I recently auditioned to be on the popular television show called America’s Got Talent and wanted to share the experience with everyone and anyone who may be interested in the process. I am still waiting for the phone call informing me if I have made it on the show, but overall it was an interesting experience. This is going to be more of an information piece rather than anything satirical.

The process starts out with me going online and finding out when and where the auditions are taking place. I googled America’s Got Talent and got to their official website where they had posted casting news. I looked for the location nearest to me which happened to be Chicago and then used their online form to sign up for an audition. The guidelines were pretty simple, tell the judges what you plan to do, your name, and make sure the audition is no longer than 90 seconds.

You do not have to sign up in advance for the audition, but doing so guaranteed me time with the judges. Many people sign up day of onsite but there is no guarantee you will get to audition for the judges based on time constraints.

About two week before the scheduled date of the audition, I received a phone call from an employee of America’s Got Talent and the woman on the phone told me I had an 8:00AM audition. I was excited because I actually thought they were making appointments and the audition process would be a fairly quick process. No, I was wrong.

I got there with my band-mate at 7:30AM and walked into the main “holding area.” There weren’t an obnoxious amount of people there ahead of us, probably around 300 people. Now, all 300 were not there to audition, the majority were friends and family there to support the act. After about 45 minutes of standing in this long line, we started moving. I would say we were waiting for a total of an hour & a half in the holding room before we were given our bracelets which signified if we were someone auditioning or a friend/family member. By this time there were a ton of people in line behind us.

Once we got our bracelets, we were moved into the hallway where we waited another twenty to thirty minutes before we were given our number. The number is what you see on American Idol and all the other reality shows where numerous people are auditioning. I guess it is their “Big Brother” way of knowing who is who.

After receiving the number, we are then moved to a lobby area where we handed in our release forms and had an administrative assistant make sure all the paperwork was filled out correctly. After the paperwork is approved (which took about 5 minutes) we were then moved to a large second holding area.

As we walked into the room (which was filled with probably a thousand people) we heard an announcement that we would be moved to one more location for a few minutes before we met the judges. I thought things were moving along quite nicely and estimated I would be heading home in about an hour…tops.

We were all herded into the first holding area (where we started earlier in the morning) and corralled like cattle into a certain section of the gigantic room. Suddenly there was a large crane that was driven into the room and a make-shift stage was assembled. A woman used a megaphone to inform everyone that we would be doing some filming for the intro of the show. We had to be energetic, happy and crazy for the cameras. Now, this is the part where when you watch the show, you see a large crowd all yell out they are “America’s next big talent” or say “Chicago’s Got Talent” etc. It’s all in good fun and it was interesting to see how they go about making these promos. It was interesting until about two hours into the process. Seriously, we were screaming and yelling the same lines over and over and over again for an eternity. The producers kept telling us it would only be a few more minutes, but that went on for hours.

After we were done with those promos, they informed us that Jerry Springer (the previous host), would be replaced by Nick Cannon. From that point, they brought Nick Cannon out and did all his promos, which took another couple hours.

Finally, the filming ended and we were called into the second holding area once again. They called out the numbers in increments of twenty five which at a 90 second audition time per act, averaged out to about 45 minutes per 25.

We were in this room for ever. I was so hungry I was about to bite random strangers walking by so my partner decided it would be in everyone’s best interest to find us some nourishment. We found a food court and I ordered the most expensive cheeseburger on the face of the earth. My cheeseburger was $13.95 and the fires and drink were extra. Wow! I spent $20 on lunch for myself. That is plain old ridiculous.

Anyway after lunch we sat and waited and then sat and waited some more until finally our number was called. We were separated into a few different groups before we went in to see the judges. There was a group for singers, a group for dancers and miscellaneous acts and one for musicians.

For some reason the singers were carted into the judges immediately and the musicians watched group after group of singers and dancers make their way to see the judges as we just sat back in annoyance. Finally we were brought to the judges’ room and then seated outside for another 45 minutes.

The time had finally come and we all went into the judges’ room where three judges and a cameraman were positioned. We were called one by one to the font of the judges to perform our act while it was being video-taped for the executive producers in Los Angeles. The judges’ onsite informed us that we would be contacted in a few weeks after the executive producers watched the video of today’s performance. So, really they were not judges at all; or were they?

After we performed out rendition of the Black Crowes “She Talks to Angels,” the other musicians in the room with us all applauded and shook our hand because they knew they were in the company of greatness. No, really, we got the biggest applause from not only the judges, but our competition…it was nice.

We all exited the room and were told to wait for a few more minutes as the judges made sure all our paperwork was filled out and they had all the right information. Suddenly the judges called back a few acts to perform a second song and I was not one of those called.

My partner thinks we have no shot to make it on the show because we were not called back, but I am an optimist and there could be a variety of reasons they were called back. There could have been some paperwork issues; they could have needed a second opinion…whatever. We rocked the audition and I am happy with our performance.

I talked to a friend who also auditioned (not in my group) and he said the same thing happened with his group but the people called back were not very good at all. Who knows? I will keep everyone posted on if I get a call-back. All in all, I spent the entire day at the auditions, got there at 7:30Am and left at 5:30PM. If you plan on auditioning for this show this year or next, pack a lunch regardless of what your “appointment” is.

Hopefully this was an interesting article and answered any questions you may have had on the audition process.