Who Wants to be a Superhero? Auditions

Who Wants to be a Superhero? Auditions

Phoenix Auditions - Feb. 3, 2007

This was so much fun. Even though we had no idea what to expect, I think the auditions went pretty well.

First off, we expected people to be lining up for the tryouts at least a day in advance. Didn't happen - the first auditioners there aside from ourselves arrived around 9 AM the day of auditions. We had planned to sleep in the car/camp out in line to save money. Didn't happen - not only was there no line forming, but the mall parking lot was too noisy and brightly lit. Also discovered that people who were camping out (for the wrestling tour) were chased away several times. We had to get a hotel room for the night, and unfortunately, some big golf tournament was in town, which made the rates go way up. Sorry, but I wasn't about to pay $109 for Super 8 lodgings. We were able to find a room fairly inexpensively.

The wrestling tour. What brainiac decided to lump superhero auditions in with a wrestling event, I'll never know. You had this crowd of loud, boisterous wrestling fans clamoring for autographs, and the first thing in the event was the superhero auditions. The wrestling thing started at noon, and we starting auditioning, in front of the crowd, from 1 to 3. Not what you'd call a welcoming crowd.

The first few people to arrive for auditions were ourselves (The Crystal Rose and The Grey Sergeant), The Spectral Swashbuckler, and Spirit Mage. Commander Alloy and Captain Cola arrived soon afterward. It wasn't hard to spot the superheroes, both because of their wild costumes and because they seemed to be having more fun than the wrestling fans. A TV news crew showed up and taped us for a spot - I wonder if I'll get to see it on YouTube?

There were no end of technical difficulties. Poor Captain Cola, the first guy to audition, kept being pulled off stage as his microphone kept feeding back into the system. Instead, we all had to wear a headset mike that fed directly into the camera, and hold a regular microphone for the audience to hear us. The hand-held mike didn't pick up well, and you had to hold it very close to your mouth to be heard at all.

The audience was less than receptive. I got a better reaction than most, simply by virtue of being a cute girl in not-much clothing. There wasn't much in the way of bad reaction, just pure apathy. Pretty hard while you're up there trying to sell your character.

All in all, though, this was a complete blast. The group of auditionees were some of the most friendly people you'll ever meet. There was lots of discussion on how everyone made the different parts of their costumes. I don't know anyone's real name - we talked amongst ourselves only as our superhero identities. It was very easy to be in-character. There's nothing quite like discussing your own super powers with a group of like-minded individuals.

All the superheroes posed for dozens of photos and even signed autographs. There were some very unique character ideas. I made a lot of friends and got to be a small part of something awesome. I wonder who will be selected for the actual show...?

What was almost as much fun as auditioning was telling my friends about it afterwards. My coworkers thought the whole concept was really cool, and asked me all about it. I discovered that the "ending snippets" segments had appeared on YouTube, and my boss (who happens to love reality TV) had to fire it up. It's neat to have the people you work with every day seeing you in a different light.

This might sound ridiculous, but after I tried out for superhero-dom, I found myself wanting to help people more. I noticed that I was volunteering my assistance to others more than I had before I planned to audition. No, I'm not doing this for karma, but because (if only in a small way) I've learned that I really can be a superhero. Perhaps I should start taking that outlook more in life. Superheroes help people, and I should do the same.

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