Chapter 6 Changing Names
Perhaps because he found the right topic, Lu Yu's attitude suddenly became much more friendly compared to the non-admitted attitude when they first met.
Along the way, through the other party's chattering popular science, Mo Bei began to have a preliminary understanding of the entertainment industry of this era.
Similar to the situation during his lifetime, in the past 20 years, talent shows in the Chinese entertainment industry have continued to emerge one after another.
From boy bands to girl bands, from rappers to ballad singers to bands, and later even the acting industry began to hold auditions. However, unlike traditional idol singer auditions, the latter's competition format was to replace singing and dancing with acting.
However, as there are too many talent shows, the audience is also beginning to feel aesthetic fatigue.
For example, the popular shows "The Strongest Boy" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" ten years ago were both popular in their first seasons, but began to decline in the later stages. They either received mediocre responses or were cancelled.
But even so, major platforms are still happy to launch talent shows, and domestic brokerage companies, large and small, still choose to send their new trainees into the shows to show their faces.
The reason is simple: how can becoming famous through acting be as fast as through a talent show?
But it only takes three months to quickly increase a person's popularity, which is much better than sending him to a film crew to play a small supporting role!
What's more, holding talent shows allows fans to make money by voting, and for the platform, those votes are all real money!
If you are lucky enough that the show becomes popular, you can also attract more investment from wealthy sponsors.
As for fans getting tired of it and not buying it?
It’s okay, at worst we can just put new wine in old bottles and change the model to do something new.
If you still don't buy it, it doesn't matter. After all, the old ones will leave and the new ones will come. Even if those veteran fans leave the circle, there will be other new forces to fill in in the future.
It is precisely because of this that, although the talent show industry in the Chinese entertainment industry has not been extremely popular in recent years, it has been able to maintain a level of not starving.
"Youth Project" is such a boy group audition program launched in a weak environment.
To differentiate itself from other idol talent shows on the market, and to avoid audience complaints that "talent shows are just a game of insider capital banding together for warmth," the production team didn't focus on trainees from major domestic talent agencies this time. Instead, they chose to search for a needle in a haystack, conducting online and offline auditions nationwide for unsigned talent.
Doing so will of course bring certain risks.
Not having a contract with a company means that the contestants have no support. If they have any negative information, it is very likely to be uncovered in the future as the show airs. By then, spending money on PR is a small matter; in serious cases, it may even affect the image of the show and cause it to be canceled.
Of course, high risk also comes with high returns.
The fact that contestants aren't signed to a company means the platform isn't subject to any control from the other party, giving it more room to maneuver. Once a contestant becomes a hit on the show, the platform can simply sign them to its own entertainment company and make money for itself, without having to share the fruits of their labor with other entertainment companies.
Although the quality of these amateur players is not as stable and guaranteed as that of trainees from large companies, once the investment is successful, the return rate will be maximized. Otherwise, the neighboring island country would not always like to produce training-based idols.
Since it is open to amateurs who are not signed to any company, and the early publicity was huge, as soon as the auditions were opened, a large number of people signed up online and offline.
The online registration process is relatively simple. You only need to fill out the electronic registration form on the official platform of the program team and upload relevant personal information to participate in the registration.
In addition to unretouched full-body and close-up photos, personal profiles also require uploading personal performance videos.
After all, idol auditions aren't just beauty pageants. While looks can be a stepping stone, real talent is also crucial. Today's fans are more knowledgeable and can't be easily fooled like they used to be.
A useless vase will never make it to the end.
Of course, strength and appearance are only part of the selection criteria; the contestant's personality is also very important.
If you have a boring personality, how can you continue to attract the audience's attention? If you want to survive in the entertainment industry for a long time, you need to have emotional intelligence and be able to handle things well.
Of course, the above three points are just the basics. The most important one is the fourth one.
Looking back at the popular talent shows in the past, there are always one or two "alternative contestants" who stand out.
Without exception, these people have good audience appeal.
Audience appeal is a kind of metaphysics. It is innate and cannot be cultivated.
As the saying goes, a small fire depends on support, a big fire depends on luck.
Some people are naturally popular with the audience, and even if they are surrounded by negative news, they will always be loved by fans and passers-by. Some people are still the kind of people who will be destroyed by both negative and positive news no matter how much they act.
The former is what is called "natural star quality".
But such people are hard to come by, and often even after screening thousands of people, you still can't find one. But if you are lucky enough to get one, it would be a pie in the sky for the program team.
Compared with the simple online registration process, offline auditions are much more tiring and troublesome.
The program team held a week-long offline audition process in ten first-tier cities across China. Contestants were required to prepare their own makeup and makeup and arrive at the audition venue in advance to queue up for registration and perform.
This is a very tiring process. Although the audition venue is indoors, due to the limited space, the registered contestants usually need to line up outside.
In an open-air environment, with nowhere to sit and rest, it's easy to drain your energy over time. Add to that weather, physical issues, and psychological factors like pre-performance anxiety, and it's easy to underperform. Offline auditions, however, aren't like online ones, where mistakes can be re-recorded.
But even so, countless people still flocked to the venue every day this week, resulting in a sharp increase in the workload of on-site security personnel.
As one of the most core audition areas of the program team, the number of applicants in Yuehai City is terrifyingly large.
There are not only "talent show masters" like Lu Yu who are determined to break into the circle, but also many internet celebrities and amateurs who want to try their luck.
Now, there is another former top idol, Mo Bei, who is in urgent need of the stage spotlight to prolong his life.
At this moment, Mo Bei was even more thankful that he had shamelessly approached Lu Yu, otherwise he might have missed such a great opportunity.
Riding a small electric scooter and following Lu Yu all the way to the city center, the surrounding environment became more and more prosperous.
As they approached the city, more and more people were on the street, which made Mo Bei feel uneasy.
Even though it was cloudy today and the sunlight was not strong, he subconsciously lowered the brim of his hat and pulled up his mask.
"Aren't you hot like this?"
On the side, Lu Yu, who had been observing all the way, couldn't help but ask.
“It’s not hot.”
After becoming a zombie, Mo Bei lost some of his body's senses. Not only his sense of taste, but also the difference between hot and cold temperatures made no difference to him.
Fortunately, vision, hearing and smell were not affected.
The first two may be due to the consideration that he will still need to be active under the spotlight of the stage in the future. As for the latter... it is probably to remind him of the decaying state of his body.
For example, when he first became a zombie, he was exposed to the sun for several hours without knowing it, and then his body began to emit a rotting smell.
It is precisely because of that experience that he now gets nervous whenever he sees the sun.
Of course, the reason he covered his head and face now was not because of the sun, but because of the heavy traffic and crowds on the street.
Fortunately, aside from the mask and hat, Mo Bei's attire wasn't conspicuous. Plus, at that hour, pedestrians were busy going to work or school and wouldn't pay attention to an insignificant passerby. Therefore, even if Mo Bei wrapped himself up like a dumpling, no one cared.
After all, in a big city like Yuehai, there are a lot of people who dress strangely.
In this way, after a safe journey, the man and the corpse finally arrived at the audition site.
Just as I'd expected, the venue was packed. It wasn't even 9 o'clock yet, but the line at the entrance was already so long it could circle the entire venue.
Perhaps because today is the last day of the auditions, there are even more people coming than on the first day.
Just when Mo Bei thought that they would spend the rest of the time queuing, unexpectedly Lu Yu took him directly to the front of the line.
Before he could ask, he saw two young men with the same wild hairstyle as Lu Yu waving at him near the entrance of the venue.
"Brother Yu! Here!"
Seeing two strangers about to cut in line, some people in the back row immediately started yelling, "Don't cut in line! Go to the back!"
One of the blond-haired boys immediately retorted: "What do you mean by queue-jumping? We're all in this together!"
Having said that, he pulled Lu Yu over without caring what the people behind him thought.
"Brother Yu, what's the situation?"
Seeing Lu Yu helplessly spreading his hands, the yellow-haired boy hurriedly comforted him: "It's okay. I believe your father will calm down after we pass the audition."
"I hope so." Lu Yu shrugged. "It's okay for me. I just have to trouble you guys again during this period."
"What trouble or no trouble? We are all good brothers. Why are you talking about this?"
Nearby, another young man with dyed blue hair put his arm around Lu Yu's shoulder and said, "The only thing we need to consider now is how to pass the audition."
The yellow-haired boy pounded his head like garlic, "That's right!"
Although they had smiles on their faces, Mo Bei could feel that these young people were obviously not as optimistic as they appeared on the outside.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two teenagers finally noticed Mo Bei standing behind Lu Yu. The yellow-haired teenager winked at him and said, "Brother Yu, who is this person?"
"My dad's friend. He heard that I was going to participate in the audition and came over to watch the fun." Lu Yu explained concisely.
The yellow-haired boy nodded and looked at Mo Bei: "This... big brother? What's your name?"
Facing the dark eyes under the brim of the hat that showed no sign of age, Zhou Mingyao swallowed the word "uncle" that was about to come out of his mouth.
It's no wonder he almost made a mistake. After all, this guy's clothes were even more rustic than his father's. Plus, Lu Yu had just introduced him as his father's friend, so he naturally had a preconceived impression that he was older.
Mo Bei didn't know the true thoughts of these high school students in front of him, so he said the pseudonym he had made up when he came here -
"My name is Jiang Mo Nan. Jiang means river, Mo means a hero should never ask where he came from, and Nan means difficulty."
Jiang is his mother's surname, and it is homophonic with the word "zombie" (zombie), representing his current identity.
As for why it is called Mo Nan, the reason is very simple and crude.
Once upon a time, a fortune teller in his hometown had read his horoscope and told him that the north was incompatible with him, so he should develop his fortune in the south. He also told him not to use the character "北" in his name, because in ancient times, defeat in battle was called "baibei" (defeat), and bad luck was called "beiyun" (back luck). Therefore, using the character "北" (north) would easily lead to bad luck in life.
At that time, he and his parents scoffed at such statements, thinking they were all alarmist talk by fortune tellers.
It was not until he died and went to a northern country to attend the fashion week, and was hijacked by bandits on the way back and became what he is now, that Mo Bei realized that the fortune teller's predictions were really accurate!
Now that he has a second life, he naturally wants to change his fate.
Naturally, the word "North" can no longer be used.
Since he prefers the south to the north, it's not a bad idea to change to the south.
But with this face and called Mo Nan, his former fans might think that he is trying to ride on the popularity of "Mo Bei".
In that case, why not just change another word.
Mo Nan, Mo Nan.
Don't encounter difficulties.
Although it sounds similar to "tribulations", with the addition of the character "jiang" it can be understood as "don't encounter any difficulties in the future."
Thinking of this, Mo Bei was moved by his own intelligence.
Jiang Mo Nan.
What a great name, what a great meaning!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
