TV Land

Saturday I happened to be reading the paper and spotted a tiny little add that said “open casting call for a new show on the Travel Channel based on the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die". Since we own a copy of the book (thanks Mom!) and we fit the demographic they were looking for and we are just..well, kind of weird, we decided to go.

First, we had to fill out the applications. This was a HUGE task. There were six pages of questions that were pretty difficult to answer. The whole time we spent filling the things out I kept trying to figure out what they wanted - are they looking for someone worldly, naive, timid, tough, what? What exactly do they think the "perfect type" would be to send on a four month round-the-world journey? I don't know. Here is a sample from the application:

• Tell us something funny about you that people would be surprised to learn?
  I really love playing Dance Dance Revolution and I am a closet Bollywood fan.
• What is the wildest thing you’ve ever done? What made you do it?
  Skydiving classes. I actually did 11 jumps and was scared to death every single time I stepped into the doorway. The first time was because I just wanted to try it, after that I loved the feeling of freefall and the calm under the canopy, not to mention the challenge of conquering my fears.
• What are you passionate about? Learning. I consider myself a life-long learner and my curiosity drives me to learn more weather it’s about new technology, ancient geological formations, or a new way to cook – there’s always more!
• What is your biggest pet peeve? People who are loud and stupidly obnoxious in public.
• Use five words to describe your partner: Intelligent, curious, passionate, future-forward, open
• What qualities to you admire the most in your partner? His ability to analyze things and figure out the way they work. Whether it’s something mechanical, a fictional plot, a piece of software, or interrelated parts of the body he can see each piece and the way it fits into the other. Also his ability to put people at ease, to make me laugh, and to adapt to tough situations.
• What qualities to you admire the least in your partner? He can’t always overcome the urge to tell me how to do things the “right way” when all I am trying to do is have fun.

Yeah - it went on and on like that for six pages. These are the kinds of questions that are MUCH tougher than you think - really! You try it! John's answers were much better than mine.
We arrived at the actual casting call last night at around 5pm. It was being held at some weird hotel above the highway between downtown and Capital Hill - no man's land. We got there (on our motorcycles of course) and ended up circling the place trying to find parking - finally parked in the hotel garage and walked out of the EXIT door. The door opened to a weird little courtyard and there was a gate leading to the street - which was locked. We tried getting back in the garage - also locked. We walked around to the second level of the terrace - you guessed it - locked again. I was getting worried – here we were trying to convince some TV people to take us on a round-the-world tour and we couldn’t even get in the stinking hotel. We wandered around like this in the freaky little multi-level dilapidated courtyard until we found a door that was open. We were then on the 4th floor of the hotel - after walking down long twisty hallways we managed to find the elevator and go down to the lobby. They had us sign in at a table downstairs and then go back up to the "waiting area" where several other couples were biding their time before going in to face the camera.

We found quite a lot to look at to occupy ourselves. There was the 40 something pony-tailed intellectual and his wife, who was wearing a skirt and stripped knee socks. The early 20's couple on their way to a concert of some kind who had just a few piercings - enough to make them look "edgy" and a definite “no big deal” attitude. There was Mr. Slick and his wife - the couple who went in right before us who "dressed up" for the occasion with his greased back hair and a suit jacket with jeans. The extremely self-absorbed guy who talked on his phone the entire time about all of the important things he was doing and totally ignored his wife - who was totally ignoring him. The scribblers - so called because they were frantically trying to answer all of those application questions - they hadn't done it before coming in. And finally - the 30 something couple with the 2-year old (I am still not sure what they were thinking - the application talked about you having to LEAVE your kids for 4 months - they couldn't even leave the kid long enough for the interview). John said at one point as he looked around the room. “Well, for people who want to go around the world and meet new people we sure are an anti-social bunch”. It was true – no one talked to anyone but their partner.

After about 30 minutes, they called our names, took a picture of us, and led us downstairs where we waited again. When they finally called us in they ushered us to two chairs in front of a camera and told us to get “really lovey and close because it looks good on camera.” They also told us to keep the energy up and project our voices while answering the questions. By this time, John’s heart was beating so loud that I could hear it – really! They told us to state our name, age, and where we were from and then started asking us questions:
• What do you do?
• How did you meet?
• Who wears the pants in the family?
• Who will crack under the pressure first?
• Give us an example of a recent fight you had and what happened..
• Why would our audience fins you interesting – how would they relate to you?
It was a little awkward and I can’t honestly remember most of what we said. I have no idea what we looked like on the camera – some things may be better left unknown. After the interview we were told that if the casting director was interested they would call us in a week or two. I don’t think the phone is going to be ringing – but it was an interesting experience anyway!