I auditioned for Britain's Got Talent!!!

I still can barely believe I actually did audition for one of the most popular shows in the country, Britain's Got Talent!

Saturday the 7th of November 2015 was one hell of a day: it was the day my favourite football team - Reading F.C. - lost 2-0 away to Cardiff; TGI Friday's had run out of Oreo chocolate milkshakes; I broke my lamp by accidentally knocking it over with my coat; and, oh yeah, I went and auditioned for one of the biggest talent shows in the world, Britain's Got Talent (BGT)! After a very busy period at my dad's workshop, where I helped complete somewhere around 1,200 signs - which were a mixture of computer engraved, drilled, cleaned, packed, etc. - in not a huge amount of days, I was given two days off to prepare for what had to be the scariest thing I've ever done in my life; truth be told, I'm still not sure how I plucked up the courage to do it!

I got my smartest clothes washed and ironed for the first time since my little brother's (Sam) Passing Out Parade for the Royal Navy over a year ago; polished my shoes; and then set to work on trying to make myself look half-decent for once. Sleep during the night before just didn't happen - I didn't even try! I, instead, used the time more productively, and I honestly didn't think I'd be able to sleep, anyhow. By the time I left the house at around 7am on the Saturday, I must've run through my performance piece hundreds of times; after all, it was the same monologue that was successful in getting me into a National Diploma in Performing Arts course at Reading College many years prior (The monologue was a fantastic and aggressive piece by the character Tom, from the play Skylight by David Hare, for those who are interested).

I'd arranged ages in advance for my best mate, Pete, to come with me for support - hell, I wouldn't have had it in me to do this by myself - so he picked me up and we headed for Hounslow in West London, where we got two underground trains across London, followed by a couple of stops on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). The journey ran really smoothly, both there and back, taking around two-and-a-bit hours to get from Reading to the ExCeL arena over in East London (random thought: I can't really understand when people say the London Underground is hard to understand/navigate. It's one of the things I find pretty easy). We arrived at what has to be the most staggering - in terms of size - building I have ever seen! To put it in to some perspective: a train (DLR) station is located at both the west and east entrances to this building, it has 3,700 car parking spaces, there's a place for boats to dock up, it's around 100 acres in size, has 6 hotels, and 30 bars and restaurants! During the 2012 London Olympics, they divided the ExCeL into 5 sports halls, each with a capacity of between 4-6 thousand, and it hosted boxing, table tennis, weightlifting, wrestling, taekwondo, fencing, and judo. Once Pete and I had found where the BGT auditions actually were, we had walked through the building for 10+ minutes! Yeah, it's mind-blowing, almost unfathomable in scale - take a look at a couple of these pictures below (writing continues below the pics):

A view from the west, where the entrance is a beautiful glass prism.

The east entrance. If Pete and I had come in this way, we'd have been where we were meant to be straightaway, instead of having to walk the full length of the gargantuan building!

A crew member said, "here for the 9am auditions, join this queue." So we joined a weaving queue where we waited for over two hours just to be signed in; then we were shepherded up some escalators to queue along part of the promenade section of the arena; then we went up even more escalators to where we queued along a walkway; then we were taken into a holding room where they play the BGT theme and somebody speaks to you all; and then you wait for hours and hours more... If we knew it was going to be this long, we would've come better prepared, but at least we were in a room where we could sit down, engage with other acts, and watch acts practice their pieces. Eventually we got called through to queue outside the door of where I was actually going to be auditioned. When I went in, it had genuinely been a wait of around 7+ hours (9:20am-4:30pm), but it really wasn't too bad, partly because we met some awesome, friendly, entertaining, and exuberant people. A foreign guy playing the accordion was lovely, and he genuinely nailed a few songs I heard him practicing - also, he got a yes from the producer who auditioned him, so if he gets a callback and invited to the televised auditions, it'll be nice to potentially see him on the TV. And that goes for anybody we bumped into that got a yes. Shoutout to two of the people that Pete and I mostly hung out with whilst waiting: Rosie and Prophecy. On to my audition:

I got called into one of the audition rooms, so I walked in nervously, said "hello" and confirmed who I am; they then say, "whenever you're ready." It's at this point that, in the space of seconds, everything runs through your head: will I somehow forget my lines? Will I even be able to speak? Do I wish the floor would just swallow me up so that I'd not have to do the scariest thing ever..!? But I launched into the monologue with power, nailed the pronunciation/diction of every word/sentence, and even my movement was good. Then you wait for the reply (I'm paraphrasing): "it's a no for today, but it was very good. You're clearly passionate. There's a very high level of talent, and you're not quite what we're looking for." I'm not going to lie, your heart does sink when you hear the word no - it's enough to bring people to tears. We saw a bunch of upset kids, which is never something you want to see! The producer was lovely - as were all the crew - and I left actually feeling good about myself. I had just done something that I had previously, two years prior, filled out the application form for and, yet, never managed to bring myself to go on that occasion, for many reasons.

Had it not have been for my best mate, I'd have bottled it again, no doubt - but I went, I left everything inside that audition room, and, truth be told, I'm damn proud of myself for trying! All that was left to do, was to get out of this huge building, get back to Reading (after taking a couple of pics of us by the Dockyards, which you can see below), and go grab an amazing dinner; we'd barely eaten all day! I think I kinda fell asleep in the car on the ride home - I had been awake for something like 30 hours. I bought Pete a decent meal in TGI Fridays (hmm... Jack Daniel's burger!) - hell, it was the least I could do after he had once again shown himself to be the best friend any human being could ever ask for! After that, all I wanted to do was get home and get to bed - sleep had rarely ever felt so good!

Side note: before sleeping that night, I saw Sam on TV, in full Navy gear, at the Royal Albert Hall for the Festival of Remembrance. I had to mention that, so proud of that guy! :) As always, thanks for reading! ^-^ <3

Above: me. Below: Pete. In the background of the pics is a permanently moored yacht hotel!