Quiz Show Audition

In May, I found out that I passed the online test for a popular quiz show on TV.  I'd taken the online test in November upon my parents' prompting (well, insistence, really), and then completely forgotten that I'd even done so until I got the email.

(I'm not going to post the name of the show, just in case someone googles ___________ auditions or whatever.  No spoilers for them!)

Today was my audition.  I was a little bit nervous and pessimistic about it last night, I'll admit.  I'm naturally introverted and last night the thought of having to talk to strangers was very unappealing and I was also afraid that the online test was a fluke and that I'd know nothing today, or be faced with all sorts of questions on American history, geography, and opera, all of which are my worst categories, and end up looking really dumb in front of others.

The audition was in a downtown hotel's meeting room.  The people outside really did look like quiz show contestants, and I had to do my best from bursting out laughing.  It just was really funny.  No one was saying ANYTHING until the dude beside me made a joke about it and we struck up a conversation.  He also turned out to be a teacher.  This was his second time auditioning for this show; he'd actually flown to NYC the other time.

We then were called into the meeting room and sat at tables.  The first order of business was a welcome video hosted by the host of the quiz show.  Then we tried out some questions as a group to warm-up.  Turned out there were lots of lawyers in the group.  There was also an engineer sitting in front of me who'd also auditioned before in Toronto, and thought I looked familiar from it, but nope, first time for me.  There were also some people from as far away as New Brunswick, Montreal, and Winnipeg.  (Lucky me with a 20 minute subway ride.)

We also found out that 100 000 people did the online test, and only 2 500 made the audition stage.  That's a nice intellectual confidence boost for me!  Of those who auditioned, only 400 will make the show.  Basically I'm now in the contestant pool for 18 months, and if I don't hear anything, it's back to the online test for me. 

Anyway, but the audition was super fun.  First we wrote a 50 question test (like the online test) and I think I did pretty well.  There were lots of questions that I knew for sure, and only a few that I did not know at all.  After that, we were called up in groups of 3 to play a mock version of the game.  I felt I was pretty competitive.  I managed to buzz in first on a good number of questions and get them right.

After each game, the contestant hopefuls had personality interviews.  I felt that mine went well.  I told stories about lighting my hand on fire at school, and playing quiz games with my students in class.  Also, the interviewer said to me "By the way, you have really really pretty hands."  This is actually something I've heard before, so I joked "Well, if this quiz show thing doesn't work out for me, maybe I should be a hand model."

So yes, that was the audition.  And, we got a souvenir pen, and earbuds in a little pouch.  It was totally a really fun experience.  That's how you can truly tell you're with a group of fellow nerds: you all say "Wow! That was fun!" when you write a test.  I'm going to totally try to audition again in 18 months, because let's face it, I have approximately a 16% chance of making it.  (I did the math of course.)

Now that I've used my brain a bit this summer, I can go back to letting it mush-ify with bad reality TV.  :)