Friday, October 12, 2012

Audition

September 1, 2012 was a bit special - we went for an audition! After years of watching me chuckling at TV gameshow contestants, my wife encouraged me to go for audition for the second season of a particularly popular gameshow on the local satellite TV. Since the show require pairs of contestants, naturally she became my team-mate. Adverts on TV stated that the nearest location was at Penang, on the 1st and 2nd of September. We decided to go on the 1st.

We anticipated that there would be many aspiring couples like ourselves and since the venue is roughlyone-and-a-half hours away, we started early - right after Subuh prayers. The kids were also roused early - they can sleep on the way. Eventually we arrived around 8.15. Whaddaya know, the line is already quite long although mostly they are just queing for the entry forms. One snag though, it was not stated at the website but we saw notices being put up stating that entry forms would not be accepted unless enclosed with a photocopy of ICs. What to do? it was still early in the morning, the nearby shops were still closed. So, I asked my wife whether she can request help from the hotel's front office. Luckily enough, they agreed although I hearld later that the production team waived the IC requirement.

After a relatively short wait (well, we were early), we were given our registration number. veterans of the first season audition gave some pointers on what to expect (or rather the production team's expectation) during the audition. I overheard a couple behind me doing some 'revision' on their general knowledge ("Ibu negeri Perlis apa?" "Airport Singapore nama apa?"). Talking to an older gentleman, he said that the production doesn't really expect the contestants to be 100% correct in their mock game/audition, just the way they carry themselves in front of the camera. 

What we didn't expect however was that there is now a new first stage - written test! We have to answer 20 multiple-choice questions within 10 minutes. Was it hard? I guess so....there were a number of questions that had me scratching my head....

The 'invigilators' siad that they have prepared a bunch of question sets so that no two batches of contestants would answer the same set. Furthermore, the passing mark was 13 out 20 - no averages between the two contestants. So if one gets 15/20 but the other 7/20, they won't move on to the second stage. My wife confessed that the didn't know much but since we sat side-by-side...well...heheh.

After we finished the test, we're off to the second room where a briefing were given and those who managed to get to the second stage are announced. We were informed tht there only 4 couples out of 35 in the first batch managed to go to the second stage. I guess it was that tough for us all. When it was our batch's turn to be announced (we're in the second batch by the way), Alhamdulillah, we managed to go to the second stage! And we're only one of four couples in our batch that managed to go through....And whilst waiting for our turn for the second stage, we saw that in the suceeding batches, again onlythree to four couples managed to go through.

Eventually it was our turn for the second stage. The room was set up (more or less) like the 'finals' set - with the 'interviewers' in front. One guy acts as the 'host'. But before we start our mock game, we were interviewed first. One of the interviewers asked me which question(s) during the first staged which i found 'hard'. I told them them that I'm not sure of my answers to these questions:
- Who is the writer of the novel 'Ombak Rindu'
- Who is the director for the horror movie 'Histeria'
- The value of 'L' in the Roman numerals
 and then I told them my answers, which he told me that I was correct in all three. I was quietly pleased with that since it meant that I got a perfect score! He then asked my wife whether she copied my answers,which my wife merely smiled and I jokingly said that since I sat to her right, I didn't know what happened to my left! Obviously my wife also score perfectly and probably the panel were puzzled why this housewife knows about Waterloo and Napoleon or that the second highest mountain in the world is K2!

Then it was time for the mock game. The 'host' asked us 'The World AIDS Day is celebrated on which date?' The answer immediately comes to my mind but in order to 'play' for the camera I mocked up a discussion with my wife. We decided to answer 'December 3rd' and put all our (photocopied) 'money' on that answer. Of course we 'won'! The interviewers then thanked us for our participation. Whilst flush with our 'victory', a small voice nagged at the back of my head - short interviews would either mean you got the job or not....

Postscript
Mid- September came and went and with that our hopes of winning a million bucks faded. Actually a junior of mine during schooldays works with the producers and it was through him that I know that we didn't make it...perhaps we were not 'happening' enough for TV.....