Ice Ramps at American Inventor
Ice Ramps attended the American Inventor auditions in San Francisco, CA on March 25th, 2007. This is the story from the hands of Robert, with new footage from the Ice Ramps DVD made for auditions.
Charles and I woke up at 4:50 AM so we'd have enough time to get to the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco by 6:00 AM. We would have gone earlier, but the rules on the site forbid us from doing so. That didn't stop other people from doing it, though. While we waited, people were staggering past us going home from a night of drinking. We were just starting our day.
In the dark, drizzly morning hours, Charles and I caught up on our mutual history. This was really the first time I'd talked to Charles for more than a few minutes at a time. If nothing else, that time to get to get to know my fellow team member was worth the sore feet. We watched as the line grew behind us, and snaked around the building.
As day broke, Charles and I felt free to talk to those surrounding us. There was no consistent type or style of invention or inventor. Around 8:00 AM, the camera crew started making rounds trying to excite the crowd for a good shot. Between bouts of countless people screaming and / or yelling San Fran
in endless repetition, Charles and I discussed other topics to keep our minds off of the wait and finished last-minute paperwork.
Five hours after we arrived, we made it into the front doors. By this point, Charles was attempting to sleep standing up. After having our baggage and persons searched for weapons, we were set to turn in our applications. I knew going in this would be difficult. Since Dale was recently deployed to Iraq, special measures were taken to ensure that we would be able to audition. This essentially involved Dale waving his right as inventor as far as the show was concerned. (Having a loyal team meant this was not a problem. I don't think the American Inventor team quite understood that.) Due to some confusion over the paperwork, we stood at the application submission area for another half hour or so. Finally, we were through to the waiting room. (Thanks to Bianca, who seemed to be the only one familiar with our situation, and helped smooth over some potentially rough areas.)
After finishing that step, we received some papers explaining what to expect. We were to go to a waiting room. There we may be interviewed by roaming camera crews. Due to greater interest, we'd have to go through two pre-qualifying rounds. We'd have two minutes to present our invention to a producer
. The producer would give us a yes or no. If we received a yes, we moved on to the second producer. If we received another yes, we were to come back later in the week to see the celebrity judges. If we received a no at any point, the game was over.
The waiting room was downstairs. There were droves of chairs and inventors. A few roaming camera crews sought out the craziest inventors to interview them (and the prescreen for insanity did not yield any camera time for us). Each inventor or inventor team was given a number and letter. A
and C
were the groups that needed audio visual aid. That was our group. We sat in our area and discussed things with people around us. Charles, in an act to ward off sleep, made a point to talk to anyone of questionable sanity (often following the video crew around). Meanwhile, I waited to hear our names be called.
Around 3:00 PM, we were put in the final line. Within 30 minutes, we were in the green room (which was just another ballroom area, sectioned off by curtains). We could see into the curtained areas where we would be auditioning. Moments later, we were walking into the curtained off area. Inside were three people: "a producer," a guy on a laptop, and a guy working a small DV camera.
The "producer" informed us that we needed to first state our names, numbers, and name of invention. Then we'd be given two minutes (on a timer, no less) to present our invention. This was a troublesome thing, because the video I had prepared was one minute and forty five seconds. I clearly would need to talk over the video. To boot, the fact that we were on a timer forced me to talk much faster than I had wanted. I went over the basic principle of the sport, showing off our prototypes as the video progressed. She seemed to like what we were showing and seemed genuinely excited about the idea. After the video, we explained the situation with Dale being in Iraq, and Charles explained his involvement with the U.S. Olympics Team. She sifted through our photos a little longer.
Finally, she said that she liked the idea and thought that it would be successful, but that the product was for a specific market that currently was not as developed as it needed to be for the show to take interest. That's what I got out of it. Charles pressed for any more commentary he could receive, but they couldn't offer anymore. We received some papers that said we were free and clear of any obligation to American Inventor. We said thanks and headed out to (finally) get some grub.
We gave it out best shot, but the cards weren't in our favor.
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