Day 20 - May 12, 2012 (Episode 3)

Today brings us down to 10 and leaves me with another favorite memory!  Good times along with a great competition!
We got started late today, which left me time for sleeping in until 9:00 (not really sleeping in, when you got to bed around 3:00), a five-mile run at 10:30, lunch at 1:00, then shopping with Austin and Johnathan at 2:00.  Finally, 3:00 came around and we met to go to the individual challenge.  It was then that we were informed it would involve another export, this time being Norwegian Black Metal!  (Norwegian Black Metal is basically the heaviest of the heavy metal music!)  Each contestant would receive a CD with some music on it, use up to 45 minutes to write 20 seconds worth of lyrics to go with that music, and then “sing” those lyrics in front of a live audience, all with a super group of black metal artists playing behind them!  The audience would then vote for their favorite.  Whoever had the least votes goes home!  Immediately, we all realized this would be a tough one for Mary Caryl!



Waiting for the show, I invited this local kid to help me beat
Austin and Alf in a game of foosball.

Before the performances, we waited in a lobby-type area of what was an old abandoned warehouse/beer distillery.  When we arrived there, there were about 40 people waiting as well, all dressed in black!  We immediately stood out, but were able to get pretty friendly with everyone as we waited.  I even asked a young kid to be my teammate on the foosball table.



Finally, the time came to go in and see the show.  We all went in to see a crazy industrial-like room with a bar at one end and a large stage at the other.  The room wasn’t too large though, which was probably a good thing, since the producers were hoping for about 200 fans and only had 40!  Because of the sub-par turn out from what they were expecting, the crew had to not only stand in the audience to help fill it up, but had been grabbing people off of the street that just happened to be walking by, including a bachelorette party!



Jessica, C.J., Mary Caryl, Tara and Dana harnessing their inner-demons!

After some preparation and an intro from Henriette (dressed in black metal garb), the show got started!  A keyboardist, drummer, guitarist and bassist started playing some heavy music and after about 30 seconds, Tara took the stage.  She did her part for about 20 seconds, then handed the mic to CJ, then Mary Caryl, then Dana, and finally, Jessica.  Each one of them was dressed completely in goth-type clothing and screaming into the mic.  We couldn’t understand any of the lyrics, since they were in Norwegian, but I’m pretty sure the Norwegian audience couldn’t understand them either, due to the screaming that was used to sing them!





The cast with their "backing band", a super-group of famous black-metal artists!

Overall, I thought Dana did the best (not surprising, since he used to be in a heavy metal band), Jessica was next best with a great stage show, followed by Tara, who was okay, CJ, who didn’t really move at all, but sang well, and last had to be Mary Caryl, who we were calling MC Hammer at this point.  She was not only awful with her singing/screaming, but added some non-black metal type dancing, and of course, ended the whole thing with the splits, her sign ature move!

As assumed, that’s how the voting ended up going.  Mary Caryl was out and the group was pretty emotionless, including Mary Caryl.  She was definitely the odd man out of our group and never seemed to be trying too hard to hang out/fit in with the rest of us.  The lack of emotion may have been that or just the fact that everyone was expecting it was her to go today.

Anyways, it was over.  We all said our goodbyes and off she went.  We then did our post-competition interviews and a closing scene with Henriette that involved us hanging out at the bar and having a beer.  It was then that they announced this week’s winner of The Troll would be Jessica!  It’s been a tough week for her, but she’s really held together and kept positive.

Alf and Henriette passing time after the results were announced. After
hearing as many stories as we did about friends of Alf's that he had knocked
out by accident while sparring, we were all a little worried about how
this would end! You'll just have to wait until Episode 4 to see if either
one of them show up with a black eye!

After we wrapped up shooting, we headed back to the crew’s hotel for dinner and a show. It turns out that the Norwegian equivalent of the Emmy’s was that night and Alt for Norge was up for an award!  Although, they didn’t think they would get it, since they had won one last year.



Watcing the Gullruten awards, which is the Norwegian equivalent of
our Emmy's. A really cool moment to be a part of.

We all gathered at the restaurant at the top of the hotel, where they had a projector set up to show the awards show live.  Of course, everything was in Norwegian, so a lot had to be translated for us, but it was still fun to watch.  Turns out, most of the crew had worked on other various shows that were nominated for different awards, so it was cool to see a random crew member explode with cheer after a different show had won an award!  Then, the time came.  The nominees for Best Reality Competition were announced.  Everyone in the restaurant quieted down and next thing you know, there was some Norsk spoken by the announcer, but then you heard him say, “Alt for Norge”, and the room exploded!  Everyone went crazy, running around, hugging each other, high fiving, giving each other salutes across the room!  What a moment to be a part of!  We even got to watch Steinar, the Executive Producer from TV Norge give an acceptance speech where he gave a shout out to the cast and crew who was out filming Season 3!  It was just so cool to see these people that you’ve been working with 24-7 for the last three weeks get rewarded for their hard work and see what it meant to them!  Definitely will be one of my favorite moments from this whole journey!




 

C.J. and members from the black metal group before going out!

After dinner, we ended up deciding to go out with the band from the competition.  Our Mama’s weren’t too happy about it, since it was already midnight and we needed to be up and leaving at 6:30 A.M., but how many times do you get a chance to go party with actual rock stars!!  Off we went, following their sound guy, who was already drunk and smoking a joint while we walked!  We ended up going to some bar that was packed with a bunch of 21 year olds.  That, combined with some crazy antics from that sound guy (who apparently had just done some cocaine), led to most of us opting to head home.  Alf, Austin, CJ and myself were back by about 1:30 and asleep by 2:00.  Found out later that Dana and Tara stayed out until 4:00!  Apparently, when they left, even at 4:00, the bar and those rock stars were all still going strong!!

That’s it for today.  Mary Caryl is one and Alt for Norge truly is a very coveted show by fans and critics alike!  What a day!

Day 20 Over!  Down to 10!



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