This is what I saw tonight as I walked out of work.

Yeah, it’s a pretty awesome place.

So as some of you may know, there’s a new attraction coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios — “The American Idol Experience”. It’s scheduled for a grand opening of 2/14/09, but of course, they need to run it with audiences and contestants and such before that happens, to work out all the bugs. As such, the past three days have been “cast member preview” days, where cast members can audition, participate, and watch the shows. I had today off, so I figured I’d head over and audition.

I rolled into the park around 9:30am or so. Auditions were scheduled to start at 9, but I didn’t think they’d be very busy. The shows happen in the old ABC Theater, but the audition queue is around the back of the building, across from the Sci-Fi Dine-In theater/restaurant. I got in the very short line. A dude with a microphone and another dude with a video camera came out and interviewed some of us in line, letting us know that some of the interview footage might be used in shows if we made it through.

We went into the audition building (ah, sweet air conditioning) three at a time. They only had two audition rooms open (there are four of them total), but I got in pretty fast. The initial audition was 30 seconds or so of a song, a capella, in front of one guy with a computer in a room the size of a walk-in closet. I chose to do a classic — the chorus from Duran Duran’s “Rio”. Figured they hadn’t heard that yet. The guy liked my peppy attitude, and sent me on to the next level — choosing a song and singing it for a producer.

I went down the hall to a Coca-Cola themed room — all red and white and black all over. There were a bunch of chairs, and next to each, an iPod (inside some awesome locking mechanism to avoid any getting stolen) with really nice headphones. I got a list of songs, a release to sign, and a number to pin to my shirt. We all had to pick two songs for the producer. It was a tough list — lots of stuff I didn’t know (country, recent pop) and stuff I didn’t want to do (anything Disney). My first choice, “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”, proved popular and was removed from the running (in other words, some other chick who made it into the show had it as her first choice, so nobody else could use it).

The decision process was a toughie — many of the songs were in a tough key, or just weren’t rocking my world, or I didn’t know them well. I finally settled on “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” and “You Really Got Me”. Neither of which I’d ever sung before, but the key seemed OK, and I was familiar with both. I went into the producer’s room (a slightly larger walk-in closet) and she let me try out the first bit of each song, to see which one I wanted as my primary choice. I got a microphone, the karaoke track, and even the lyrics shown on a flat-screen behind the producer. I settled on “Natural Woman” and ran through the whole thing.

The producer clicked a couple of keys on her computer, then told me that there was going to be a message on the TV behind her head. Up popped Ryan Seacrest (looking really tired), with a prerecorded bit about how most people who auditioned for the real Idol wanted to hear the words, “You’re going to Hollywood.” Well, I wouldn’t get to hear those words, but he did have five words for me: “You’re going to the show.” Hooray!

The producer scheduled me for the 4pm show, and as an alternate for the 1pm show. There were only three shows — 11am and 1pm were 3-person shows, and the 4pm show was a 7-person “finale” show. When the attraction is up and running, there will be 7 regular 3-person shows, with the winner from each one competing in the finale. But since this was a shortened day, I got sent right to the finale. No pressure there, right? I was given a yellow card on a lanyard to wear around the park, with “VOTE FOR ME!” on it, and told when to return to the backstage door.

I had a little time to wander, so I went and got some peanuts for a snack. Then I made it back to the theater a little over an hour before the 1pm show. The three people scheduled for that show were all there, but I still got to stick around in case one of them chickened out or broke a limb or something. They all got to rotate through hair/makeup, vocal coaching, and time to sit with yet another iPod. Then we all went out onstage (and it’s a beautiful stage) and they walked through where to stand and where to go. Then the show commenced, and I watched it from backstage. The winner for the show was a guy from guest show (custodial) who did an awesome job with “Superstition”. Since I knew he’d be coming back for the finale show, I actually felt less nervous, because he was a shoo-in to win the whole thing.

I went off to the cafeteria to have lunch with some of my former co-workers who now work at Idol. The salad bar at the Studios is actually quite a bit better than the salad bar at Epcot. Just sayin’. Then it was just about time to head back to the theater to get ready for the finale show. I managed to meet up with Scott and give him the VIP ticket they’d given me, so he could get a premium seat (he’d had an appointment earlier in the day).

In we went, now seven of us. We rehearsed where to stand, when to leave, what to do. We all got fitted with a little device that clips on your shoulder — the spotlights are hooked into this doodad, so that no matter where you go on stage, the spots follow you beautifully. Awesome! We all got to sound-check our songs, and they had a great amount of reverb and echo and other tricks that made everyone sound really good. Then it was back to hair/makeup (of which I had little done) and a few minutes with a vocal coach.

And suddenly, showtime! We filed backstage and sat on the couches back there, watching the show on another flat screen TV (they have a TON of really nice HDTVs everywhere). The host introduced us, we all filed out in a line, then we all went backstage again. The judges were introduced (three types — hip, sympathetic, and caustic [but "Disney" caustic, mind you]) and then the show was on. The first two guys went up, then it was my turn.

I sang my song (which is, oddly, much easier in front of a huge audience than in front of one person in a walk-in closet), got some good comments and a nice response from the audience, and headed backstage. The best comment was from the caustic judge: he likened me to a flatulent elephant. Because he didn’t envy anyone who had to follow me. Nice!

I finally got my first chance to relax all day, after stressing out about the whole darn thing. The last four singers went, with the custodial guy totally rocking the house in the headliner position. Then we all headed out and took our seats on the side of the stage. We got to sit on the same stools they use on the show, and I have to say — not particularly comfortable. I felt like I was going to slide off the entire time.

The host read off three names; those contestants stepped forward, and were sent back to the stools. Then two more; one of them was safe, one of them got the boot. Then it was me and custodial guy. I got sent back to the stools, so it was down to custodial guy and a nice boy who looked like Buddy Holly who’d done a delightfully schmoozy job with “Sway”. Of course, custodial dude won. Cue the confetti cannons! We all got to go onstage, and the judges joined us.

Then we went backstage, and all of the judges came back and shook our hands. I knew two of them already; the third, oddly enough, was the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Play It! when I made the hot seat three years ago, on our anniversary trip. Small world!

All in all, it was a fantastic experience. I don’t care that I didn’t win — I didn’t expect to win. Heck, I didn’t really expect that I’d make it into a show, but I had to try while I had the chance (once it’s open to guests, we cast members can’t even audition). Scott didn’t get to take any pictures of me onstage — not only are they big on all of the “no photography” signs and speeches, but one of his former co-workers who now works at Idol sat right next to him. Sad, but oh well. I still had a great damn time.

I haven’t been watching the presidential debates — I know who I’m voting for already, and watching the other guy talk would just make me angry. But I have to ask — what the hell is up with McCain’s tongue? All I’m seeing online these days are screencaps where it looks like he’s hacking up hairballs.

Today is the last day of the first week of rehearsals. We’ve gone through blocking, and working on character development. Now the big challenge is to get all the memorizing done, so we can be off-book next week.

It’s already awesome working in one of the theme parks. I get to see guests during daytime hours, out having fun on their vacations, and they’re not drunk. What a change! We’re eating in various Epcot locations for dinner, and I’m becoming a master of the kids’ meal.

It turns out that I’m not at rock-bottom on the seniority ladder at this new job; the guys they’re keeping from the old cast are newer to the company than I, so I’m a mere third from the bottom now. The good news is, since both Scott and I opted for non-popular days off (Wednesday and Thursday), as of the 26th, we’re both able to be off work on the same days. Yay!

Here’s a LOLcat that actually made me laugh out loud. Which rarely happens.

Of all of you out there watching Dancing with the Stars, is there anyone else who dislikes Cloris Leachman? I feel like I’m in the minority here — the reality round-up I read has an author who’s all, Cloris is still in it! Yay! I just find her irritating, and desperately trying to amuse us, and there’s just no joy in her for me whatsover.

I’m meeting up with some Comedy Warehouse folk this afternoon at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. Most countries also have beer, however. Which is good for us wine-haters.

We took a videogame break from shooting people in Venezuela (yay, Mercenaries 2!) so that I could go shoot people in Rapture (yay, Bioshock!) for a while. I upped the difficulty to medium, which is a first for me in FPS games. Usually I’m all about the easy. The game is awesome as ever, and even more awesome with all the lights out. If I finish up Rapture too quickly, I may then go run around Whispering Rock Summer Camp (yay, Psychonauts!) for a while.

Wow, what a weekend. I feel really deflated now.

The closing night shows on Saturday were great — the crowds were huge, and they treated us like rock stars. I didn’t cry as much as I thought I would; everyone was just too upbeat, and treated it like a party instead of a wake. Which was great.

We went out after the shows to a coworkers house, where all of the adventurers and warehousers and alumni could mingle and such. I made it home around 5am.

Sunday, management threw a party for everyone. So back out to island we went, and noshed on some good food, watched a documentary about the history of the island that they made for us, and celebrated one last New Year’s Eve on Pleasure Island.

Now I have two weeks off, in which I’ll most likely just kick around the house and do a lot of sitting on my ass.

Tonight is the last night of shows at the Comedy Warehouse. I have a feeling the night is going to be … intense.

We had an island-wide meeting this afternoon, and the news has broken at the Orlando Sentinel — as of September 27, 2008, all of the nightclubs on Pleasure Island will be closing.

This means that my job ends in three months.

On the pro list, it’s nice to have three months to find another job. There are plenty of opportunities here at WDW, and they’ve told us all that the company will work as hard as they can to get us into new Equity roles. On the flip side, it sucks that these entertainment venues with 19+ years of history will be closed down for good.

I’m still kind of numb. I’m glad I got to do my dream job, short-form improv for a living wage, for at least a little while. And hope is high that I’ll get another great show here at Disney. But I (and my coworkers) are all a bit crushed right now.

Today is our last Sunday off together! Next week I start my new schedule, which will be Tuesdays and Wednesdays off. Such is the luck of the draw when you’re low man on the totem pole.

Since this will be our last full day off together for a couple of months (I think Scott re-draws for days off in April) we’re hitting the parks for a day of fun. At the very least we’ll be going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (future home of the new American Idol attraction!) and the Magic Kingdom.

In other news, the bad press that Bright House cable has been getting because it’s shutting us CableCARD users off from several HD channels is piling up. They’ve agreed to let us use an HD DVR for free until the USB dongle that’s in development is released. Maybe they think we’ll leave TiVo for their DVR, but there’s not much chance of that happening — their DVR already crashed once yesterday, and it has a fairly ugly interface. And the remote is effing huge.

Yesterday, I was presented with the “Quarterly Spotlight” award for Downtown Disney. The award is “in recognition of outstanding job performance, service, quality and dedication to the philosophy and tradtion of Walt Disney World Resort.”

This means that more than one person in my area (managers, other cast members) nominated me for this thing. Pretty darned cool! Scott won the quarterly award for his area a couple of quarters ago (I think he got 2Q 2007; mine is 4Q 2007), so now I guess we’ll have to be double-dorks and frame the certificates.

Oh, and it came with the gift of 30 “Disney dollars”. Hee!

Today has, so far, been a day full of win. First off, we went out to Access Control and I traded in my white generic Disney ID for a full-color beauty with my picture on it. I’m now totally and utterly official!

Since we were out that way, we decided to celebrate my 90-day mark at the Magic Kingdom. So we cruised over thataway (getting a very up-close parking spot in the process) and headed in. We rode Splash Mountain, we rode Big Thunder Mountain, we had some Disney-grade lunch. Then it was over to Tomorrowland for a couple of rides on the PeopleMover and once through Buzz Lightyear.

We got FastPasses for Space Mountain, and headed in at what turned out to be the perfect time. We got in our car, started out from the load platform, got partway up the lift hill, and then the ride broke down. We ended up sitting on the lift hill for 15 minutes or so (where it was air conditioned, and the seats were comfy) — we could see up ahead that the work lights were all on inside the ride. Apparently something was dropped from a car and set off a sensor. Eventually, they started the lift hill back up, and we got to ride Space Mountain with all the lights on. It was SO awesome.

We got off the ride and as an apology, they gave us FastPasses to re-ride. But they aren’t just Space Mountain FastPasses — they’re valid for a FastPass admission to ANY ride in the Magic Kingdom, they don’t expire until July, and we each got two. Since a second ride in the dark wouldn’t be anywhere near as awesome as the fully-lit ride, we’re going to hold onto them for a future visit. Maybe next Friday, Scott’s birthday — I’m just now eligible for my first paid personal holiday (I’ll get three total this year, but no paid vacation until 2008) so I’m taking his birthday off.

Soon I’m off to work, where hopefully my day continues to be golden.