There was a small crowd gathered at a booth outside Liat Towers. I tracked down a cute girl holding a tray giving out cans of Coke Light and I kindly helped to lighten her load a little. It helped that I was a little thirsty as well. A female DJ was extolling the refreshing sugar-free calorie-free drink chilled to 4 degrees celcius et cetera et cetera.

As I took the first sip, I noticed a guy from the booth counter weaving through the crowd coming quickly towards me. He was short but beefy, and was holding a clipboard.

“Hi, how old are you?”

This certainly wasn’t the typical kid on the street begging for a donation or information for a marketing survey - he almost made it sound like I was the one asking to be interviewed.

“What’s this about?” I’m not in the habit of releasing personal information to perfect strangers, or imperfect ones for that matter.

So MediaCorp was doing a new reality TV show called a Light Affair, and it’s the last day of the auditions, and they’re doing the filming next month, and if I’m single and above 18 I’m eligible for the audition…

“I’m not interested.”

He looked shocked. Almost horrified. As if no one in his right mind would refuse such an incredible offer.

“What?” he managed to stammer.

Reality TV has little to do with reality. And having auditions for reality TV is a little ironic, no? Besides, I don’t watch TV anyway. But I wasn’t in the mood to explain or argue.

“I said I’m not interested. But thanks anyway.”

By the way, Coke Light tastes bad.

* * * * *

I related the incident to a friend later at Borders, and she told me that she had already gone for an audition some time back, and they were calling her for another audition. She’s extremely talented, so I wasn’t surprised.

But this time, she rejected their offer, citing “unforseen circumstances.”

She’s no more single.

* * * * *

On hindsight, maybe I should have gone for the audition just for kicks. Ah well, too late now. Maybe next time.