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Joel Offers Interview Advice
« on: Feb 4th, 2003, 12:15pm » |
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‘Survivor’ veteran offers this secret on joining the show: ‘Be yourself’
By Mike Hoeft
[email protected]
Want to be a survivor?
The deadline to apply for the next “Survivor” show is Feb. 11. Casting calls for semifinal candidates will go out in March in 16 cities, including Green Bay. Finals will be in Los Angeles in April. The 16 candidates will travel to a remote location selected by producers for seven weeks in June and July.
To apply: www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor7.
You must be at least 21, a U.S. citizen, and not running for public office. Your three-minute VHS videotape should tell why you’d be the ultimate survivor.
To make it on reality TV, be real.
“Just be yourself; be honest,” advised Joel Klug, the Brown County native who was on the first “Survivor” reality show on CBS two years ago. That show was a ratings champ, and while the numbers have declined since, the show remains popular.
“Survivor”-wannabes have until Feb. 11 to apply to be a contestant for the seventh show. Green Bay for the third time will be one of 16 cities to hold casting calls for semifinalists.
“They’re looking for people who don’t look like they’re actors, musicians or models,” said Klug, 30, now a producer living in Los Angeles. “If you’re a normal person, that’s what they’re looking for.”
It’s questionable why a normal person would want to be on a reality TV show that plays out a twisted Darwinian theory in prime time. There’s often too little food and too many insects.
But fans say there’s a million reasons to enter, as in a $1 million prize.
“The money would be great; I’m not going to lie about that. I have a lot of unpaid parking tickets,” said Tracy Schroeder of Menasha, a paper-converting company worker who wants to be an actress.
Schroeder, 29, made her pitch to get on “Survivor” recently during the Murphy in the Morning radio show on WIXX (101.1 FM).
Murphy solicited contestants and was surprised to get 100 calls and about 50 e-mails.
“There’s still a lot of interest in the program,” Murphy said.
Schroeder shot her video in 10-degree weather wearing a fur bikini she made.
“I sewed it together over a bikini I had,” she said. “You have to stand out. I can make fun of myself. I think I can win.”
Schroeder said she was planning to move to Los Angeles in March to pursue acting.
“There are tons of producers who look at the videotapes, so there could be something else in the future,” she said. “I’d love to play Karen on ‘Will & Grace.’”
Klug said Schroeder’s best shot is her video.
“Make it very basic. Show who you are. You’ve got to wow them a little,” Klug said. “The biggest mistake is to overproduce the video and not tell who you are.”
Producers apparently like Midwest types. Klug was selected through Green Bay casting calls.
Klug, a 1990 graduate of Reedsville High School, was a 28-year-old health consultant working in Arkansas when he was picked for “Survivor.”
A friend from Green Bay, Nick Vanderbloomen, dared him to apply.
“I almost didn’t do it. I had a good job,” he said. He borrowed a video camera from a friend.
“I put it on the dashboard of a truck and talked into it for three minutes,” he said. The sound was poor and the video out of focus, but Klug tossed it off to CBS.
A short time later, he was called to Green Bay’s CBS affiliate, WFRV NewsChannel 5, for interviews.
“We had gone out drinking the night before at Titletown and Brew Baker’s so I was a little hung over. I didn’t take it very seriously,” he said.
The interview took 15 to 20 minutes. Then he left. Later in Los Angeles, there were 12 more callbacks before he was selected.
The show was shot on a South Pacific island. He was voted off the island in the sixth episode and walked away with $5,000 in consolation prizes.
“The entire experience was life-changing,” he said. Speaking engagements came afterward.
His 15 minutes of fame still works as an icebreaker in Hollywood circles.
“I was fortunate to be on the first one. It was bigger than anyone imagined,” he said.
Klug survived the show and parlayed it into a career producing radio and TV shows.
He describes his job as a kind of general contractor who assembles the best assistants, crew, talent and location.
“Producer sounds glamorous, but general contractor is the best way to describe it,” he said.
People interested in getting on “Survivor” should do it for the clear experience of playing the game, he said.
Klug said a Wisconsin background is seen as refreshing in Hollywood.
His parents, Leona and Howard Klug, still live in Morrison.
“It’s a unique place to grow up,” he said. “If you’re from Wisconsin, you’re probably more original than anyone else out there.”
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