American Idol: Spotlight on Randal

I'm sure any of you who read this blog and went to ACU know Randal Senter. He's a cool, laid-back guy. As you read yesterday on this blog, I thought I saw him on American Idol this week. It turns out, I did. I got a hold of Randal and he agreed to give all my loyal readers an All-Access Pass to inner workings of American Idol...




From Randal...

I've always wanted to do the American Idol thing and this time was my last time before I "aged out" so I figured what the heck. I ended up down in Austin that week anyway for work so it worked out perfectly. I went and picked up my ticket to get in on Tuesday night, which was cool because I got to sit right at the front row of the stadium and watch everyone where I ended up sitting. Thursday morning was the day for the auditions so I got up there about 4:30 or so and waited...forever! (that is where I ended up getting my face on TV!) We were supposed to get into the stadium by 7 but they were shooting more video and so we didn't get in until nearly 9.

Ok, so here is the disappointing part to all of the American Idol fans.
You don't walk straight in and go see Paula and the gang. I know, they make it look like we all get to see them, but you don't. Its the lie of television! We waited in the auditorium, yelled and screamed for Texas for about an hour for the cameras, then they had us go 4 at a time into the middle of the auditorium. They had set up about 10 booths, each manned by 3-4 producers of the show, who all looked like 19 year olds for the most part. They took our pictures and had us in a queue to go in front of the producers. I ended up with three of the most nervous girls I've ever met. We went to our booth and then we had to wait while one of the producers went to the restroom. But then, the HEAD producer guy comes and takes his place. Not good. He asks, " so does anyone wanna go first?" and no one stepped up. So I figured I'd be the gentleman and just do it. Again, not good. I did ok, being a little nervous myself with the big producer guy staring at me. I sang "Rock This Town" by the Stray Cats. It was ok, but do you know how hard it is to pick an a song! So the other girls sang... Yikes! They could have picked any of them to be on the blooper part of the show. It was too funny. But, after a few minutes of listening to them get cut off, the producer says, "Great job you guys, but I don't see what we are looking for today." Grrr... So I slowly walked past them and out the door, hearing cheers and screaming from people who were presented the golden ticket to see Simon. Of course that is the other deception. They had to come back on the next day to see them. If you watched the show, it doesn't look that way! You should have seen some of the people that made it. Wow. Oh, and the Austin guy with the dress they showed on TV, yeah, I ended up in the bathroom standing right next to him while he...uh...you know...

So that is it. I made some fun friends while I was there, and then I ended up on the show. Hey, that's 1.25 seconds of national TV time that I didn't have before! I was the key point of that clip too! :) I guess I'll have to wait to get discovered. Yeah right!