When I was a freshman in college, the Super Bowl was held in Detroit. The Rolling Stones were playing the Half-time Show & I was dying to be on the field for the performance. I knew from watching past Super Bowls that they always had a crowd run onto the field for the performance. I did some googling and found the casting information for how to take part in it, but you had to have a group of 20 people to participate. I had no clue how to get 20 people together who were free to attend numerous meetings & rehearsals over a two week span, so I emailed the company that was casting the show & explained that I was in college, didn't have a group of 20 but I would love to participate in any way I could. The offered me a volunteer position helping the casting crew from Don Mischer Productions that was flying in from New York. I happily accepted and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life.
I'll never forget the day before the Super Bowl at the dress rehearsal, they kicked all of the casted audience off the field & there were maybe 50 crew members that stayed and watched The Rolling Stones perform their set. That was one of the coolest moments of my life: a private Stones mini concert! After the rehearsal I was standing in one of the back hallways right off the field and Mick and Keith walked right past me speaking to each other in their awesome British accents. That was a pretty surreal moment.
The day of the Super Bowl was very exciting! It was freezing cold and we were positioned outside in a tent (thankfully it had heat) while we checked in all 2,000 audience members and wristbanded them for the Pre-game show & Half-time Show. We brought about 500 audience members onto the field for the Pre-game show, which featured Stevie Wonder, John Legend, India Arie & Joss Stone. Then everyone was cued up in the ramp walkways in Comerica Park where the Detroit Tigers play, which is right next to Ford Field. I still remember running with the audience members from Comerica through the party going on outside the stadium & down the ramp onto the field for the Halftime show! It was such a rush. The energy of the fans in the building was unreal & it was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever experienced.
After the half-time show, there was some difficulties getting the stage up the ramp after the Stones performed & I was stuck on the field with a hundred or so audience members & half on the casting crew when the teams came back out to warm up after halftime! It was cool watching that. I ended up not seeing any of the game, but it was totally worth it.
During the two week span I worked with the casting crew leading up to the Super Bowl, I met some really awesome people who worked in the entertainment industry. I asked a lot of questions about their career path, past jobs they had and how they got to where they were. Almost every single one majored in communications in college. After hearing their stories, I was hooked. I went into college planning on majoring in economics and political science with plans of going to law school, but it all changed after that. I switched to the communications program (I still majored in political science since I enjoyed learning about the government) and dreamed of working in the sports & entertainment industry. Having the experience with the Super Bowl casting crew on my resume led me to get my first job in sports my sophomore year of college and the internships and jobs after all built off of that. I interned and worked in Los Angeles for a few years doing celebrity public relations and celebrity gifting suites/sponsorship marketing. I switched back over to the sports/concert venue side in Orange County, CA before making my way to an agency back home that works with sports and entertainment properties.
It is crazy to think where I would have ended up career wise if I hadn't reached out to the casting team that day.
