CalArts Students Get Wild and Crazy, Sort of, Auditioning for MTV Job

At stake was a chance to shape the tastes of the nation’s teen-agers on a subject near and dear to their hearts--rock ‘n’ roll--when 19 students and one professor stepped in front of the camera Monday at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

They had been given their orders by the man from MTV, who was looking for nothing less than a new on-camera “VJ,” video jockey, for the cable television network that made music videos the rage among America’s youth.

“Be wild and crazy,” said Allan Newman, MTV’s supervising producer. “No normal people here.”

“You came to the right school,” quipped one student.

CalArts was the last stop in MTV’s nationwide search for a new on-camera VJ to replace the departing Dweezil Zappa, son of rock star Frank Zappa.

Nationwide Search

MTV’s “College Caravan Screen Tests” crew began looking for fresh talent April 17 at 10 colleges and universities across the nation. CalArts, the only California school included, was chosen because of its excellent reputation in the arts, Newman said.

But the school also is known for its unconventional ways, as a place where a student may climb down a rope from a balcony to pick up his diploma, and where others may show up at graduation in stretch limousines or carrying their dogs.

“I don’t want any TV news-reporter types. I don’t want Bryant Gumbel,” Newman told the 20 competitors, narrowed down from about 50 people who applied at CalArts. “I don’t want Jane Pauley. Do whatever you want to do on camera.”

But, as the students sat down in the interview chair and began to do mock interviews with an MTV official who pretended to be rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel and David Lee Roth, the pressure got the best of them.

Rather than wild and crazy, they seemed serious and, at times, a bit stiff.

“Why did you suddenly decide to make videos?” “What’s next for Mr. Springsteen?” were typical questions.

For many, it was their first audition of any kind.

“I am so nervous,” said Manjit Kapany, 20, a theater major.

Some Brave Souls

But a few students let their hair down. Lane Heirs, 23, a video graphics major, did a strip tease and played a drum. Another student played a few notes on a harmonica at the end of his audition.

The MTV crew interviewed up to 150 contestants at other schools, then chose 25 to audition on tape, Newman said. Only 20 were selected at CalArts because of the smaller number of applications.

Nevertheless, he figured, students at the small school were getting more than an equal chance of being discovered.

“We’ve interviewed 20% of the student body here,” he said, exaggerating a bit. “Considering that a lot of the other schools have thousands more students, we did pretty well.”

Five finalists will be selected from the entrants around the nation and sent to New York for final auditions on the air at MTV. Owen Burdick may be the only professor competing.

Burdick, 32, a CalArts music teacher who looks as young as his students, was one of the more off-beat questioners when he appeared before the audition camera with “Bruce Springsteen.”

“Who does your laundry?” he asked. “What do you do with all your money?”

One of the questions on an application form given contestants asked them to name the record or cassette they had bought most recently.

“My answer was Mahler,” Burdick said. “Do you think I stand a chance?”