The Journey of the Audition for Canada's Got Talent

Well since the last time I stopped by we went out to Vancouver Sunday night after my daughter went out and tried to fund-raise her way out to her audition to Canada's Got Talent. She walked around our neighborhood trying to sell my photography & doing a bottle drive, bottle drive seem to be the way. She came back in tears saying she couldn't do it anymore as she was being faced with humility as kids she graduated with answered the door. She was facing the feeling of shame for not having enough money to go to the audition and people she knew finding out how financially poor she was. She couldn't do it any more, the humility was to much. She took out the credit card her dad had signed her up for the last time she was out to visit him. She tried booking a hotel room in th Sandman in Vancouver for the night before the audition as that was the only way for her to get out there, she had never used her credit card before and found out for some reason it didn't work.

I gave her my Master Card with every expectation of it being rejected as I was sure it was maxed out between the house repairs, vehicle repairs and trying to get the photography off the ground. Well I was wrong it was excepted $137. later. She continued to work out the transportation to get out there and found out we could take transit on Sunday strait in from Aldergrove, BC. She also found out that if you went to Safeway you could get a $9. day pass each and it would cover all the transit for the day we needed, so to get in on Sunday and back on Monday it was $18. each.

Sunday came along and my son & I headed to our church & my daughter headed to her new church. We met up later and we went to get the passes for transit. My mom & son came with us and I drove us out to our first transit stop that would start us on our journey. My mom and son dropped us off and headed home.

We began the Journey with the $17. from the bottles for food & a prepaid hotel room,  1:36pm on the Bus, 2:45pm on the Sky train, 3:30pm we made it to Vancouver.

We got to the Sandman hotel as a tour bus arrived, so we waited in line to check in to our room. We finally got to the front of the line with our room prepaid we figured this would be quick, we should no by now that nothing is that easy. We heard the clerk at the other side of the counter say, "that will be a $50. deposit for the room." We looked at each other knowing we had no money to pay it. We went through the debit cards first with the same message coming back at us insufficient funds. We tried my Master Card, just maybe it will work, declined. Tried my daughters, declined, by this point my daughter was feeling defeated. She was so close to following her dream and now we were being faced with sleeping on the streets or heading home and giving up. We started going through all the options and everyone my daughter said she couldn't do. Finally she got me to phone home and ask Nana to look up her info for her Visa, as I was on the phone with Nana she called Visa. She at the end of it all got her Visa activated, but she had no password. With Visa in hand, She stood back in line as we both prayed it would work without her password. She handed the Visa to the clerk, the clerk gave it a shot and it worked, thank you God for providing us with shelter and a bed to sleep in.

We dropped off all our stuff in the room and at this point we were beyond starving, as the shakes kicked in. We arrived at the hotel just before 4pm & got in our room just after 6pm. We asked the clerk where an inexpensive restaurant was so we could get dinner, she pointed us in that direction. We walked to Subway that was a couple of blocks away. We saw the took Visa so in we went and ordered our sandwiches in a meal we got to the cashier and my brain clicked in, she didn't have a pin for her card. Oh no! She tried her debit card for the amount as it was less than the hotel and she was sure she had a little money in it, declined. We put back the drinks and chips and I was praying the $17. bottle money would cover it. She gave us the new total and it was $19 something, the digging and brain scrambling to problem solve one more time and we did it, we were finally able to eat something. My daughter phoned up Visa and they told her how to get a new pin and they would monitor her card well we were in Vancouver.  We were now back on being able to breath. We walked around Vancouver and were tourists in our own Province as I hadn't been to Vancouver since my kids were in Elementary school.

I recognized some of the areas as the areas that were faced by the Stanley Cup Riots, I am so sure the emotional wounds are still there but the physical damage appeared to be all gone. We decided to see how long it would take to get to the Westin Bayshore Hotel, where the Auditions would be held, from our hotel so we started walking. My daughter pointed out to me the street that lead down to the Olympic torch and as we looked down the street we noticed the torch was lit, so we started walking to it. I was surprised by how many people were down there, we would soon realize there was a conference in town and a private party at Canada Place. We ended up speaking with a gentleman from the conference, as he made a comment on how he couldn't figure out how they fit everyone you saw in this little area during the Olympics, I said I didn't know either and then my brain clued in and I explained that there was more than one torch and the one he saw on tv was the one in BC Place Stadium and it was a football stadium as he mentioned as he thought it was as big as one. He asked us what brought us to town and we told him. He said he was hoping the conference would give him a chance to check it out as he would like to. We said good bye and proceeded on, oh and yes I brought my camera, but sadly found out it doesn't take really good pictures at night, but I did get a few.

 We found out that it would take us 24 min to get to the Westin Bayshore, we also found out that 6am was the earliest for lining up. We headed back to the Sandman.

 We got back to the hotel and watched a movie on my daughters laptop and then 12pm came to quick, we set the alarm for 4am so that we would have time to get ready and walk back to the audition.

We got to the audition at 10min to 6am, we were pretty close to the front of the line when they called for all those who didn't receive an email confirming an audition for 8 am that day to step forward out of line and follow to a secondary line which moved us up in line quite a bit. They then did some live feeds from the line up outside to City TV Breakfast Television. 

We were taken into a maze of taped off lines and at the beginning of the line we were each given a bracelet, one for guests of the person with the talent and one for the person with the talent.

 We waited in this line till 8am. I can say this was the least boring line I have ever been in, we met some wonderful people. Right behind us in line was two guys, one who was in the navy and stationed in Victoria and his friend a new daddy who was now out of service. What a voice and ability to throw songs together in the heat of the moment as they kept throwing a camera in his face. Behind them was a girl me and my daughter recognized from some where and she was the same age as my daughter, she came with two friends she had a great voice to. We spent most of the time in the line singing together, even though I was definitely out of my league as my daughter and them could sing and I was not gifted in this area. At one point someone in the group mentioned, I think it was my daughter, that we should sing Oh Canada and know one could get the nerve to start, so I did and they joined in with a few people around us then as soon as we finished the people a little further down in line started it again and then the whole room joined in and the taping started.

At 8 am the doors were opened and the ones who were there for auditions were put into another line and us guests were able to sit down in the center of the room. My daughter was able to stay and chat with our new found friends.

City TV, Breakfast Television co-host Riaz Meghji, you can see him in the picture below.

 They were brought forward to register and hand in their contracts signed and receive their number that was to be worn on the front for their Audition. 

 They continued to record Breakfast television and the lady in the picture below is Dawn Chubai, co host, with the film crew.

 They started calling groups of twenty up at a time to go into several rooms with in the hotel that were set up with for the Auditions, I would need to stay behind and wait.

 She would return over an hour later, she said there was a total of 5 people in the room. She was nervous at the start but she said it was almost like she was listening in as she lost herself in the song. She noticed people swaying to the song and then at the end she was applauded.

She was told that the audition tape would go forward to the producers and they would find out by Oct 15 if they would move on to the next stage of the auditions. I so pray she gets an opportunity to follow her dream further through this and gain her self confidence as I know it will come as she experiences doing it over and over again.