I may not have to
think of a new title for quite some time.
LOL.
This entry's
"AHHHHH!!!" Is a bit different than yesterdays. And
anyone who's auditioned knows exactly how I'm feeling.
You either feel like you did "ok" and maybe you
could've done better, or you feel like you nailed it -
and would be stunned if you don't get called back. I'm
in that second group. So the AHHHHHH!! is excited yes,
but very, very anxious.
Where do I start.
Practiced my review for a good hour before I got
there. Had to be 60 seconds. That's the great thing
about CD players in cars, you can time yourself quite
good on your way there. Got there at 11:13 (11:30
audition) and after getting it in the ass from the
parking security (WOW), I waited in the casting room
to be called up. Amazingly there's only 2 other guys
there. Ended up being a 3rd, who knew EVERYONE. Hell
I thought he worked there. It ended up that he
was on Road Rules 10, Blair, and they asked him to
come in for this as well. So it was us 4 shootin' the
shit for a few minutes. One guy figgered that they
were just spacin' out auditions, which was nice. The
intensity of 200 people in one room going for
something I'm sure could be quite intimidating. But
fuck it, I'm so hyper-competitive I treat it like a
videogame. LOL. Imagine that...hahaha..
I was the 2nd to
go, and they popped on a camera and asked me some
questions about my gaming upbringing. Couldn't have
felt more comfortable. I was so happy I was
beeming. I truly felt like I had the gig, and
they were just getting to know me. I didn't SAY this
of course, but felt very comfortable. They had
Charlotte's cover letter so they asked me about the
minicases - LOL. I had brought 3 with me and they
thought that was pretty funny. But I friggin' forgot
them there. Doh. Maybe they'll see 'em and remember
me. Word. Asked about Planet GameCube and E3...all
sortsa cool stuff. And to the other staffers, you
better believed I talked up how cool Planet Gamecube
was to not only the producers but the other guys
trying out. ;-) Then I did my little review. Had to be
60 seconds. Found a way of calling the game "Digital
Crack" as it seemed apporpriate since I just
entitled an entry that. Poetic. Game was Advance Wars
for the Game Boy Advance. Highly addictive, very well
done. That's about it. My only worry, and I mentioned
this - was that the game is so good I felt like
I was SELLING it, not reviewing it. But it was
funny, and more than anything showed
personality.
They then asked me
to interview the other producer there about any topic.
God love my talk radio background...and the producer
was from Columbus Ohio!! Went to Bexley High School!
How cool is that! We were trying to narrow down what
the interview would be about, and I said: "Well
what did the last guy do, I'll just take that topic"
"We didn't have the last guy do this..." Aha! Best
news I guess I could've heard. Guess that means they
went a step further with me? Hell in these situations
you grasp onto any thread of positivity you can. That
seemed good to me. So I said: "How 'bout you be a
game developer, and I'll ask you about your game..."
Dude, knew GALAXIAN, that's about it. So I said: "You
be the inventor of Pac-man" and we were off.
In these
situations I guess the best you can do is show you're
a "thinking" interviewer. You listen to what the
person says, and try to look like you can think on
your feet. And man did I come up with a doozie in that
category. The interview kinda went like
this:
"It's 1979,
Pac-man just came out, where he get the idea of a
yellow circle eating dots?"
"Me and my
buddies at MIT were smokin' pot, and it just came
to us man"
"Ahh, so are
there any plans for sequels? New levels,
mazes?"
"Explosions
dude. We wanted more explosions and violence
"
"You know I
think that may be the future of gaming...Back to
Pac-Man, where did the idea of power pellets come
up?"
"Smokin' pot
dude. You know..."
And here's the
nice wrap-up...
"Oh I see, so
the power pellets are symbolic like Scooby Snacks
were in Scooby Doo. They're like POT, and they make
you wanna eat everything."
Awwwwww yeah. And
then we wrapped it yup. It's one of those "whew"
situations. Had that dude not mentioned pot, I'm not
sure I could've pulled anything out of my ass in the
few seconds we had. I was really glad I was able to
though. It made me not look like just asking boring
questions. Worst thing an interviewer can do is not
listen to the subject. Using their answers in your
questions and comments makes a difference in good
interviewing.
So that leaves us
with AHHHHHH!!!. All I can say is THANK GOD,
I did this good. 'Cause if they don't end up calling
me back, I have nothing to be bummed about. I will of
course be shocked to no end, but I'm sure it would
come down to a look, or like the case with the Road
Rules dude, that they wanna use someone who's a little
more known. Bringin' a guy up the ranks of MTV. And
hey, I completely understand that.
...but
HOLY SHIT am I perfect for this. I bleed
videogames, yet I come off semi-normal. LOL. All I can
do now is wait for the next call. Which will again be
from Charlotte - LOL. If you remember the meeting back
in December, or November with Paramount? The order
goes, you get a feel for the meeting, you call your
manager and tell her how it went. Your manager calls
the producer you talked to, and he tells her how he
REALLY felt about her client. Then, she calls me and
tells me that, and we both wait for the callback.
Goddamn system. Funny though. There's a reason you
need a cell-phone in LA. I really believe this whole
"system" is a plot by Nokia. Still working on my
theory though...
I gotta say the
greatest omen is this big, BUILT, could break me in
half black dude lent me $4 for the parking since they
didn't validate. He wasn't one of the guys that
interviewed me but he did work there. So the only way
I can pay him back... Yeah, see that's gotta be a
good sign. It's not that he thought I was a good risk,
he had no clue how I auditioned, but that's just a
damn good sign. LOL.
So
there you have it. I pray there's a few
more AHHHHHH!!! entries, but if this is
it...I did well, and made a good
impression. That can never be a bad
thing.
