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Auditioning
for Trival Pursuit: Star Wars Edition DVD
By KJ
August 03, 2004
Several weeks ago, I read an article on StarWars.com, announcing that Hasbro was going to hold auditions for their new game, Trival Pursuit: Star Wars Edition DVD at Comic-Con International 2004. This immediately piqued my interest, because I was planning to attend Comic-Con, for the first time I might add.
Now, public speaking isn't exactly my forte (not yet, anyway), but my love of Star Wars outweighed my anxiety, and I signed up on Habro's website to audition between noon and 3pm on Thurday July 22, 2004.
I did not think much of the audition in the weeks that followed. I happened to be away from home, visiting family in Minnesota, so I had plenty of stuff going on to keep my mind off the audition.
I caught the redeye back to California on the day before Comic-Con's preview night, Wednesday July 21. I was a little groggy on Wednesday because of the time change (and lack of sleep), but thoroughly |
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Photo © StarWarsSelect.com
Sign for the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit auditions.
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| enjoyed preview night. I suspected that I was very much going to like this convention. |
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On Wednesday night, I had a dream about my Trivial Pursuit audition. Like most
dreams, this one got pretty warped by the time I woke up. So, to make a long
story short, I dreamt that the judges ranked all contestants on a scale of one
to ten (ten being the best). After my audition ended, the judges gave me a negative
sixteen! Why negative sixteen? No clue, but I was crushed. Heh, this dream may
seem utterly ridiculous now, but I assure you that when I awoke Thurday
morning, I was really shaken up. |
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I arrived
at the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit booth at 11:52am on Thurday. A
line of maybe ten people waiting to audition had formed. I almost
chickened out. Then, I remembered a Seinfeld episode.
In Jerry's monologue, he talks about how public speaking in the
number one fear in America. The number two fear, he said, was death.
So, he jokes, that a person would rather be the one in
the coffin than the one giving the eulogy. Heh.
Recalling the joke helped ease my nerves a little.
Then, I gazed over at the people in line. They looked like ordinardy people.
If this audition was going as terrible as I was imagining it to be, why were
they here? How was I any different than any of them? I wasn't. Armed with a renewed
confidence, I took my place in line.
I made small talk with a few of the other people in line. Then, a woman passed
out a stack of papers and instructed each of us in line to choose a script. I
chose one that was basically a paragraph recap of the Hoth battle in The
Empire Strikes Back. She encouraged us to tell our own version of the event
portrayed in the script. Some people added sound effects.
When the time came for me to take the mike...I just read the passage. I wouldn't
say I did a bad job. I just did an average one. But the judges
weren't looking for average, they were looking for an outstanding performance,
or even an outrageous one, as was the case with one guy that auditioned
a few minutes after a me.
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Photo © StarWarsSelect.com
A bookmark handed out to me listing
my audition time.
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So
this guy was just getting started with his audition when his cell
phone rings...and he picks it up! "Can't talk now, I'm auditioning
for Star Wars Trivial Pursuit" I believe were his
words, or something very similar. As this was happening, one of
the judges shook his head in disbelief, and couldn't stop laughing.
Naturally,
this
guy easily made
it into the semi-finals. A staged performance? Probably. Outrageous?
Absolutely. Whatever works, I guess. Now I understood
what the judges were looking for.
I'm not disappointed. I knew going in that there was a very slim chance that
I'd make it into the semi-finals. But you never know how something's going to
turn out until you actually go for it. I tried, and it didn't work out. Sometimes
that's just the way it goes.
I'm happy. It was a good experience, plus Hasbro gave everybody a cool T-shirt
just for trying out, so my efforts weren't all for naught. My T-shirt is my trophy.
As cheesy as this may sound, I feel like I won by simply trying out. I did not
chicken out. I came close, but I didn't. And that's what matters to me most.
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