[quote name=\'Stevini18\' post=\'215413\' date=\'May 11 2009, 01:39 PM\']And what are your suggestions to conquering the test this year?[/quote]For starters, you should project the aura of "How cool! This game is so fun that I'm taking a day/weekend off to try out for it! And it would be awesome to get on, even if I don't win anything, because the experience will be one to share with my friends and family for generations.
[quote name=\'Peter Sarrett\' post=\'215420\' date=\'May 11 2009, 02:42 PM\']From that, it was obvious to me that the test was just a pre-screen, and the real deciding factor was the questionaire and meet-and-greet afterward. So while lots of the passers filled out their questionaire quickly and moved on to the photo and interview, I took a lot more time and tried to supply answers that would make me stand out and provide interesting conversational hooks. That effort paid off. When I met with the associate producer, he read through my questionaire and, after about 2 minutes of conversation, said he was surprised that I hadn't been on the show already, that I seemed like a great contestant.[/quote]Since I whiffed on the quiz portion, I didn't even get to that part, but the very idea of coming up with five conversation thumbnails that sound interesting but don't make me sound bizarre, creepy or a total dork is a daunting task.
That's the thing. The producers don't want "normal." Sure, they want people who are just like your neighbors or your work-mates, but they want people with interesting stories to tell also.
[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'215428\' date=\'May 11 2009, 03:12 PM\']I kind of liked the phone auditions because it gave you the sense that anybody out there could be in the Hot Seat. Now, with having to pass a test and impress the contestant co-ordinator, it likely leaves a lot of us "average" folk out.[/quote]But that's the rub: phone game gives you one breed of contestant, audition gives you another, with not a whole lot of overlap. The producers picked what they wanted, for better or worse-er.