When a Sorority Girl Auditions for Big Brother

Remember when I shared that I applied to be on Big Brother in a previous blog post?

Over the weekend I attended the NYC casting call to continue my pursuit of getting on the upcoming season of the hit CBS reality show.

In addition to meeting many other Big Brother Season 17 house guest hopefuls, I got to meet three former house guests from last summer!

First I met the Big Brother Season 16 winner, Derrick Levasseur. This former police sergeant became the lucky winner of $500,000 by winning the three-month long game in the Big Brother house. The casting team saw something special in him because he was a good guy with a smart mindset on how to work in the game.

Derrick hung out with the people auditioning for the whole duration of the casting call. It was a total pleasure getting to meet him since I am a BB Superfan!

Who did I meet next? The runner-up, Cody Califiore! Cody is from a town not too far from my hometown. He was recruited by a BB staff member at a bar mitzvah where he was working as a party host for an entertainment company.

Then there was a surprise visit from another Big Brother contestant from last season! Frankie Grande, a social media star who is also the brother of pop star Ariana Grande, showed up to the casting call!

Conveniently his sister had concert performances at Madison Square Garden the night before and the night of these auditions. He shared advice with a few other people and myself about living in the Big Brother house. I am not sure how I managed to pay attention to what he was saying since I was in a state of shock the whole time.

This experience was amazing and I met lots of interesting and fun fans of the show. We were all exchanging social media information just in case one of us ever becomes the next BB star.  I cannot imagine people freaking out seeing me the way I did when I met these reality stars that just a year ago were regular people. Whether or not I ever end up on this show, I am so happy I met these Big Brother stars and had the opportunity to introduce myself to the casting team.

How to Get on TV Without Having Any Talent

You might think this sounds too good to be true, but getting on TV is actually pretty easy! If you dream of getting your 15 minutes of fame but lack an impressive talent to share, you can still get on the silver screen. I'm going to tell you tricks and tips that have helped me appear on TV easily.

A quick way to get on TV is to look into reality television opportunities. Think of a reality show that you have only dreamed of being on. Now Google that title with the word "casting" after it, and you will likely see a link to an audition application. Most major networks have casting calls for their reality shows on their websites. Want to be on ABC's "The Bachelor?" Click here. Love the CBS show "Big Brother?" Look here. These shows also typically have nationwide open casting calls to search for the next best cast members.

Here is a shot of me recording an audition tape for the next season of CBS's "Big Brother."

There are countless websites such as Auditions Free and West Casting that promote auditions for various reality shows. If you sign up on their email lists, you will get emails about casting calls practically daily. These companies also have social media pages that share the same information, so you can follow them as well!

Speaking of social media, the easiest way to hear about casting opportunities is to follow casting directors on Facebook and Twitter. Lots of casting directors and production companies use their social media pages in addition to their websites to spread the word about their casting calls. For example, you can follow @MTVShowCasting if you have been looking to get on an MTV show.

Here are shots of me on an episode of "The Substitute," a trivia game show that was on MTV.

Once you make that initial break into reality TV, keep in touch with the casting directors and production crew. You never know when they will need extras again.

These photos below are from my time as an extra for Style's "Jerseylicious."

After being an extra on that show a few times, I stayed in touch with the casting producers. Once they started working on new projects, they posted on Facebook looking for extras. When one casting producer needed extras for a couple of scenes for a new show on truTV called "Hack My Life," I responded to her Facebook post with my interest. Here is a shot from a segment I was in for that show.

Of course, if you want to be on TV by being an audience member of a live recorded program, there are different ways to do that as well. Just like with reality casting roles, there are websites and social media accounts that post opportunities to be audience members of shows. One of those sites is called Gotham Casting. I have been in the audience for a bunch of shows that I heard about through Twitter and Facebook posts. Plus, there are often people on the streets of major cities hired to promote tapings and recruit audience members.

Here is a shot of my view from when I was an audience member for Fox's "The X Factor."

Let's not forget talk shows and news shows! Check the shows' websites for applications or information about getting tickets to talk shows like "Jerry Springer" or "The Wendy Williams Show." Below is a shot from an airing of an episode of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." You can somewhat see Jay shaking my hand in the front row.

I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to get VIP seats to a taping of ABC's "Good Afternoon America," a spinoff of "Good Morning America." One of my close friends was interning for the television show and reserved tickets for me. If you know someone interning or working for a show that has live tapings, consider asking them if they can get you tickets!

These are just some of the ways to be a part of a show taping. Try it for yourself and see how fun and fascinating it is to make a television show come to life.

19 Life Lessons from How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother: I watched it when it aired on television until the season finale and I recently started to watch it again on Netflix over winter break!

Now that I'm a college graduate and about to leave to both a city and state that are foreign to me for a job that I just accepted, I realized that there were quite a few life lessons that were hiding within each episode of HIMYM. I know that these aren't even half of the lessons, but these are some of the best, or at least I think so.

1. Nothing good ever happens after 2 am.
2. Always accept a challenge.
3. Suit up!! (Always dress your nicest! You never know what's going to happen!)
4. Don't shy away from your past and who you really are. Your true friends will accept you for that.
5. If you date somebody within your friend group, it could get messy
6. But it could also be one of the best decisions you could ever make.
7. You don't always need to know what you're doing with your future. It's perfectly fine to change your mind a million times over.
8. Cheating is NEVER a good idea. NEVER. Don't even think about it.
9. Never date your dermatologist.
10. Or your psychologist.
11.Just don't date your doctor.
12. Every single moment your alive turns is a story for the books later on in life.
13. Marry your best friend. I promise that it's a good idea.
14. Unrequited love is sucks and I mean REALLY sucks, but it's okay because everything happens for a reason.
15. Make sure that at the end of every relationship, you get closure. If you don't, your racing mind will eventually make you miserable.
16. If and when you move on, don't go out of your way to make your ex jealous or to show off.

17.  "Hold out for someone who doesn't just tolerate your little quirks, but actually kind of likes them."
18. "When you find someone you want to keep around, you do something about it."
19.  Most importantly... "The future is scary but you can't just run back to the past because it's familiar." This holds true for everything in life.

As a recent college graduate, #19 hits home for me, especially after turning down a job offer states away. I ran to the past because it was familiar, but now I know that I should've known better and have gone forth into the unknown, so to speak.

If anybody would ask, I would tell them that they should watch How I Met Your Mother because I've learned so many things and I can promise that you would too.

The Charm of One Tree Hill

               At the beginning of my summer I was trying to figure out what next show to start watching after I finished Orange is the New Black on Netflix. I was digging all around and asking my friends their opinions. One of them suggested One Tree Hill, and not going to lie I was skeptical... I just thought it was a long lost TV show and I knew that Chad Michael Murray was in it. That's about it. First episode was ok, it had small town charm and well a few cute people. The story line was interesting though, two brothers who grew up in different ways. One had a mother and their father in a big house and the other had his mother and their cafe all growing up in the town known as Tree Hill. Boy, did I not know what I was getting into.
              The first aired date for episode one of One Tree Hill was September 23rd, 2003... Which means I was about 10. That is kind of scary, how I was so young but yet still in 2014 I can relate to almost every episode that are in each series... maybe minus the crazy stalkers and kidnappers but I get it.
               For those of us who did grow up in smaller towns we all had a "Nathan Scott" or "Brooke Davis" we just had to search a little to find the diamond in the rough for "Lucas Scott". This town is somewhat of a fairy tale land though but it is a great escape from reality and it is definitely worth the time to watch it. For now, since I have finished this series I am on to one with a very similar small town feel... any guesses?

Top in TV

Summer is known for reruns, but these TV shows are my top 10 of the summer! There is a bit of mystery, some reality TV, comedy, and throwback 90's...kind of. Let us know what you think! These are in no order:

1. The Bachelorette  

  ABC

 Mondays 8-10 pm

 2. Mistresses    

 ABC

Mondays 10-11 pm

3. Pretty Little Liars

 ABC Family 

Tuesdays 8-9 pm

 4. Chasing Life

ABC Family

 Tuesdays 9-10 pm

5. Catfish

 MTV

Wednesdays 10-11 pm

6. Impractical Jokers 

truTV

Thursdays 9:30-10 pm

7. Carbonaro Effect

truTV

Thursdays 10-10:30 pm

8. Girl Meets World

 Disney Channel

 Fridays 8-8:30 pm

9. Orange is the New Black

Netflix: HBO 

Anytime you want to watch

 10. Game of Thrones      

HBO

Season finished; HBO GO