Andrew Braithwaite

It's 10am and Clay Vogel is giving advice. "You only get one word, man," he says in his West Virginian drawl to no one in particular, a blue Coleman camping chair sheathed and slung over his shoulder. "If they see what they're looking for in that one word, you stick around. If they don't, it's `thanks for coming.'" Someone asks whether Clay's twelve-hour wait in a thousands-deep line of people was worth the chance to be one of the first to audition for the second season of NBC's "The Apprentice." "Naw, man. Naw."

The crowd of designer suits outside the NBC Towers is not your typical reality-show talent pool. "I was at the last `Real World' audition," says Jade, an advertising student at Columbia College. "There were three times as many people there. It looks like most of these people probably have jobs already."

The end of the line is still buzzing over the sale of a spot up front for $1,000. Jade's back here, looking to unload her own wristband, numbered 462. A woman named Yvonne inquires. Jade decides that she's looking for sixty bucks. "I'll give you seventy," Yvonne offers, in a business maneuver sure to depress Mr. Trump. Cash is passed and they begin the three-minute walk up to 462.

Vogel, a sleepy number 46, is headed home to ditch the suit and begin his Saturday. "Actually, I had a pretty good night. Met some interesting people," he says. "Drank twelve beers. I offered one to the interviewer."

(2004-03-25)

Also by Andrew Braithwaite

My bonnie beer
It's only been a couple of weeks now since Smithwick's, first brewed in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1710, has been available in the Land of the Free
(2004-03-18)

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