I was game...

There's this video of old game shows. 

Last week I drove down to L.A. to be interviewed for a game show. I had no idea what to expect, but, luckily, I partnered with another actress who is very experienced in these matters. She has won on "The Price is Right," she has won the lottery, and she is also a competitive body builder. It never hurts to rub shoulders with someone more aggressive and competitive than one.

The casting associate had screened me by phone and asked if I could bring a partner, or maybe even a team. I hadn't understood that, by so doing, she would actually be doubling her chances of booking a great person for the show. I had imagined being in the game with my partner, and learning a few angles from her as we went along.

Cut to last week, on the big TV studio back lot, where my friend and I found ourselves in a room with about sixty other would-be game players. Within an hour, the casting folks had knocked half of us out of the competition, and we hadn't even played the game yet. No way to know what it was about me that sent me to the parking lot to await my partner's fate as she got to play a pre-game game, videotaped, along with other contestants deemed suitable for the show - all ages, sizes, and hues.

Among us in the first round were handsome male twins, an African American gay male singer just back from a tour of Asia, two young women who want to become nuns, and an obese bald woman with stars tattooed on her shiny pate. They all had oversized personalities, as did the finalists. One of these was actually quite outrageous. In her introduction to the rest of us in the room, when asked who she had come to the show with, she announced that she had come with her mother, who had just stepped out, because she had wet her pants again. "My mom is always wetting her pants when she gets excited," she announced.

In the end, said my friend, who held her own in the game for three hours, and almost went the distance - they chose four lovely skinny gals, early 20's: two Asians, one Latina, and one Caucasian, all long-haired beauties.

There was probably another team being scrutinized. I chatted briefly with one woman who was filling out a 10-page psychological profile as her next step.

I'll be watching if Comcast carries it in my Bay Area market.


(See the video featured above at http://www.amazon.com/dp/6303495818?tag=thefiftieswebsit&link_code=as3&creativeASIN=6303495818&creative=373489&camp=211189)