a one in a million(aire) opportunity - pt 2

After getting my audition/call-back pass and application for "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," I had three hours to figure out the answers to some intriguing personal questions.

• Quirks, rituals, superstitions... what makes you unique?
• How would winning $1 million change your life?
• What is one thing you do that makes people laugh?
• If you could nominate yourself as "best _____" or "most likely to ______" what would be your vote?
• What do you do for fun?
• You'd never believe it, but I once...
• Why do you want to be on Millionaire?
• How did you hear about the audition?

Of course, these are more than questions... this is their way of figuring out if you're a genius who rubs people the wrong way or if you're a smart person who'd actually be fun to watch on TV.

There was another set of questions as well... these were more movie focused:

• Is there any movie that you're obsessed with? How many times have you seen it?
• How large is your movie collection?  How many movies do you see  a year?
• What are your 3 favorite movie memories and why are they your favorite?
• Do you have any friends, relatives, or pets that are named after a movie character?
• Do you have a home theater?  How much money have you spent to enhance your movie experience?
• Do you own or collect any movie memorabilia? What is the most you have spent on an item?
• Have you ever missed work or an important event to go see a movie?
• What do you love about movies?
• What makes you the perfect contestant for the movie trivia shows?

I knew I'd need to concentrate, so instead of sitting in a corner of the hallway I ended up heading out to a local "Subway" restaurant, grabbing some lunch, and filling out the application there on a hard table.  Sometimes these little things can help a person to think clearly.  It also afforded me the chance to use the internet and phone to brainstorm some good answers to the questions... my wife had some great insights on potential responses.

By this point I had some time to kill, so I walked around the West Side Market in Cleveland.  If you've never been there before, it's an enclosed farmer's market and specialty shop area that includes over 100 different vendors from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.  These are the guys who stop you as you walk by with invitations like, "Come here, my friend.  Taste this fruit - it's the BEST melon you will ever have in your life.  The BEST!"

By the time I made it back to my callback, a number of people were returning as well.  I somehow managed to get to the front of the line, though, as not too many people considered that where we were waiting would become a line as soon as they opened the doors.  This allowed me to get in and out quickly, helping me get home after an already full day.

But the audition itself went great - a gentleman called me over and asked me some questions based on my application.  I could see him reading me - judging my every expression and non-expression.  My new friend Steve who had made it through as well had remarked to me that he was concerned about "being" the "right person" who would get picked - saying, "If they want me to be funny, I can be funny.  If they want me to be smart, I can be smart.  I hate it that I don't know what they want."

I opted to be myself.  I don't think I faked my way through any of the interview, but simply had a great conversation and made that my only goal.  As it ended, the gentleman shook my hand and gave me a warm look back as he said, "The way it works is that everyone gets a postcard in the mail in the next couple of weeks telling you where we're at in our process. I think you did great, by the way."

So... we'll see. :)

One of my favorite parts of the day was that Steve decided to wait for me to touch base.  I'll tell you what - if all I win out of this is a new friendship, that was awesome in itself.

By the way - one of my answers to the questions above - "How would winning $1 million change your life?"

My response, and it's honest:

I'm hoping it would change other people's lives versus just my household. We'd be looking for ways to share it. But we would pay off our house and set up college accounts for our kids. That, and we'd start buying the "deluxe" version of macaroni and cheese instead of the usual normal brand. :)