Do we have talent?

Last time we were in America we got tickets to be in the audience of two shows that were for TV.  A sitcom called ‘Til Death with Brad Garrett (the brother from Everyone Loves Raymond) and Joely Fisher and Tonight with Jay Lenno.  Both were great experiences and interesting to see what happened behind the scenes, so this trip I thought I’d see if there was anything filming.  As it turns out, America’s Got Talent (or AGT as it’s referred to) has just started season 19 and were filming their 4^th session on Sunday.in Pasadena.  Fortuitously, that was the direction we needed to go through LA so I logged on, not expecting any tickets to be left and who would have thought!  I got tickets for Sunday’s 4.30pm filming.

So, off we trundled to Pasadena and found a good parking spot on a road outside a small movie production lot.  The next 2 mornings we had spectacular hikes through the adjacent suburbs and into Griffith Park, a 4,210 acre wilderness area with more than 50 miles of hiking trails.  They all involved hiking up quite steep trails, but the views were spectacular.  Before we hit the trails, we traversed steep, winding suburban roads where many of the houses were on steep gradients, and the higher and steeper we walked, the more opulent the houses became.  It was fascinating because no 2 houses were alike!  Every house had different architecture. Here are a few that stood out.

We saw some squirrels that were clearly used to people feeding them, our first coyote, spectacular views of LA and the Hollywood hills and visited the Griffith Park Observatory.

The famous Hollywood sign is on the highest peak, at 1,625feet.

The land surrounding Griffith Observatory was donated by Griffith J Griffith in 1896 and the Observatory completed in 1835. He detailed specific plans for the Observatory, including that admission would always be free.

As you can see, the views are spectacular

We discovered that Easter is not a time for decorating your house, like Halloween and Christmas, but we did see St Patrick’s day decorations in a few places.  This one, we passed on way up to the hiking trails, was brilliant!

With a relatively dry climate, we were surprised how lush everything was in LA.  There was no shortage of beautiful gardens with manicured lawns and blooming shrubs and trees.  There were also wildflowers scattered on the hillsides and this wattle tree, which made us feel right at home.

On Sunday we drove towards Pasadena centre and were lucky to find a good street park about 20-minutes walk from the venue.  Having had the experiences previously, we were aware of how long one stands in queues waiting for these shows, so we set aside the whole day.  This was no exception.  We arrived at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium at 1pm, having found Japanese sushi for lunch and read and abided by the dress code stipulations.  Only wear dark, solid colours, preferably dark blue or black!  No patterns or stripes.  “Upscale attire or business casual is mandatory”, to quote the requirements.  Tricky when you’ve arrived in America for an RV holiday, but we managed!

So, we hovered around the Centre forecourt until eventually I asked two staff where the queue was.  “Around the corner”, apparently.  We made our way around the corner and down the street to the end of an already long queue.  We also found out why they send you a “ticket” when you book, then allocate a paper ticket with your actual seat.  If they don’t like how you look on the cameras in the seat you’re allocated, they move you around! 

We were an hour waiting for the paper ticket.  Then ½ hour to go through airport-style security.  (No bags or food allowed).  Then, we were told to stand at the top of the steps in front of several large access doors.  We waited.  More people arrived.  We waited longer.  It got close and warm but still we waited and still they funneled more people up the steps.  After almost another hour, the doors finally opened, our tickets were checked, and we were shown to our seats.  It was now 4.45pm.  It was bizarre sitting in a theatre where everyone wore all black or dark blue and the odd few that hadn’t read the dress code really stood out.

These shows have a “warm up guy” to entertain the audience before the show starts, but instead of telling jokes and being funny, he got the audience excited by offering free AGT t-shirts and getting people to post on Instagram using different # to get prizes.  We were also primed for the show and for the cameras to get all their audience shots and audio.  I can’t tell you how many times we had to jump out of our seats and clap wildly, wave our arms in the air, laugh quietly, then loudly, or gasp in amazement!  While the whole process was fascinating, from the queueing to the show, I can’t say I’ll be getting more tickets for AGT, as the email we received at the end of the night suggested.

Finally, at 6.30pm the host, Terry Crews introduced the four judges who came sashaying down the central aisle, waving and smiling at the people on the ends of the rows.  Howie Mandel (a comedian that I didn’t know), Heidi Klum (supermodel), Sofia Vergara (best known for Modern Family) and of course, Simon Cowell.  Rapturous, rousing applause went on for minutes as they took their seats, and general chit chat between host and judges was had.  Almost 7pm and still no contestants.

After more revving up the audience by the warm-up guy the first act was introduced.  A woman dressed in a tiger costume and her sidekick dressed as a tamer.  The tiger wasn’t funny, the sidekick said nothing, but stood nearby glimmering in her red sequin tails.  They were bumped off the stage with 4 nos.  Unsurprising!  The judges then chatted among themselves, but because they wore mikes we could hear them.  They drank from very large sippy cups and had their makeup attended to.  About 6 roadies dressed in black ambled onto the stage in no rush and carefully laid out a dog agility course.  Apparently last year’s winner was a handler and his dog, Hurricane who did something similar.  You can’t really blame people for trying for the 15 minutes of fame because the winner pockets $US1,000,000!

Another 20 minutes or so elapsed before a woman and her very long and low to the ground blood hound entered the stage.  Another thing that surprised me was how much chatting the judges did with each contestant before their act.  Each contestant was on stage many minutes before their 2-minute act began.  The dog was cute but also got resounding nos.

There were only 6 acts in total.  We assumed they’d be a dozen or more!  There was a boy from South Africa that did card tricks with Simon Cowell sitting next to him and you could not see how he did them.  A Russian now living in Germany that did a contortionist act that you had to see to believe!  He could put his leg over his shoulder, twist his arms backwards, do a backbend and literally look at his tush!  His finale was to fold himself into a metal box about a foot square and shut the lid!  And he wasn’t short, either!  He got resounding yeses.  Next, a Ukrainian balancing act stood on his hands, balanced on 4 glasses separated with a sheet of Perspex and stacked 4 tiers high.  The roadies in black were comical setting it up because they could not have done the task any slower!  6 guys handing each other glasses one at a time and meticulously placing them! 

His act was amazing!  He climbed up the stacked glasses, stood on his hands, balancing on a bowling ball upside down on his head, then, while still balancing on his hands, he poured a drink from a bottle into a glass and drank it out of a straw, and then he balanced on his head, on the neck of the bottle!  The gasping practice we’d had earlier really paid off!  And he also got resounding yeses.

The last act started out well, as a frumpy, shy woman who had a coffee stain on her white blouse, then trying to clean it, used a dirty rag, made her shirt brown with a liquid she also spilled everywhere, and the act went downhill from there.  She got all nos too.

As soon as she left the stage, we were told she was the last act and to say goodbye to judges who made a hasty retreat.  Done and dusted by 8.30.

Did we feel like we’d spent an interesting afternoon and evening?  Sure.  It was an experience I expect we’ll remember for quite a while!  We might even try to watch the episode on TV.  And something that really surprised me, was how friendly and chatty Simon Cowell was with the audience.  I imagined he’d be there just to judge but he frequently turned his chair around and had conversations with the people sitting near-by. 

Glad for our experiences but ready to move on, the following morning we drove out of Pasadena and camped just outside the Joshua Tree National Park. 

Last time we were here, the Joshua trees had snow on them, but not now.  We had a few minutes of rain going through Palm Springs, but otherwise the days were clear and mild.  The first morning in the park we did a long hike (7.36 miles or about 12kms) to Lost Palms Oasis, then we drove through the park stopping at all the information boards and hiking several of the other, shorter trails.  The second morning we hiked the steeper but shorter Mastodon Peak Trail, then drove across the border to Arizona (and fuel that was $US1.80 a gallon cheaper)!

It is certainly more arid here where the Colorado and Mohave deserts meet, and the geology of the landscape is amazing.  The Colorado desert is hotter and dryer than the Mohave but the best way to describe it is with pictures!

That’s Joey way in the distance

You really have to wonder how this cactus can grow in a rock!

…and speaking of rocks…

As the day wore on, the crowds in the park increased.  We read that March and April are the most popular months for visiting Joshua Tree because as summer approaches it becomes unbearably hot for hiking.  We stopped at all the walks between Cottontree ranger station and Cap rock but by late afternoon, and with more than a 50-mile drive back to our camp spot for the night we decided we’d experienced enough of the park this time.

Cholla cactus garden

The famous Joshua trees

Obviously one of us had to climb up and strike a pose!

I just wanted to see what was on the other side!

The aptly named heart rock

Many, many more Joshua trees

Joey at Jumbo Rocks

The Mastodon trail, which was our second mornings hike, was named for the mine whose ruins are still visible.  An old gold mine operating between 1919 – 1932, and with a shaft of 75 feet only a small amount of gold was mined and now the abandoned shaft is home to a colony of small micro bats.

Somehow these plants not only grow, but thrive in these rocks

While walking early we heard a surprising number of birds. This was one of the few I managed to capture.

We also saw lots of small skinks but this lizard was quite striking. There are 18 species of lizards in the park. This was one of the more commonly found Great Basin fence lizards.

These gum trees were at the base of the mine where a watercourse wound its way nearby. Although dry and sandy due to the infrequency of rain, when it does rain, it buckets down and fills the creek beds briefly until it soaks into the ground.