Wow, that was fun! I got to the audition about an hour early, and there were HUNDREDS of people in a HUGE line. I rode my MUni towards the crowd, outfitted with all my usual off-road gear. Almost immediately, a camera crew flagged me down, put a mic on me and filmed some promo stuff with me saying, “America, I’ve got TALENT!”
Then, this really cute lady producer had me go to the front of the line so I could make my 10:30am appointment time. I waited in a “holding area” with about 300 other people, and so I decided to practice a little, and this staff guy at the front flipped over this big box, and I got on it and hopped off!
The crowd applauded and I did a few more things like rolling hops and stuff. They called me in to see the judges and told me I would have a maximum of only 90 seconds…I was in there for 5 minutes!
Anyway I gave all three judges my Bio, my card showing me in mid drop off a 6 foot wall, and my 60 sec compilation video. They played it while I was there and seemed pretty impressed. Of course I emphasized my age lol! I told them I could put a cool obstacle course together for the first show, where I could hop, gap, and make my way through the course, going progressively higher, culminating with a big drop at the end!
They asked me if I was on the SECOND televised show, could I do something different. I said absolutely! So I gave it my best, had a blast, and even if I’m not selected to be on the show, at least I should be in the promos!
Yeah that would be fun and hopefully it would also be a big positive boost for MUni and other extreme forms of Unicycling as a legitimate sport, and let people see that it’s not just for people with orange frizzy hair and big red rubber noses!
Thanks, well they told us nobody would know if they made it on the show for at least four weeks.
Great job! Now to make it onto the actual show. It’s hard, if not impossible, to know exactly what the producers and those variety-idiot judges will want/like. On the one hand, you’ll need some polish. Very few acts make it multiple rounds if they aren’t professional entertainers. You have some background there. On the other hand, Hasselhoff has the attention span of a gnat, so you need something interesting to keep him involved. A big gap or drop will probably do it, but don’t save it for the end if you don’t have a lot of “middle.”
Also it seems to help if you have a “story” of some kind. Not sure what you may have there… Have fun with it!
Knowing how these things work. Unless there is some other impressive Unicyclist that shows up in one of their other cities, your chances are darn good. Later it really is a competition as to who America votes for, but in the early stages it’s about as getting as many different kinds of things as possible. And it’s not really the “judges” that decide who goes on from the “auditions” to the part where America votes. They give input and it’s them saying the decision, but the producers are heavily involved in the choices. Plus being local makes a huge difference because if they need an alternate it will be someone local and available at the drop of a hat, i.e. someone living L.A. with a completely flexible schedule.
I’d actually be surprised if they didn’t put Terry on the show even if only to say he’s got good skills but is not what they are looking for.
Every season there’s been a unicyclist or unicycle group none of which had performance polish. Terry is a good candidate because although he is sports unicycling oriented he still has performance personality
I love coming up with creative ideas, and so I will enjoy the challenge!
I don’t mind the wait; To be honest, I’ll probably forget all about it until I get a cal yay or nay! :o
Thanks Jeff yeah I’ve got some things I can add for variety, and mix in a short funny bit as well. I’m also thinking that since the judges are ALL in my age range, they will be more supportive and appreciate what they see! Hopefully.
My brother, who live in Las Vegas, told me that a local paper there finally got around to publishing a story they did on me when I was at Bootleg Canyon a couple months back. As usual, the reporter made several mistakes, like the misquote: “…He claims to be one of the few people in the country to do extreme unicycling, calling his style of riding Muni”. What I said was that as far I knew, I was one of the few people my age-big difference lol!
Another misquote was: “Peterson has pretty much perfected unicycle riding by completing 7- and 10-foot drops off tractors and rocks” Lol, “perfected” and the “10 foot” thing was never uttered by me! Wouldn’t it be great if they would call you to proof read it to you before they publish it? One misquote my brother will like is that they refered to him as my “younger sibling”! He’s 8 years older than me!
But they did mention my audition for AGT which was surprising! I had called about a week ago to ask when the story might be out, and they said it should be soon. So I told them I was going to be auditioning for the show and if they hadn’t finalized the story yet, maybe they could mention that, and so they did.
Cody and I auditioned today also. About a week ago we put together a short routine together that we were planning to do. When we got there most of the audition rooms were carpeted and it was really hard to ride on it, so we requested one with a dance floor. The dance floor ended up being a really small (maybe 10x10 feet) wood surface ontop of the carpet that wasn’t big enough for us to do our routine on without hitting each other. We ended up just taking turns showing them a bunch of tricks instead. The producers understood that we didn’t have a big enough space to do what we planned, so who knows how it will go. Overall it seemed pretty anti-climatic and I’m not expecting much.
Good luck Terry!
Yeah I kinda felt the same way with that “square” wood area; it was really small! The producer had told me the adition room was 1,700 sq. feet, and carpeted. Yeah right haha. Btw, I had brought a sandwich board and the ramp plus a dolly in my car, but there was NO WAY I could have lugged it with me through the literal maze of people, stairs, narrow spaces, etc. It would have also slipped like crazy on that slippery wood surface! (I forgot to put rubber on the bottom. :o )
But even if I had brought it in and used it in the audition, it would have kinda been overshadowed by the stuff they saw me doing in the video, lol. And I wish you guys good luck too! It would be so cool if any unicyclist got on!
Yeah all the people and performers there were really nice, and this one group of singers all dressed as Pirates were playing their music live in the big waiting area, and everyone was dancing and clapping along…including me!
And then there was this little girl all dressed up in like a ballerina outfit and she was so amazed by my uni that she couldn’t stop looking at it, touching the tire, the brake and the pedals and whenever or wherever I rode it, she was right there following! Her parents were also asking lots of questions about how I started riding and all that. Yeah it was a fun experience no matter what and everybody there seemed to be having a blast!
BTW, what seat is that and do you have some other pics of any of your unis on here? Or can you send me some when you have a chance, you can PM me for my email if you want, thanks
<<< Edit: Nevermind about the pics, I see you have loads of vids, nice work on the ladder!
Mis-quotes happen a lot. I wish they would have called me to proof-read the article they wrote about unicycling in The Oregonian… it was still better than I excepted but it pretty much sucked.
My Tivo is set to record the Season Pass for AGT just in case you three make it to the actual show! Can’t wait for this season.
Can anybody else not help but feel that if Terry or any other unicylist makes it on the show that the circus theme tune will be playing in the background.
This sport certainly looks to be going in a different direction but if so, so be it.
Things in the Circus are only there because they are amazing and entertaining.
You dont go to the circus expecting to see things that you can do (or would choose to in the case of getting shot out of a cannon LOL)
One misquote my brother will like is that they refered to him as my “younger sibling”! He’s 8 years older than me! 
