May 8, 2018 – randomly made a video, and I’m pretty sure I sent it in that night.
You only get 30 seconds to say something. I happened to still be living kind of half in New York, half in LA, at the time. Thinking New York would seem interesting to them, I went and taped it in Times Square, not saying anything super special. In fact, I’ll tell you exactly what I said:
“Hi Wheel of Fortune! My name is Aurora. I’m here in Times Square, where I live, in New York. And… I want to be on Wheel, because I’m great at the strategy. I know all about the “What are you Doing” ending in -ing, and… you know, all the good letters to call, statistically what you should call for the bonus round. I care so much. And I really want to be on the show. So, please call me. Okay, bye!”
On August 27, 2018 – I got an email that I was given an audition, to take place almost exactly two weeks later.
I was lucky because, as I said, I was living partially in New York, and partially in LA, and I was already in LA during that time. So, it was easy for me to go to the audition.
They did say if you didn’t live in Los Angeles, they could contact you when they’d be closer to your state. But even if I hadn’t been in LA, I doubt I would’ve wanted to wait any longer.
So, then on the morning of September 11, 2018, I had my audition.
I had a truly great time at the audition.
Basically, you start with checking in at the desk, and turning in an application with a picture of yourself [that they instructed you to bring].
Everyone sat in rows of chairs. They welcomed us in, and we got to take a written test.
There were two different written tests on two different colored pieces of paper, so that you wouldn’t have the same test as someone next to you.
The test was hard, but reasonable. I was slightly nervous because there were definitely some things I missed. I very stupidly couldn’t figure out one of the puzzles that had something _ _ J _ K in it. I’m like “Bojack [like Horseman]? What would that be in this context? Also, that doesn’t fit. What other word possible looks like that?
It was Sajak. Like, think about where you are for just two seconds, girl.
But, no matter what I missed, i got enough right to advance to the next round!
It was so funny while they were grading our tests, and everyone was sitting around a little antsy in anticipation. It took kind of a while, but everyone was friendly while we waited.
They listed off the names of people who could stay, and everyone else was sent home.
I don’t have an exact number of people who left/got to stay, but I think it looked like under half, maybe? who got to stay.
So, then they would call on us, and we’d stand up from wherever we were sitting and there was a puzzle on the projector board in this hotel conference room. And we had to call some letters until we solved the puzzle, or they’d seen enough.
I felt so bad in my puzzle because there were THREE 3-letter words. The girl before me guessed “t,” and there was not one T in that whole puzzle.
Can’t fault her for trying T.
So, after only getting to guess one letter, she had to sit back down.
Then it was my turn. Knowing none of those words were “the,” I found some other common 3-letter words (“for,” and “and”).
Here I was thinking I was doing a great job (I like to think I was ;)), but they ended my turn because they’ve seen enough (enough brilliance, I hope! Am I right? *reaches out for high-5*). Anyway, so the puzzles kept going, until it was time for groups of 5-at-a-time to go to the front of the room, and pretend to actually spin, and play the puzzles.
And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow!