Bring a friend.
Have someone to support you. If you don’t get through, you’ll want someone to tell you how awesome you were (and to maybe give you an objective critique later). Make post-mortem plans for going out after auditions. While success tastes awesome, so do fatty foods and alcoholic beverages with good people.
Plan for afterwards.
Neither Idol nor X-factor nor The Voice nor Duets nor America’s Got Talent are the end-all be-all. Think about it – neither Madonna nor Nicole S. nor JLo became famous overnight. Nicole S. auditioned for reality show after reality show while JLo bounced from TV show to TV show until she hit Selena. And, Madonna, well, she just kept trying.
Think about what you want to do long term if you don’t get past round one. Do you want to become a professional singer? If so, start thinking about a local career. You can still cut your own demo, release your own CDs and your own videos. CDBaby.com, Myspace.com and YouTube are all awesome venues. Even if it doesn’t catch the eye of AI producers, it’ll catch someone’s eye. After that, you can even start planning your own tours, marketing yourself to local radios and as warm-up acts for visiting performers.
Sometimes you just aren’t what they’re looking for and you have to pick yourself up and start again. Leandra Ramm, who I interviewed before her AI auditions is a professional singer/dancer/actress. So, I tapped her in a follow-up conversation for advice for future reality TV/American Idol contestants. While she had nothing but good things to say about reality TV competitions, she encourages contestants not to lose heart.
Advice from a former American Idol auditionee to other auditionees
Leandra Ramm has professionally performed for Celebrity cruise lines, participated in the UK-located Buxton Opera House Gilbert and Sullivan festival, performed in regional CA theatres and won multiple opera awards. Although she didn’t make it through, find her advice for first-time auditionees below:
My advise for other auditionees is don’t put your self worth on if you get on the show or not. It’s just a show and it is casting. There are many amazing singers that don’t get on the show. When they have to audition thousands of people, of course they are going to overlook some amazing singers. Keep going and keep singing. Remember it is casting for a reality show above anything else. Also, have fun at the audition! It’s such a cool experience. Just enjoy the days registering and auditioning!
The audition process was interesting. It was definitely a lot of waiting, registering, cheering on cue, etc. in exchange for 20 seconds to sing, but for the “winners” it was definitely worth it. First of all, there were far fewer people there than I expected. I thought it would be packed. It’s amazing what editing can do. When we actually got in the stadium only about a third of the stadium was filled. Keep in mind also that about half of those people were guests of the auditionee. I found a couple of things interesting: registering early does not necessarily mean you will sing early. I got there at 4:30am on Thursday to register. The girl standing next to me when we were actually auditioning got there at 7:30am. It seemed the section they started/ended with to audition was a bit random. Also, when you audition it’s separated by a curtain and the auditioner has a very short amount of time to decide your future. I’m not disappointed at all that I didn’t get it because after being in show business for a long time I know that this is casting. It’s not necessarily the best voice, most attractive, most interesting story that gets through but whatever fits into their casting needs, for whatever reason. When one doesn’t make it, you have to walk through the “non-winners” hallway to get outside and there is a camera man capturing the tears of the non-winners just about a minute after they finish their audition. I was actually smiling and happy when I finished the audition because I knew I did my best and was proud of myself for going, so I don’t think the camera man got what he wanted from me. When I saw that they were doing that though, I thought that was ruthless. In addition, right before you audition you turn in your release which states that they can use your image, voice, likeness, etc in anyway on the show. And just minutes after that, they captured countless girls crying and caught that on tape. The cameraman then went up to the girls’ faces until they pushed them away… making great television but totally embarrassing — just a disappointed young singer. But, it’s TV, I guess, what else can I expect?
I had a great time auditioning though! It was a fun experience and I loved seeing Ryan Seacrest in person, meeting interesting people and being part of the Newark auditions!
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Jul 18, 2012 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
