Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Beauty and the Geek Q & A

One of the great things about the comedy world is meeting interesting people. One of those people is Will McDonald, a former contest on the reality television show Beauty and the Geek. He graciously agreed to answer some questions about his experience and allow me to share them with my readers. Will has also agreed to watch the blog for 48 hours and answer any questions you may have (except for a few legal details).


Do you ever watch these kind of reality TV shows?


I never did watch any reality TV shows because I thought to myself, "Why would I care to find out about someone that I'm never going to meet?". I knew of the of shows and I thought the concept was interesting but to actually watch the shows could be a bit painful, to the extent that you felt so bad for the geek or beauty.


What was the audition process like?


Well I met the Casting agents at my restaurant and we spoke for about ten minutes. They invited me to the casting call, I signed up at the casting call, and the next thing I knew I was being invited to a second interview. The second interview is really intense because it's designed to get to know you as fast as possible and even if you think your ready for it, your not.


Any advice for people auditioning for reality TV?


Don't do reality TV unless you're ready to have all your faults highlighted and concentrated.


Did you get paid or compensated for the show?


We received a daily stipend in the form of a check so that we had someone money to return to.


How were housing, food, toiletries supplied?


We had production assistants that would go out and those supplies for us. Try as we might everyone wanted hard alcohol but everyone said no dice every time.


Did they make you more geeky in the beginning?


Well the funny thing about that I was called in maybe a day before my flight left for la la land and I hurriedly packed all my gear and well the thing of it is the company couldn't have any of the guys wearing logos. Most of m my stuff has like The Doors on the front or Snap crackle and pop and the like. So they couldn't use any of it and so I looked less put together than I normally am. And obviously the show is about transformation of a geek to a whatever you wanna call it and so maybe the way we were depicted was to show a bigger transformation.


It was obvious that you didn't like your beauty, care to elaborate?


God blah. I'll try to keep it short for your readers because I could elaborate this at length. She was so selfish and into herself that it was disgusting. I also feel that there could be some kind of a black hole of thought inside of her brain that just sucks up any other thought. I didn't like her because it seemed that she wanted me to be there just for her and when we were partnered I tried at first but she wouldn't believe anything that I said when she would ask me questions, then get frustrated at ME. Ironically the one thing she did listen to me on was the pronunciation of a certain word and that's what cost us the game.


What kind of fame followed you after a show like this?


I was invited to some local award shows. I met Ron Jeremy and I was interviewed by a few reality t.v websites. Oh people still recognize me and think it's really a fun thing to meet someone that's done a show like this. Nothing beyond that though.

6 comments:

  1. Traci B.12:05 AM

    In the previews it says Ashton Kutcher is the co-creater, but we never see him. Did he ever even come on the set?

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  2. Care to elaborate on "The second interview is really intense because it's designed to get to know you as fast as possible and even if you think your ready for it, your not."? What would you have to be ready for?

    And finally, did the editors ever mess with "reality" in post production?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Will McDonald12:05 AM

    to Traci: a few of the other contestants met Ashton but i never did

    to Erin S.: yes, the second interview asks you questions that go past the emotional guard that some of us put up on a normal basis.

    secondly i can't legally discuss post production so I'll let ur imagination play with that question.

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  4. To Erin S: You thinking of going on as the beauty or the geek?

    ReplyDelete
  5. to Will: did you mind being stereotyped like that, or was it more of a "this is for a show" type of thing?

    to Traci: should Harrison be worried about this interest of yours?

    to Harrison: Jeff Jagoda went out with one of the "beauties." Crazy, I know. Also, see above.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Will McDonald12:06 AM

    To Paul: I'm not sure I totally understand your question.

    ReplyDelete

You are the reason why I do not write privately. I would love to hear your thoughts, whether you agree or not.