This was by far the best casting call of this year and I am so glad that Daniel had the chance to go with me and experience it. Here is a recap as best as I can currently remember it...
Friday morning we were up incredibly early (4:30-ish) in order to drive to the airport and catch our 6:30a.m. flight to Boston. The plane we flew on only fit 35 people and at least half was our group. Somehow we were on the "good" flight through Newark which only had a one hour lay-over before going on to Boston. The other half of our group ended up flying through Cleveland where they had a much longer layover which meant less time for sightseeing in Boston.
We arrived in Boston around 11 where we were picked up by a bus and dropped off in downtown Boston at Fanuill Hall with instructions to meet back for a 5p.m. pick up.
We were lucky to be with Mary who had gone to Boston College - we let her be our tour guide for most of the day. We started out by taking the subway out to where Boston College was and eating lunch at her favorite restaurant... a little local Mexican place. Arcaddio was with us (he is from Mexico) and she informed him that if he did not like her favorite restaurant that he should keep his comments to himself. Afterwards he told her that he was "pleasantly surprised."
After lunch, we walked for 4 hours, taking our time sightseeing and making it back towards Fanuill Hall. The architecture of the city is fantastic. Charlotte's buildings are so new, it was refreshing to see the oldness of the architecture.
We walked around Fenway Park and then meandered through Boston Garden. We stopped in a graveyard where Paul Revere was buried (and also Mother Goose (?) and some other famous people).
When we made it back to Boston Commons, Daniel and I went off on our own for the last hour. We wandered over to Little Italy and visited Paul Revere's home. The last 20 or so minutes of the day, it began raining, so we escaped into Quincy Market where we saw the Cheers bar. Then finally we made it to the bus. We really enjoyed getting to see so much, we could definitely come back and spend more time here.
Our bus ride to Providence took about an hour. It rained the entire way and I slept. The temperature was fairly cool and I was thankful to have brought a coat.
We checked into our hotel - Daniel and I had a view of the capital building. Then we hurried downstairs to walk to Murphy's Pub for our group dinner. Murphy's is the oldest restaurant in Providence. As usual, we all crammed into the restaurant.
Friday night dinners are always a little crazy - all of the retailers are there and everyone is trying to get tables. This casting call there were retailers from Staples, Dicks, The Home Depot, Sharper Image, QVC, Spencer's Gifts, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. There may have been a few others, but I can't remember.
Dinner was great, but after all of the walking, we were exhausted and headed for the hotel and were in bed by 10.
Saturday morning, we had a 6:30 wake-up call. This signaled the beginning of an incredibly long day. Breakfast in the hotel lobby was excellent, but over all too soon. Daniel met his co-p panelists over breakfast and then we all headed for the convention center.
I was in the studio for filming (my favorite place to be). Everything seemed to get off to a slow start - it was 10:30 before we filmed the first inventor. But after that, we were soon in a groove. I wish I could tell you all of the incredible inventions we saw, but for now I will keep quiet about it. The ideas were amazing. We had 125 people come through filming and we only turned away 10 of the ideas. This casting call blew the others out of the water.
There were two inventor's who had been in Chicago that came to Rhode Island. I remembered them both because I had ridden with them in the limo in Chicago. They both told me they had remembered me from Chicago and that they had come to this casting call because of me - that was pretty cool.
Daniel was a panelist in one of the rooms reviewing ideas. He really enjoyed the experience. He said the best part was hearing the really good ideas as well as the really bad ideas. The mediocre ideas were where things got boring.
Best bad ideas that I heard of... The thong diaper. A box that holds chewing gum with a compartment to hold used gum. A trap door in the shower to pee in (to conserve water so you don't have to flush). The automatic zipper (for your pants - Daniel says youch). A new idea for knowledge (?) ... this one had us all scratching our heads.
There were many others, but those are all that come to mind right now.
Saturday night, filming went until 11:30. Since Daniel was with me, they let me leave early which was nice since in Chicago I was there until midnight. Daniel and I went with some friends to eat seafood at a fantastic restaurant called Hemenways. The place was booked for the night, but we managed to get a table on the patio.
I was a little disappointed, starting next weekend, Providence has an event called Waterfire where they light the river on fire. We walked along the river, but it was not lit up. I would love to see that someday. Providence is a beautiful city, I would have loved more time to explore it.
Today was another early morning. The bus was there to pick us up at 6:30. We drove to Boston for our 9:30 flights. This time our group flew through Cleveland and the other group flew through Newark - go figure.
We landed in Cleveland with less than 10 minutes to catch our next flight, which happened to be in Terminal D and we were in C. This meant that 20 of us were literally running through the airport at a dead sprint. Todd ended up tearing something in his calf muscle. KP got knocked down by another passenger. But somehow, we all managed to make it to the next flight.
Again the plane was tiny. We actually had to walk out on the tarmac to board the plane.
The weekend was a lot of fun, but I am glad to be home and I am looking forward to next year's casting calls. I don't think I posted this yet, but Season 1 of the TV show found out last week that we won an Emmy - so that is pretty exciting news...
Friday night dinners are always a little crazy - all of the retailers are there and everyone is trying to get tables. This casting call there were retailers from Staples, Dicks, The Home Depot, Sharper Image, QVC, Spencer's Gifts, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. There may have been a few others, but I can't remember.
Dinner was great, but after all of the walking, we were exhausted and headed for the hotel and were in bed by 10.
Saturday morning, we had a 6:30 wake-up call. This signaled the beginning of an incredibly long day. Breakfast in the hotel lobby was excellent, but over all too soon. Daniel met his co-p panelists over breakfast and then we all headed for the convention center.
I was in the studio for filming (my favorite place to be). Everything seemed to get off to a slow start - it was 10:30 before we filmed the first inventor. But after that, we were soon in a groove. I wish I could tell you all of the incredible inventions we saw, but for now I will keep quiet about it. The ideas were amazing. We had 125 people come through filming and we only turned away 10 of the ideas. This casting call blew the others out of the water.
There were two inventor's who had been in Chicago that came to Rhode Island. I remembered them both because I had ridden with them in the limo in Chicago. They both told me they had remembered me from Chicago and that they had come to this casting call because of me - that was pretty cool.
Daniel was a panelist in one of the rooms reviewing ideas. He really enjoyed the experience. He said the best part was hearing the really good ideas as well as the really bad ideas. The mediocre ideas were where things got boring.
Best bad ideas that I heard of... The thong diaper. A box that holds chewing gum with a compartment to hold used gum. A trap door in the shower to pee in (to conserve water so you don't have to flush). The automatic zipper (for your pants - Daniel says youch). A new idea for knowledge (?) ... this one had us all scratching our heads.
There were many others, but those are all that come to mind right now.
Saturday night, filming went until 11:30. Since Daniel was with me, they let me leave early which was nice since in Chicago I was there until midnight. Daniel and I went with some friends to eat seafood at a fantastic restaurant called Hemenways. The place was booked for the night, but we managed to get a table on the patio.
I was a little disappointed, starting next weekend, Providence has an event called Waterfire where they light the river on fire. We walked along the river, but it was not lit up. I would love to see that someday. Providence is a beautiful city, I would have loved more time to explore it.
Today was another early morning. The bus was there to pick us up at 6:30. We drove to Boston for our 9:30 flights. This time our group flew through Cleveland and the other group flew through Newark - go figure.
We landed in Cleveland with less than 10 minutes to catch our next flight, which happened to be in Terminal D and we were in C. This meant that 20 of us were literally running through the airport at a dead sprint. Todd ended up tearing something in his calf muscle. KP got knocked down by another passenger. But somehow, we all managed to make it to the next flight.
Again the plane was tiny. We actually had to walk out on the tarmac to board the plane.
The weekend was a lot of fun, but I am glad to be home and I am looking forward to next year's casting calls. I don't think I posted this yet, but Season 1 of the TV show found out last week that we won an Emmy - so that is pretty exciting news...
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