a turn to sing for the producers. There were a few crazies, but nothing like they make it seem on TV. They magnify the few people that act weird and tell them to do crazy things in front of the camera. I had to wait about 5 hours for my turn to finally come around. I was so nervous the entire time that I thought I would die! I sang, "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Rait. I felt really good about it and I'm so happy I actually did it! I met many interesting people and had so much fun having a new experience. And maybe you'll see me on TV in January when Idol airs again! :)

I will say that it was somewhat of a let-down to confirm that the competition is first and foremost a "reality TV show" and it is not solely based on finding talent. For example, only ONE person from my whole line was chosen and it was because he was one of the ones they are going to make fun of.

American Idol is tons of fun, but it is very much motivated by ratings. At the end of the day, I felt a lot like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" after he received his long-awaited decoder ring and was disappointed to discover that the day's secret message ended up to be merely an ad that said, "Be Sure to Drink Your Ovaltine."

I echoed his sentiment today when my American Idol experience was over, "I left to face the world. . . wiser."