Yours truly CIAOCIAO was live on the scene at the SM Global Auditions ‘08 in Vancouver Canada last weekend.

Originally, I was going to bombard audition hopefuls with ridiculous questions like “If you were part of a boyband/girlgroup, what would your group name be?” or “If you were famous, what would your fans be called?”. But as much as I wanted to stir up some interesting drama and see nervous auditionees squeam, in the end, I decided to keep a low profile. Auditionees aren’t really my crowd. There’s a time and place to make fun of idols, and that wasn’t it. Can you imagine how painful and embarrassing it would be to get jumped by a bunch of crazed Cassiopeian teenyboppers?

Anywho…here are some highlights of my personal experiences there:

Arrival: Surprisingly, there was a high turnout of people at the auditions. When I arrived, I stuck out like a sore thumb because I showed up with my white friend. The moment we walked through the doors, all 400 pairs of eyes gawked at her like they’ve never seen a white person before. Needless to say, my white friend felt uncomfortable.

Application: SM demands so much information on their application. Is this an audition or a tax audit?! They might as well have asked for social security and credit card information!

Waiting: My audition number was in the 190s, so I could tell it was going to be a while. In the waiting room, there was a makeshift screen playing SM artists’ music videos on repeat. Not only did I want to gouge my eyes out after an eternity of sitting and waiting, I’ve also seen the Super Junior-H “Pajama Party” and DBSK “Mirotic” MVs enough to last me the next lifetime. I can confidently say I never want to watch another SM MV ever again.

Auditioning: You audition in groups. They call you up 10 at a time, and you line up against a wall. Then you walk downstairs into the audition room. Those steps downstairs were THE oldest, most rickety, ghetto steps EVER. As we were walking down them, the girls behind me whispered to each other half-jokingly, “Don’t trip.” The second they blurted out those words, my heel got caught, and WHOOOSH!!! I fell! Everyone around me was stunned and concerned, ”OMG!!! ARE YOU OK!?!?!!?!!?” First of all…ow. I got up, but two steps later, I fell AGAIN! One of the audition staff even came rushing over to help me.

Finally, the time comes to audition, and you’re herded into the room like cows. Lined up against the back wall, you do your 15 seconds of stuff. If they like you, they move you to an adjacent wall, take your photograph, and make you redo your stuff again solo. When everyone’s done, they turn on music and make you dance. And then, in a blink of an eye, it’s over.

Callbacks: Super secret callbacks were the following day. You bascially audition like a broken record all over again.

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