Reality Check
SPU Alumni Participate in the Reality Show Phenomenon
WHEN JOHN GRANGE �01 was asked to audition for the new CBS reality series �Fire Me Please� nine months ago, he proceeded cautiously. �I was worried that the joke was on me,� says Grange, wise to the sometimes shifty nature of reality television.
It turned out the four-episode series was legitimately seeking actors to play the part of new employees on their first day of work. And, as the show�s name implied, there was a catch. You had to get fired as close to 3:00 p.m. as possible, not a minute later � all while hidden cameras recorded everything.
Easy? Grange points out the ground rules: �You can�t break the law, and you can�t ask to be fired.� It�s no wonder each episode�s winner was awarded $25,000. Talk about a hard day�s work.
Grange, whose background in improvisational
performance and acting dates back to his years as a student at SPU, appeared on the show�s June 28, 2005, episode. At Big Apple Smoothies, a caf� in White Plains, New York, he spent the good portion of a day trying to get fired. His best strategy? Talking on his cell phone � on the clock, of course.
Though he didn�t win (he was fired at 3:13 p.m.), Grange enjoyed his first appearance
on national television. �It was difficult, but I did my best,� says the Los Angeles resident,
who works as a freelance publicist for a company called The PR Collective Inc. while pursuing a career in acting.
Grange is among a growing cohort of SPU alumni who have appeared on reality TV shows in recent years. Dirk Been �98, who lived on the fifth floor of Ashton Hall along with Grange, was featured on the first season
of NBC�s original reality show �Survivor.� Jennifer Montzingo �05 made an appearance ast year on the Fox Network�s reality show �The Littlest Groom� � basically �The Bachelor�
featuring little people.
Summing up his own encounter with reality
television, Grange says, �It was quite a weird, wam-bam experience � but I had a really fun time.�
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