(Warning: This is pretty long. If uninterested in "The Voice", move on now. 
)
Hey All,
I went into NYC yesterday
(3/11/2012) for the open call auditions for the next season (3) of "The Voice". It was a very long day, but in the end it was a lot of fun and even though you won't be seeing me on TV anytime soon, I'm very glad I went! If you are planning on going to the upcoming Atlanta or Los Angeles auditions, here are some tips & advice on how it all works.
First off, if you think you are going to meet Adam, Cee-Lo, Blake or Christina, think again. This is literally the pre-pre-pre audition to the one you see on TV. If you pass this one, there is a local call back/cut, then an LA call back/cut before the actual televised "blind audition" for the stars.
To get the ball rolling you sign up online at
http://www.nbcthevoice.com and get your "Artist Audition Pass".
#1 Tip? Choose the early audition times and arrive as EARLY as possible. The NYC options were 7am or 2pm. I, (like you!) thought "I don't want to have to get up at 5am on a Sunday morning to be there by 7am, etc". Well, everybody else thought that too. I was stunned at the sheer number of people in line. There were several thousand people when I arrived and thousands more filed in for hours behind me. The line wrapped all the way around the outside of the Jacob Javitz convention center which is a
very large building. I got there at 1:30pm for the 2:00 time on my pass. I didn't actually audition until 6:45pm, and there were a LOT of people behind me. Now granted it seems like every singer had their entire family with them so once inside the "performers only" line portion was a little better but it was a staggering amount of people.
Once inside, they check your ID to make sure it matches with the info on the website and tell the non-singers to head to a different waiting area. You had to be 15 and if under 18 have a guardian present and I was surprised at the number of disappointed kids/parents they turned away because they simply didn't read the waiver they signed and were holding in their hands! You are wrist banded, bags security checked and taken to a staging area with folding chairs. They were set up in rows of 10, about 20 chairs deep. There were six of these sections, and they were filling them up as fast as they were filing out. Roughly 1000 people. You sit in this room for quite awhile so people are talking and bonding with the people around them. Turns out this is basically the audition order so the people nearest you are the ones you will be singing in the audition room with. And what a group. There were people there from 15-75 years old. I thought I would be the oldest guy there amongst 20-somethings, but I wasn't by a LONG shot.
In this staging area the handlers keep reminding people over & over that from this point forward there are NO pictures, NO recording, NO facebook & NO twitter. You can make calls or text, but that's it and they were watching. Getting caught meant disqualification and confiscation of your device (also in the waiver). I didn't see anyone busted, but I didn't see anyone taking pictures either as nobody wanted to mess things up after standing in line for 4+ hours at this point.
Finally when they get to you, you are told to line up single file and they let you through the door in groups of ten. Behind the door? More lines! We are taken through backstage corridors to another section of the convention center with meeting rooms. There were people all lined up along this hallway, most sitting on the floor looking like they had been there awhile. Turns out they had. It was another hour at this point, but you could hear people singing on the other side of the doors and see groups being let in/out. They had at least 8 audition rooms going at once from what I could see and possibly more elsewhere. It was during this time you get to know all the people in your group of ten, people talking about what they are singing, etc. Mine was a diverse group. I was the oldest, there were two 16 year old's with their parents and all ages/colors/sizes in between.
Finally it was time to go in and we walked into a very small room, probably 15x15 with a dozen folding chairs and a gentleman sitting at a table with a Mac & iPad. He was very laid back and friendly & introduced himself as
Romeo Johnson, the head vocal coach on the show (a friend of mine auditioned for the head producer lady so it's random who sees you sing). He then explained what we needed to do and gave us this sobering news:
"I can't emphasize enough that the bar is set VERY high this year. The caliber of people auditioning has just been jaw dropping. I can't name names, but I have even had people who are on CD's I have at home show up and I'm like "Why are YOU here"? and they said "I wanted to be on the show". That level. So by no means should you think you can't sing if I don't ask you to come back, its just that I know what the producers are looking for." And THOSE last few words are the big take away here. When you boil it all down,
it's still a TV show. It's a casting call. They are looking for certain looks, personalities, stories and of course a singing voice, but they want the whole package. If you have the most beautiful, pristine voice in the world but stared at your feet the whole time, you wouldn't make it. The ability to simply sing well was just 33% of it. They want energy, confidence & presence.
We were each called up one by one, told to state our name, age, city and song we were singing...then sing. They wanted you to have two songs ready, and you had to sing them dry. Acapella. One country boy in our group had a guitar and was surprised when they said "you can hold it, but can't play it". He didn't read the rules/disclaimer either! It was all filmed on his iPad and the clause in the disclaimer was incredibly verbose that they owned the footage forever, for whatever purpose they want. The kids didnt do very well but the rest were very talented. A gorgeous black girl literally sang her a$$ off..could easily be on the show in my opinion, and the lady next to me turned out to be the lead soprano for the NY Grand Opera. No joke. Everyone sang, applauded one another and when finished he re-emphasized the "High Bar" and gave us each a vocal critique. Basically he said that we all had "very good instruments", were on pitch, etc...but needed to move on to actual vocal coaching/training if we ever wanted to take it to the next level. And with that, it was "Thank You, Hope to see you again when we return in six months". Nobody was asked to sing their second song and no one was asked to come back. And from what we gathered talking to others, only one person out of the thousands that day had been spotted with the coveted "red envelope" indicating they were chosen for the next round.
So, all in all it was a long day. I stood in line for 5+ hours to spend 30 minutes in a room and 3 minutes singing. Would I do it again? Absolutely! It was a blast and exhilarating. I also knew I didn't have a snowballs chance in hell, but had never been to a real NYC audition before and wanted to cross it off the bucket list. I'd be lying if there wasn't a little hope in my mind that they hadn't met their quota of "graying, overweight old guys" yet though.
I must say it was a great feeling to be able to be in a room with very talented people and not only hold your own, but do better than most. I walked out smiling with a great sense of accomplishment.
So if you are on the fence about going, GO. It was a lot of fun and for me a once in a lifetime experience.
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