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PART 1 - THE AUDITION!
July 22, 1998
At around 6:20-ish or so in the evening, I arrived at CBS Television City,
home of Tom Snyder, Dennis Miller Live, Politically Incorrect,
The Price is Right, and future homes for the new versions of Match Game and
Hollywood Squares. At around 6:50-ish, Dawn and Jane, two of the contestant
coordinators, gather all the auditionees (about 50 to 60 of us) outside the
lobby of CBS TV City. They give us some pointers about being energetic
and smiling and explain that not doing either could mean the difference
between getting on the show or not. They add that the past few groups of
auditionees have not been the greatest, that many of them either did
not smile or did not speak up loudly enough. We then all gather and take
an elevator up to a rehearsal hall.
In the walk to the hall, I saw a few set pieces for "Dennis Miller Live"
and "Politically Incorrect." Well, we all enter the hall which filled
with tables. On the tables are a set of applications and tests. There,
we are greeted by head contestant coordinator (and game show biz veteran)
Harv Selsby. Also in the room is Kevin Belinkoff, the producer.
The coordinators ask us to fill out the application. Harv gives us a few
pointers as to how to answer "Match Game" statements. He tells us to look
for the "key" words and hit the target. "Keep it simple," he reminds us.
Then, we take the test. On the test, there are eleven "Match Game"
fill-in-the-blank statements which we had to fill out in a span of 5 minutes.
After turning in the test, Harv tells us the rules
of the game.
After they collected the tests and graded them, they then whittled down
the group to about 30-something including yours truly! The coordinators
called us up in groups of two to take Polaroids of us.
Then, they called us up in groups of eight to play a practice round and
to see how we do playing the game for real. We could either choose to
play as a celebrity or a contestant. I get called up in the first group
and take my seat as a contestant. At this point, Kevin says to me,
"You're that guy with the web page...you're the one with Betty White!
On one hand, I'm flattered that somebody in the biz looked up my page.
On the other hand, I'm thinking to myself..."Eeek...does this disqualify me?
Will they think I'm a super-game-show fanatic who'll be a spaz onscreen." I
decide to stop worrying and go on with the audition.
The key to this part was not only knowing how to play the game but being
energetic and projecting our voices. In the midst of the practice games,
we switched roles from playing as a contestant or playing as one of the six
"celebrities" on the panel. We all had to stay through the whole thing since
sometimes they called people back up to do another practice round.
Throughout this, I sat in the front row watching the other auditionees play.
I still kept my big smile on. In the midst of this, I noticed that the contestant
coordinators (especially Dawn and Jane) were getting a kick out of seeing me all
energetic even when I wasn't up there playing a mock game. I took this as a
pretty good sign, but I didn't read too much into it.
After going through a couple of practice rounds, they sent us home and said that
they would call us if they want to use us on the show. This was around 9-ish. We
all piled into the elevator and were escorted to the entrance. I passed
Dawn on my way out and she said before I left, "We'll see you soon, Mandel!"
Now, again, I took this as good sign, but I didn't think, "Hey, I'm definitely
on the show!" I mean, I knew I did pretty well and the staff enjoyed watching me,
but hell, I didn't want to jinx myself! Plus, I had a lot of fun anyway just
auditioning! Little did I know what would be in store for me a
couple of weeks later...
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