Singapore lah! Part 3: The audition

Things have been happening faster than I can post, which is probably a good thing--means I've been keeping myself busy, and it sure beats sitting around wondering if there's more to life than, well, sitting around. This is the second night in a row that I'm actually free on a weeknight after weeks and weeks--I'm enjoying one of my favorite shows (dork that I am, it's Jeopardy!) and eating a kick-ass piece of banana cream pie (courtesy of the girl who supplies them to Mocha Blends). I'm actually supposed to be at the gym, but was just so tired after a day of shoots and pullouts, and being sick (sniffle), that I decided to just go home and veg. I'd forgotten how good I was at doing nothing.

Now where was I? Woke up earlier than I would have wanted to on my second day in Singapore--there was one question I skipped the night before and had to scribble in a hurried answer before breakfast. Showered and threw on my favorite sundress and flipflops--chose this outfit over jeans because, strangely, I felt like I would be more comfortable in them. (Some might remember that I didn't really wear jeans 'til my junior year in college--I was a dress/skirt/slacks gal. I guess I wanted to be different. Everyone at that time was wearing jeans with striped shirts.) Went down to the registration area with Wendy, where we had to submit our completed questionnaires and were given our time slots. I was scheduled for 9:00am. Had a bit of time for breakfast.

The Pinays fawning over Remi and his color-changing eyes

At the buffet table, I heard a guy behind me go, "Hey, don't I know you?" and this time it wasn't a pick-up line--he really did know me! It was Robbie, a guy I met a few years back. He was in Singapore on some hosting gig for Nickelodeon. Small world! He hung out with us over breakfast, and it was probably the longest conversation we ever had since we met! (Also met his director, Lino Cayetano.) I guess being in an unfamiliar place kinda makes you cling to familiar faces... friends living abroad have mentioned how they're suddenly chummy with people they barely said hello to back home. Hehe.

With Robbie

After breakfast, went back to my room to freshen up. Wendy clued me in on a couple of the questions the judges could potentially ask (she had talked to someone who had had his or her audition already). The Pinoys waited in one room before being ferried to the chairs lined up outside the room of doom--the closed-door audition venue.

In line outside the dreaded audition room

While we were in line, Paulo took some pictures of us--one appeared in the papers; it shows me with both hands covering my mouth in mock anxiety. We were supposed to get five minutes each--imagine, five minutes for something that had the potential to change your life! No pressure. Haha. Making it this far was enough, plus I heard that the travel journalists were gonna be sent to the US so it wasn't that exciting to me anymore (I've already been there). I did start to get a bit nervous, but it was more about the prospect of embarrassing myself by saying something totally idiotic than it was about not making it. I just didn't want to have any regrets.

One of the Pinoys was in there for about two minutes, which told me that the judges already knew what they were looking for. The closer I got to the room, moving one chair down, the more nervous I got. Then it was my turn. I had to say something to the camera before going in. I don't even remember what I said, but it was probably something like "Here we go!" (Zach sang "Weeeee are the champions...." in front of the camera, all the way to the hot seat). When I stepped inside, they had me sit in a chair in the middle of the room; the seven judges were sitting behind a long table across me, probably about two meters away, and there were a number of cameras pointed right at me. The judges were a lot nicer than I thought they would be (no Simon Cowells here) and asked me things like:

• "What was the most exciting thing that happened to you while traveling?" - My mind went blank for a few seconds, and that's when I realized that I haven't had a lot of exciting travel experiences. Memorable, yes; exciting, no. I just told them about surfing, but in retrospect, I think I should've just said that I have yet to experience it.
• "Which country wouldn't you want to go to? And you can't say 'none'--that's cheating!" - I said, "Maybe some place where there's a war going on--bungy-jumping is one thing, but being shot at is another!" To which they said, "So you want to go bungy-jumping?" Sure, why not? Afterwards, I realized I did have an answer: Geneva, Switzerland. It's pretty and everything, but I think this answer would have stood out (lots of people apparently said Iraq)--I remember we couldn't flush the toilet or take a shower after 9:00pm, or the neighbors would call the police on us for making too much noise! We had to turn down the volume of the TV by that time--so much so that the hum of the dryer was louder than the audio! We literally had to cock our ears towards the TV just to hear it.
• "Why do you think people consider you a leader?" and this totally surprised me because it meant they read my answers to their endless questionnaire (something about how other people see me)--why oh why did I answer that thing while I was barely lucid? I remember them laughing a bit at what I said, either because it was funny or totally pathetic. Haha. Again, it was only after that I thought about what I should have written instead of that leader bit.

So, OK, there were a few things I would've answered differently, but over all, I think I did better than I thought I would. It didn't turn into the traumatic experience I envisioned it to be. So really, no regrets! Yay! Oh, the last part of the audition was the food test. They presented me with a bag of partly peeled fruit and told me to eat it and describe it. "What is it?" I asked. "Try it then tell us about it," they replied. So I inspected the remaining skin--very scaly (would've made a gorgeous belt. Haha)--before peeling it off, then pinched off a piece of the rubbery white fruit. A little brown ball fell on the floor and I picked it up. I bit into the white fruit--outside it was a bit chewy, but inside it was rather grainy, kind of like an apple (later on, Indonesian Vivi told me it was snake fruit, and the taste was a mix of apples and pears. And since I don't eat pears, I didn't know that!). After describing it, I held the brown ball up to my mouth and asked, "Should I eat this too?" and everyone, somewhat panicky, said "NO!" Apparently it was the seed. Hahaha. Oops.

So I came out of there alive and with my head held high, a far cry from the images in my head of me crawling out of there in tears. There was another on-cam interview outside the room, and again, I don't remember what I said! I was just glad it was over, and I was looking forward to an afternoon of exploring.

From top: Team Philippines, Team Taiwan, Team Hong Kong, Team Singapore, Team Indonesia, and Team Australia. And since I don't have a pic of Team Malaysia, here's one with Juliana (who says I look like Kristine Hermosa. Haha. Yihee me. Yes, she watches Pangako Sa 'Yo in Malaysia!), and one of Richard with a bunch of people waiting for audition results.

Afterthoughts

I think they were looking for particular characters, and maybe I should've molded myself into one (my Repertory training didn't kick in at that time, damnit). I could've either played up the mundane factor because perhaps they were looking for someone who had a lot to gain from the experience, plus not everyone in the group could be crazy. Or I could have pulled a Jessica Simpson and upped the ditz factor--but then, that would be sellling myself short (and women's libbers everywhere would have my head). Ahh, the coulda-woulda-shouldas. I just went in there as myself, and that's the best any of us can ever do. It really just wasn't meant for me, and I am totally at peace with that.:)