Cooking Show Guest

Last Friday I was a background "guest" for a prominent cooking show. What that means was that I was one of the people who got to eat the food that the chefs prepared! Which was great and yummy :) And it was pretty fun.

Because I signed the confidential form before the shoot and signed my life away, I am not allowed to talk much about the details of the show. But it is a show that even I, who do not watch TV that much (which I should), have heard of. Which features a mean chef who talks as if he is stabbing someone with his cutting knife. Ok I am so not giving a BIG hint here.

I hope they would have let us take pictures because it was a really nice set that we drove all the way to Culver city for. But we couldn't. And call time was 8AM. Can't complain as it was a relatively humane call time.

We got seated and waiters served us food as if in a real restaurant, except there were cameras everywhere. Everything was going well except for one thing. Asians were totally underrepresented in this episode's guests. Although they have a theme for each episode for the guests, for that episode it was only 3-4 Asians out of a decent sized group. There should have been more of us. Even though Asians are a minority group, I think we deserve more representation on TV. Or the closer to the real demography of United States representation.
(so I can get more jobs too :D)

To make it up, I tried to speak "our language" with my friend, as was requested by the crew, while they filmed us eating and having a good time. But we were almost drowned out by the Portuguese spoken by the two Brazilian women sitting at our table. They were pretty calm until they knew the camera was on. Then they started gesturing with their hands and spoke really loud. I hope me and my friend will be featured after the they edited the footage.

What the heck am I talking about? You will see when you watch the episode. I will probably update on this blog when that happens. Unfortunately the episode we just shot on Friday would be aired the next next season. Which means we would probably have to wait a year before it happens.

Hope the show doesn't get dropped before then!

My First Audience Work Experience

Yesterday I was at a major network studio for audience work.
In other words, sit at the audience section and watch while the show was filmed. It sounds like an easy job, just sitting and doing nothing more than clapping your hands... but then it wasn't, as I was later to find out.

As I arrived at the studio, I was worried about where I should go because it was such a big studio with lots of buildings and lots. But I spotted the check-in point right away when I saw a long line forming at one side of the parking lot. So I lined up at the very end. I was first approached by a guy who kept on asking the crowd, "do you have a cellphone?" and so naturally I said "yes." Then the casting assistant looking guy looks to the casting director guy and was like "wow she said yes". I was not expecting a "wow" because I own a cellphone. I contemplated the strange reaction until the girl at the check-in point said, "cellphones are not allowed. You have to put them in the car." Not even turned off in the bag? That was pretty strict. Luckily another casting assistant guy, Travis, said I could put the phone in his bag for the time being, which saved me a walk up flights of stairs to my car. Yay.

Finally checked-in, me and about 199 other extras waited in line outside a building. Yes there was at least 200 audience members. It was a major channel studio. As a major studio, surprisingly they treated us pretty bad.

First, we waited for 90 minutes in the lot because of delayed schedule. I got another bug bite on me! because we were sitting near a bush. And, there was no food, no drinks, only vending machines and water fountain. (Usually they have some food or drinks at a set, even for background actors).

After the loooong wait, we were finally placed in the studio. I was sitting in the audience seats, which might be a little better than the upstairs standing crowd, but not that much.
The show got started. My interest level was high for maybe one hour, and then it dropped way down. Why? The host was a very take-his-time type of laid back guy. He paused a lot and repeated the SAME THING 3 times in a row. The two yapping game contestants were trying to win X amount of money, and kept on yapping like two chihuahuas each time they lose or win. (Chihuahuas.. I am serious) They take forever to make any decision, and there were 10+ decisions they have to make. Plus the host kept on talking meaningless cr*p... all of this combined went on and on and on for..... more than 6 hours. No break for audience, almost no bathroom breaks (I didn't get to go), no food, no drinks allowed, no cellphones. Just sit and watch. It was such a torture. I was sitting in my seat and fidgeting like never before..never.. not even during my AP Chemistry class in high school.

Each time they win 1000 dollars or something we have to stand up and cheer and be "rowdy". "Be ROWDY!" says the stage manager guy. Oh fun.

Near the end of the show, not just me but most people in the audience were fidgeting and making sarcastic comments about the show or the host. Of course nobody can hear us because we don't have mics on us. We don't have no nothin'.(excuse the bad grammar, just trying to recreate the reality)

During the last round, the contestants could either take home the money or keep on going with the risk of losing all. And until now, us audience had been shouting out constructive/positive/reasonable comments like (choose X not Y!! choose Y because...!! etc) but we were so burned out in the last round we all just wanted to go home. So everyone started shouting "TAKE THE MONEY! TAKE THE MONEY!!" even though it might not be the wisest choice. I was shouting too. Take! the! money!! + whispering "we want to go home now.." and we even started counting down for them. The contestants kind of gave in under peer pressure and took the money. And THIS time we cheered like no other....

If they didn't take the money and chose to go on, and make us stay another hour, I am afraid a riot would break out right then. Just as the host said, "a show within a show." (He would have gotten his bottom kicked in the riot... And that would have been a better show :D)

Finally finally we got out. The night was dark already. Everyone was hungry because we didn't eat from 1:30pm to 9pm. At this point, I felt like I could dig the historical revolutions better. The French..the Russians... everybody.
Hunger is a formidable power.....

Waited in another line to get the paycheck, while staring up at the stars.
Finally I could go home.

Audience work. It sounds easy, but it is not. The less than $100 I earned today, that was some hard earned money. And a hard earned lesson...
no more audience work for a while.