FIGURE IT OUT!

Serendipity. It basically means a "pleasant surprise." Well, Sidney had a serendipitous moment recently that resulted in her being on a Nickelodeon TV show.

A few weeks after ABS13 Youth Nationals this past March, I received an e-mail from Nickelodeon via USA Climbing. They were interested in having the National Champions from FYD, MYD, FYC and MYC audition for a possible spot on a show they were producing called "Figure It Out."  The premise of the show is that a young person has a secret talent and a celebrity panel asks yes or no questions to guess what that secret talent is.  Time was very short and they needed anyone interested to make a 4 minute audition tape and send it to them within a few days. Sidney really wanted to audition but unfortunately we were headed to Smith Rock the next day. Along came Chase (Sidney's older brother) to save the day! He interviewed her that night, edited a few videos and sent the audition tape to Nickelodeon within a couple of days. He did a tremendous job and I was very impressed. You can watch the audition tape here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRfZzaHZHWc&list=UUvFEo19_3FQnGo0AZ8w0Oqw&index=0&feature=plcp.

We heard back from the casting director within a couple of days and he said they definitely wanted Sidney to be on the show! Needless to say, Sidney was super excited for this opportunity but she was also a bit nervous once the news sunk in that she was actually going to be on TV. Travel plans were arranged very quickly as the taping period of her show was 3 weeks after she was booked.

Sidney's mother, Lisa Grannell, chaperoned her on their whirlwind weekend trip to Southern California on the last weekend of April.  They flew out on a Friday and visited with some family.  The next day was the filming of the show and both of them said that it was pure chaos!  The car picking them up was late.  There was no set schedule so they were on the set all day not knowing when they would film.  They had a chaperone the entire time and were not allowed to talk to anyone so that Sidney's secret skill could not be found out before the taping.  They got to the food line too late and didn't get much to eat.  All of that would sound like they had a terrible time but they both said they had a blast because it was so cool to see behind the scenes of filming a TV show.

Late in the day, they finally filmed Sidney's show and she did awesome!  She was very relaxed and had a great presence during the taping.  She had a couple of nice interactions with the host and a celebrity judge.  She also got famously "slimed."  The game went down to the wire but the celebrity panel failed to guess her secret talent and she won the Grand Prize of a trip for four to Cabo San Lucas!  Wow!  Finally, she got to show off her secret talent by scaling a portable climbing wall they had brought onto the set.  Watch the full episode yourself here, http://t.nick.com/videos/clip/figure-it-out-523-bouldering-origami-full-episode.html.

They flew home the next morning so they barely got to see any sights or even get to swim in the hotel pool but they both had a great time and will share a lasting memory.  I couldn't be any prouder of how she handled herself and how mature she looked on the show.  Getting a free trip to Cabo was pretty cool, too.

Sidney getting "slimed" and loving it!  (Photo courtesy of Nickelodeon)