American "Idle": Behind the Curtain

From August 25-27, 2007, I was in Philadelphia to observe the audition process of American Idol. Now on the heels of the show's season seven dubut, I recount the experience:The Wachovia Center has seen its share of finely-trained musicians practice their craft within its walls in front of thousands of raucous Philadelphia fans. From Elton John to Justin Timberlake and Garth Brooks to Beyonce, a wide assortment of acts brought their platinum-selling sound to the arena. On August 27, 2007, more than 20,000 vocal hopefuls jammed into the venue for their shot at singing stardom. Producers for FOX's American Idol were in town to put together the cast of season seven characters.

REGISTRATION
The crowd began to form at the Wachovia Center entrance in the wee hours of Saturday morning. This was just phase one of the whole ordeal. Contestants were to begin registering for the audition at 6 A.M. on Aug. 25. The actual auditions would not begin for another 50 hours.

Back in Oswego, NY, I lay sound asleep in my bed. I would not leave for Philadelphia for another 15 hours. Once there, I waltzed right up to the registration table, watched my friend (the auditioning one) sign the two of us in, and retreated to a hotel.

"Idiots," I thought out loud. "Tens of thousands of people waited in line for hours for that."

DOWNTIME

Sunday was for sightseeing. While thousands more arrived at the Wachovia Center to register, my friend and I took in some of the sights that the City of Brotherly Love had to offer. We also went to see Superbad. The movie features a scene in which a cop refers to his ex-wife as a whore. Pretty funny. More funny if you'd had a similar conversation with your buddies about an ex-flame. Extremely funny when said flame is sitting next to you at the movie, is aware of the fact that you've had said conversation, and is also aware that the memory of said conversation coupled with her presence is what is causing you to laugh noticeably louder than everyone else in the theater.

AUDITION

Fast forward to Monday morning. I am up. The sun is not. Never a situation I enjoy. Auditions are set to begin at 8 A.M. but participants are encouraged to show up 90 minutes prior. For a female this means waking up 90 minutes prior to that prior so that you can do your hair, make-up, nails, etc. For a male accompanying a demanding female, this means you are also getting up two and a half hours before you should have to.


We arrive at the Wachovia Center and it is still dark. There is a line of cars waiting to park at Lincoln Financial Field. We pay $11 to park...correction, I pay $11 to park. Then we walk across the street to the Wachovia Center parking lot. There are already more than 15,000 people standing in line. We take our place towards the back and watch the helicopters above. FOX has three choppers in the air for an aerial shot that they'll use for less than five seconds on the show.

We would be waiting in line outside for more than an hour. During this time the FOX cameras were shooting us from above and also on the ground in a golf cart-type vehicle. Additionally, Jay Leno had sent Steve Schirripa (pictured) of Sopranos fame to mingle with the crowd and conduct interviews for The Tonight Show.

Finally, they let the crowd inside. Everyone had a ticket with an assigned seat. You were to sit in that seat and only that seat for the duration of the audition. Our seats were in the upper bowl of the arena. This was going to take forever.

To start out, one of the preliminary judges hopped on a microphone and conducted a few crowd warm-ups. I found it amazing how 20,000 people actually silenced themselves and listened to every word this man had to say. He explained how the whole audition process would go down. About 15 tables were set up on the arena floor with black curtains seperating each one from the next. Contestants would come up one arena section at a time. They would empty out the lower bowl before they got to the top half of the arena. This would be right about the time that I realized the value of coming to register early.

The judge then led the entire arena in singing the chorus of Joan Jett's I Love Rock and Roll...for ten whole minutes. Finally, Ryan Seacrest came out and got the crowd ready to shoot the opening of the show. On the count of three we all shouted, "This is American Idol!" and then screamed like pre-pubescent school gorls until they told us to stop. This took several takes, we were sheep.

For the next 13 hours we watched section after section get up and approach the judges. Whenever the crowd could hear someone with a powerful voice, they'd cheer. If that singer was allowed on to the next round, they'd cheer louder. If not, they'd boo. Seeing as how the judges are extremely tough and that this was Philadelphia, there was going to be a lot of booing.