The Envelope, Please!

And The Winner Is...

Several people have asked me about my experience in NYC at the audition for "America's Got Talent", and so I finally am able to take a moment and fill you in on the entire weekend. My thanks to all who have asked. It's taken me this long to get to it with my usual busy schedule and battling a nasty cold on top of that (a show of hands...who else got that cold? Blech!).

For me the audition was just the second part of an amazing weekend of performing, unlike any experience I've ever had. So let me start at the beginning.

On the morning of Saturday October 8, six couples met at the Paramount Theatre in Rutland, Vermont, a beautifully restored opera house from the ninteenth century, for the dress rehearsal of "Dancing With The Rutland Stars". If you have read my previous newsletters or posts to this blog, you already know that we were dancing to raise money to help Kids On The Move Pediatric Rehabilitation Program, the only one of it's kind in the area.

This was the final rehearsal for all of us after three months of rehearsals, each couple rehearsing a different dance at different studios around Rutland. A lot of time, care and effort go into a production of this size, and all of us were excited about the upcoming event that night.

My dance partner was Nicole Fabian, Assistant Vice President and Financial Services Manager of People's United Bank in Rutland, Vermont. We met each other at the "Meet With The Rutland Stars" meeting on August 2, held at the Rutland Country Club. From that day on we became great friends and thoroughly enjoyed dancing with each other every time we rehearsed. For us, the performance on October 8 was a culmination of an effort from our hearts. You can watch the video of our performance.

All six couples cheered each other's performances both morning and evening, and when the winners were announced that night, the real winners were indeed, the children. We raised $20,000 that night! A stunning success! A theatre full of cheering, clapping, stomping fans of local "celebrities" and their instructors sent us into the night with a feeling of fulfillment and friendship unlike any other.

Then the next morning I hopped on my motorcycle (Kawasaki Vulcan 750) and rode to New York City for my audition for "America's Got Talent". The temperature started in the mid-40s but by the time I arrived in New York it was in the 80s. A wonderful ride, and quite the adventure for me. I'm not a big fan of driving in NY (I'm not alone on that, I'm sure!) but I had just spent two weeks riding the streets of Montreal, and felt well-prepared. I also didn't have to go very far into the city.

Riding in the Lincoln Tunnel was exciting. Once through to the other side I was able to quickly find parking within a couple of blocks of the Javits Center where the auditions had been going on since the day before. I arrived about 1:00 PM, made it through registration very quickly and entered the first "Holding Room", as they called it, with a wildly estimated 300 to 500 people patiently sitting and waiting.

I found a seat and joined the wait. Nearby was a group of girl singers, not to audition as one group, but apparently friends, possbily on-the-spot, and they took turns swapping songs, and entertaining us all. Quite good "pop" voices and enjoyable songs. They drew several rounds of applause.

After awhile a producer and camera crew showed up and started arranging vignettes for later use in the show. Keep in mind, these auditions are for the 2012 show. AGT holds auditions all over the country until late February, possibly later if they need to add more. So these vignettes won't be seen until then. Nor will any of the performers who make it to the next round. Of course I'm hoping that I'm one.

Some of the more interesting scenes they shot:

A duo of older men with very long, graying hair, wearing motorcycle outfits and helmets in red, white and blue. Each carried a guitar; one a plastic, air-filled, pretend electric guitar, and the other a real, but cheap (I hope) acoustic guitar. They would proceed to beat each other over the heads with their guitars. I probably shouldn't give away performances, but that one was astonishing!

There was a very young couple who brilliantly danced a high-speed samba; and another man with very long hair under his cowboy hat, wearing a sport jacket, jeans and cowboy boots, and sang with a rich, deep and beautiful baritone voice. A real crowd pleaser. Another eye-catcher, especially for me fresh from my own dance performance, was a young couple in their twenties who beautifully and lyrically danced a cha-cha-cha. I really enjoyed them and got to speak with them later.

Finally, after waiting for about six hours, my number was called as part of a group of one hundred to move to the next Holding Room. There were "only" about 200 people in that room. We waited about an hour there, then a group of about twenty of us were called into the hallway. I could feel it was getting close, or at least closer.

Some confusion with where we were supposed to be had us going up and down the hallway, standing against the wall, splitting into two groups, back down the hallway, and finally sitting down for another ten to twenty minutes.

At last our group went into the audition room together and lined up against the wall facing the "judge". Meg was very nice, polite, professional and courteous to us all, and humorous, as well. She, like all of us, had been at this all day long, and still had her energy, focus and enthusiasm. A credit to her abilities and character.

Each of us sang in turn for our 90 seconds. My snippet of "Come To Me, Bend To Me" from the musical "Brigadoon" was acutally only 80 seconds (I timed it long before to make sure), which, though I could feel the cold starting to tickle in my throat ("No, not NOW!"), I sang it as well as I ever do, with the same enthusiasm and connection as always.

We then left the room and waited a few minutes to see if any of us were to be called back. One young man was, and the rest of us were free to go home. Show's over!

I had arranged to stay with my niece in New Jersey just 15 minutes away, and was really glad I had made those arrangements. At this point it was after 8:00 PM. It had been a 14 hour day for me at that point. I was tired, and that cold was making it's presence felt more each minute.

The next day I rode home, again in beautiful 70 degree weather and wonderful Autumn colors.

I enjoyed the whole experience. It was a bit dull during seven-plus hours of waiting, but I worked in film and TV a long time ago and am very used to "hurry up and wait". I've gotten good at that, when need be. I should have brought a book or mp3 player for some of that down-time. I think it would have helped.

At any rate, calls to those who go to the next round won't start until January, and the word is that if I haven't heard from them by the end of April, I didn't make it. So we'll see. As I've said before, with that long of a wait, I'm not holding my breath.

Would I do it again? Maybe. It depends on a variety of circumstances. I very much appreciate that I was personally invited. These are "open" auditions and anyone can do so, but I felt honored that they had personally emailed me and requested that I take the time to audition. This came about because of a video that I had sent them during the summer.

I did learn a lot about how to prepare for that type of audition. With the very long wait time, and the particular method of audition, it is different than other auditions I've done.

I returned home and so an incredible weekend came to a close. A weekend not just filled with music, dance and performing, but something much deeper about caring. I'll not ever forget this one.

This post is quite long. If you made it this far, congratulations, and thank you very much for your support and enthusiasm.

Best and warmest regards to all,