AGT Audition : Round 2 in NYC (March 18, 2009)

Well, March 18th was four months ago and that was when I auditioned for AGT. The show has been on air for 3 weeks now, and they are all done showing the New York Auditions. To the best of my knowledge, I did not appear on air.
After I returned from New York, I wrote down some thoughts about my experience. Below are some of the details from my audition (with some current reflection added in parenthesis). At the end, I will write a little about what I think about the experience looking back at it from today's perspective.

Wednesday March 18, 2009:

Today Mari and I returned from New York. We woke up in Room 968 @ the Hotel Pennsylvania. We went downstairs to have breakfast in the hotel restaurant. After a delicious meal we went back to the room and read our Bibles. As I was reading, I started to feel anxious. I wanted to get down to the hotel lobby right away because we were supposed to meet the AGT representative @ 10:30. Since we stored the trash cans in our room, I was worried about it taking a long time to get downstairs. (Looking back at it now, it seems so silly to be worried about the amount of time it takes to bring trash cans to a hotel lobby. May the Lord teach me to trust in him at all times.)
As it turned out, since Mari was there to help me there was no problem getting the 'instruments' down to the lobby. The elevator ride was smooth and we arrived to the crowded lobby with ease.
While we were waiting in the lobby we met a nice couple from Pennsylvania. Their daughter was performing/singing for the auditions too. It was nice to break the ice with some other audition people.
When the time came for the shuttle to take us to the theater, the timing worked out perfectly because my Mom was able to meet us right before we went inside. She took the Acela Amtrak train, which I thought was pretty cool.
After a security check, and waiting to talk to the person who would check me in, we realized that my Mom could not come inside due to their standard operating procedures. We though it would be best if Mari and my Mom went to get coffee (instead of leaving my Mom all alone in NYC) while I tried to figure out what I should do next.
There was never really one person to guide you. The AGT staff would pass you off to the next step ... it was kind of like being at the MVA when you have to do something complicated. One thing though, everyone from AGT that I interacted with made you feel like you are important, and they treated me with more respect than I usually think I deserve.
After doing some basic processing it was time to move my 'props' backstage. After knocking the 'helper's' earrings out of her ear w/ my stick bag (oops), we went outside and walked around the theater. There was another 'junk percussion' group with me at this time. I think they are called "The Street Beats." 3 Drummers and 3 dancers. I didn't get to see them perform, but they had shiny trash cans and huge construction cones.
After going backstage to drop off our 'instruments' we were directed to go back outside, into the lobby, and then walk downstairs to the contestant green room. Now the waiting game arrived. I had to sign some paperwork, but before I could, someone came and said, "Are you the Spitz-O-Matic?" I said, "yes." She said politely, "we would like to interview you now."
So, this nice person asked me all sorts of questions (like what are you going to be doing today, who is your inspiration, what would you do if you won the million dollars, etc ...) and she made me feel like I was the most important person in the room. This was a lot of fun!
After the interview I waited for a while in the green room and then another person came to bring me on stage. The stage was amazing. Brilliant lights and a lot of cool equipment. They had stage hands to set-up my garbage cans and they wanted to know how to set them up. That was really cool.
After the set-up I went downstairs to wait some more. The show had started and the first 'buzzer' went off (The way the show works is that the contestants perform, and if the judges do not like you, they hit the buzzer. If a contestant receives three buzzers or X's, their performance is over) . . . . I was not prepared for how LOUD those buzzers were ... and they were LOOOUUUD! Every time one went off, everything in me said, "YIKES!!!!!"
I waited downstairs for about 40 minutes while I listened to my iPod and the buzzers. ... Then the time came. Miguel, one of the stage managers came and said, "Spitzo, it's time, follow me upstairs."
Once I was backstage, I noticed that they had about 3-5 contestants in the holding area. There was a camera man who filmed me in the area behind the stage. While he was filming, he asked me to pace back and forth. While I was pacing and praying, I practiced the three rhythms I knew I was going to play (the rest was going to be improvised). I continued pacing, praying, and practicing, all the while thinking I was being filmed, and then I opened my eyes and realized the camera man had left. That was a good time to check my heart to see if I was praying for the camera or because I believed I needed God's help. It was a little bit of both. I noticed they had some chairs were other contestants were sitting, so I meandered over and took a seat. While I was sitting, a sound tech dude came and put a lavaliere mic on my shirt. It would be able to to pick up the sound of the buckets.
After that the producer (he was the same guy who called me initially and we had been emailing to work out the details of the audition) came to me and told me what question they were going to ask. He said "At a previous interview you said that you sang and played pots and pans in a restaurant. They are going to ask you where you perform. Answer that question with how you play in a restaurant singing and playing pots and pans." I said, "OK," and smiled. Inside I was thinking, "what ... that job ended in February, and we didn't talk about the restaurant job at all in my interview." What about the fact I'm a teacher, or how I've always dreamed about being in STOMP and this is the closest I've ever come. But I figured I couldn't say anything, so I went and sat down.
The next act up was a junk percussion act (not the Street Beats group). They were amazing. High energy, fast chops, jumping up and down off of ladders. They made it on the show. I thought to myself, "Would they really chose two junk percussion acts from the same taping?" There was also this young girl singing and playing guitar and they didn't chose her. I was getting really nervous. Also, one of the judges said, "This is the greatest talent show in the world, I'm not sure your act is ready," to one of the other contestants.
At this point, I thought to myself I didn't have a chance, and I certainly didn't think my act was worth a million dollars. But there I was, backstage about to perform in front of a live audience and three celebrity judges. No turning back now.
Well, the time had come, they said, "Spitzomatic, your up." I went back stage, got some final instruction from the stage manager, the count down came, "5, 4, 3, 2, ..."
I walked up to the big X and David Hasselhoff asked me what my name was and where I was from:
I said, "My name is David Spitzberg and I am from Olney, MD ... it's three suburbs west of Washington DC." Then he asked what I was going to do for them today, and I said I was going to play trash cans with my hands. He said, "Where do you normally perform?" I said, "At a restaurant, where I sing and play pots and pans." He said, "Do you believe your act is worth $1 million dolloars? I said, "I sure hope so" while I threw my fist up in the air and looked at the people in the balcony (there were about a thousand people in the theater). He said, "OK .. um, show us what you got."
Since the junk percussion act before me played high energy stuff, I wanted to start off slow and build to show how diverse junk percussion could be. BIG MISTAKE. I started playing my soft rhythm, and immediately the front row started to boo me, and then the first buzzer went off, I got confused, so I started to play louder and a different rhtyhm ... before I knew it the people in the front row were booing and making "X's" with their hands, and then the second and third buzzers went off, the lighting changed and my performance was over.
They asked me, "What was that?" "That was really annoying." "Tell me what restaurant you perform at so I never eat there?" I didn't answer that question. I don't remember what else I said. It is kind of a blur, but I do remember walking off stage.
Nick Cannon was there to interview me, he asked me about the goat toes I used as a shaker on top of my trash cans. He seemed to be surprised I would use goat toes (doesn't everyone use goat toes on top of their trash cans). Next he asked what went wrong. I said I tried to gradually get the crowd into it and once they started booing I didn't know how to get them back. He tapped me on the back and said, "best of luck to you buddy."
Right after I finished with Nick, I had an after interview with another person . This gentleman who was wearing a black t-shirt said, "so what happened out there?" I said, "I tried to do something different from the previous act, and the crowd didn't like it. I knew that if I couldn't get the crowd into it, my act would not be that interesting. So I tried to do the best I could." He said, "You don't seem that upset by this." I said, "You know, I just had the opportunity to play my trash cans for David Hasselhoff. He may have hated it, but this was a great experience for me." He then asked, "What's next for you?" I said, "Well, I'm a teacher and tomorrow I go back to work."
After that interview I went back to the downstairs green room. I was disappointed, but still excited about having the opportunity to be there. My Mom and Mari came backstage to see how I was doing. They said I didn't have a chance because of how good that other group was. They were also worried I would be upset. By God's grace I wasn't. My two prayer requests were that I would have fun performing and that no matter what the results were, I would still trust in Him. God answered both those prayers perfectly because He is a perfect God. I may not have had fun performing, but I can say that I trust God for the results.
And that was my AGT audition round 2.

Just for fun I thought I would post some proof since I did not appear on TV:

... The End ...

Well, here I am four months after the show and I've seen some of the acts that made it. What do I think about my AGT experience?
I still think it was a great opportunity to perform and grow as a musician. I learned that even when people don't like what you play, you have to keep going. I don't have a regular opportunity to play trash cans anymore, but I have been teaching junk percussion at a summer camp. I am starting to see that I am a teacher who performs, not a performer who teaches. This summer at the camp has been fun, both for me and the campers. I do not think I will ever have my own junk percussion show on the Las Vegas strip, but I did help about thirty-five young people perform this summer. I think that is what God has gifted me to do.
What is the future of the Spitz-O-Matic now that AGT is over? I think the next step is to put the same effort I used to get ready for the NYC auditions into writing weekly songs to help my PGCPS students learn specific musical concepts. I hope to have at least one song a month. Next year I hope to do a new song a week.
The best part of this whole experience was having Mari with me every step of the way. She was able to help me see my heart by asking great questions. She is a huge gift to me.
If you read this, you are a true friend, thank you for taking the time. And remember, there will probably be a season 5 of AGT, so get your audition ready by January or February and hopefully I'll see you on TV next summer.

America's Got Talent Auditions

So, there I am pulling up to the Gaylord parking lot on Friday around 3 pm and what do I see? "America's Got Talent Audition Parking." I heard my friend/real estate agent Wes talk about this show before so I call him to get some advice. After talking with him, I decide to audition. Since this was a last minute decision, I didn't have anything prepared. What was I going to do? My rap ... of course. It is called, "Wind Goes" and was written by myself and some students from one of my elementary schools. As I walked into the main entrance for the audition, I saw that there was no line. I was thinking it'd be no problem to be finished by 5:15 which was when I had to be ready to start playing buckets. The next step was to walk upstairs to the main holding room. Unfortunately for me, there were more people than I expected. My number was 342 and they just called numbers 281-300. I thought, 'this could be a big opportunity ... I should wait untill the last minute, and maybe there will be time.'

Fast forward to 5:05 ... I ask one of the people working the event, "if I come back tomorrow do I have to wait in line." And he says, "yes." I explain to him that I am performing at the hotel in 10 minutes. He said, "Let me see if there is anything I can do." He talks on his ear piece and directs me to an audition room. I was excited.

There I was in front of 'Brian' (the audition person) and a video camera. I told him I wanted to rap and that it was written by myself and some of my elementary school students. I perform it with energy and enthusiasm. When I was done he asked, 'What are you performing here at the hotel?' I said that I play with a group that is similar to STOMP. I let him know where we are performing, and that was the end of my 1st audition.
By that time it was 5:12. I briskly ran down the stairs, changed, and was ready to hit the buckets right @ 5:15. I was still excited about my audition in the midst of performing. While we were doing our bucket and ladder act, one of the AGT people started to watch us. After we finished she asks if there is anyway AGT can bring their cameras down to record our act. We explain that we don't own the show and that we would have to get approval from Brother Entertainment.
We make a few phone calls to see what we can do to have them record us. But the show must go on, and we only had a five minute break. The next thing I know, I'm about to sing to three tables at Moonbay and all of a sudden, a person in an AGT shirt tries to get my attention. But I'm about to sing to smiling faces. (People are normally smiling and wondering what we are doing, because we walk into the restaurant playing kitchen utensils while wearing chef uniforms. ) I didn't think it would be right to stop working. I told the gentleman, "I'm sorry, but I can't talk right now." He walks away, and that was my last contact w/ AGT on Friday night at the hotel.

On my way home, I talked with Mari and Gene and told them what happened. They both were surprised that I rapped and did not play the drums. So I decided to text the person from AGT to see if I could audition on Saturday playing trash cans. She texted back ... "Sure, come to the registration desk @ 10:30."

So I show up @ 9:30 for my 10:30 audition, and then I'm escorted along with a male A capella group to a holding room. It seems there is a way to receive scheduled auditions. I did not have to wait in the holding room with the people who came to audition like I did on Friday. I go in and audition for a different person. I improvised a short piece on a large plastic trash can, a small metal trash can, and a shredder bin. They asked me a few questions and then asked me to wait outside. I waited for about 10 minutes and then I was escorted to a second audition room. That was the most exciting part of the audition, knowing that I had moved on to another audition.

There they took my picture before I auditioned again. I performed my improv junk percussion piece for the 2nd time. The first time it was much better. I explained to the person how I rapped yesterday but my friends encouraged me to play the drums instead. He asked to hear my rap. After I was done he said, "I've heard worse." He then asked me if I had seen the show, I said no, so he explained how the show works. After that he asked how people respond to my performance. I could only think about responses to the Gaylord show, but I think he meant my 1 man junk show. So I'm not sure my answer made sense to him. I packed up and he said "cheers." He was from England.

After that I went into another room where they asked me a few questions (one of which was what is the closest airport to you). They made a copy of my license.Then they said, if you are selected a producer will contact you, and then I went home.

I had seen other contestants being videotaped and telling their stories to people who looked like producers. They didn't do that to me, so I am thinking I wasn't chosen. However, it was a great experience to make it to the second audition. Two days ... three AGT auditions.

Thanks for reading about my America's Got Talent story. After the audition I took Mari to a very relaxing Bed + Breakfast where we celebrated Valentines Day in Hagerstown.