Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 446 Extras and Singers

"I'm going to steal away for pleasure alone, I refuse your supervision, I say goodbye to your side, I'm lonely and looking for companionship..."

Near the park's rest area, Huang Bo was singing energetically, trying to attract more listeners.

After listening to Zhang Yan's speech that day, he carefully considered his options and finally decided to move to Tianjin to develop his career—a choice that many young singers who have moved to Beijing for work have also made.

Although there are fewer opportunities to perform in bars in Tianjin and the economic conditions are not as good as in Beijing, Yuanmeng's dominant position in the domestic music scene over the past two years has still had a huge effect on attracting traffic.

Many contestants who wanted to participate in "I Am a Singer" and singers who were eliminated from the competition chose to stay in Tianjin to look for opportunities.

Those who can't get a resident singing job can only do what Huang Bo did: earn a living on the streets or in parks and shops while building up their popularity.

"Huang Bo~"

Just then, a tall, thin man carrying a guitar came over and asked, "Have you opened for business today?"

This guy's name is Man Wenjun, and he is one of Huang Bo's roommates in Tianjin.

There were six people sharing a room. The others were all young singers who wanted to stand out. Among them, Man Wenjun and Huang Bo got along the best. Huang Bo himself didn't know why, maybe he was just a person who attracted tall people.

"What kind of business are you opening?"

Huang Bo pointed to the stainless steel basin on the ground and said helplessly, "Apart from the ones I put there in advance, I didn't even earn a penny."

Man Wenjun slung his guitar over his shoulder and said smugly, "Then stop singing, come on, I'll take you out for a free meal."

"Where to get a free meal?"

"The restaurant opened by Gao Feng and Sun Yue!"

Man Wenjun explained, "They made a fortune from this tour, so they held a promotion at the restaurant: anyone who can sing one of their songs in its entirety this week can have a free meal at the restaurant."

Actually, the event was initiated by Teng Ge'er, but he's not famous enough right now.

Hearing about this great opportunity, Huang Bo naturally wouldn't miss it. After finding out where the restaurant was, he suggested that the two of them walk there.

"Saving money is secondary; the main thing is that we get some exercise first, so we can eat our fill later!"

"Alright, then we'll walk there!"

Man Wenjun also came from the countryside and has not yet picked up any bad habits, so he naturally wouldn't be pretentious about such things.

The two had a good plan, but when they arrived at the place, they were dumbfounded. There were at least four or five hundred people in line. Although there were more than one or two people being verified, the problem was that singing a song would take at least two or three minutes, and it would probably be midnight by the time it was their turn.

"Just hang in there."

Man Wenjun patted his stomach and said to Huang Bo, "If you skip a meal, you'll eat even more."

Huang Bo stood on tiptoe to look at the scene in front of him and shook his head, saying, "I'm afraid it won't just be one meal of hunger—you only see the line of people singing, but the line of people eating also has to be filled, and it might be even longer."

"What should I do?"

Man Wenjun hesitated and said, "Then why don't we just retreat?"

"No!"

Huang Bo shook his head firmly: "No matter how many people there are, we have to wait, and we need to adjust our mindset in advance—what are we here for? You're only thinking about eating, haven't you thought about this being an opportunity to show your strength?"

“That’s right! If we can get Gao Feng or Sun Yue to take a liking to us, why would we have to worry about not being able to get in and fulfill our dreams?!” Man Wenjun said, slapping his thigh, and decisively joined Huang Bo at the end of the line.

The two waited in line for almost an hour, and the line became increasingly anxious and chaotic, but they were both happy to endure it because they had different thoughts on the matter.

Just then, a bus suddenly stopped by the roadside, and a middle-aged man with long hair jumped off, holding a megaphone and shouting: "The film crew is recruiting extras! If you don't want to wait in line, hurry up and sign up! We not only provide boxed lunches, but also pay!"

Hearing this shout, many people at the end of the line had an idea. Although the boxed lunches were not as attractive as the free meals, they still had money to be made.

Moreover, the queue was incredibly long. As a result, many people went over to inquire, while Huang Bo and Man Wenjun stared at each other, somewhat hesitant.

Man Wenjun muttered to himself, "Why don't we go be extras first, and then come back to line up? It's only a week anyway."

Huang Bo scoffed at this idea of ​​taking advantage of small gains: "Today is the first day, not many people know about it yet, but I estimate there will be even more people lining up tomorrow!"

Man Wenjun thought this made sense and was about to wait in line when he suddenly heard a commotion ahead. It seemed that there were too many people waiting to eat after singing, so registration was temporarily closed.

"What's going on? We've been waiting in line for so long!"

Man Wenjun was immediately enraged. He instinctively pushed forward while loudly protesting along with the crowd.

"Let's go to the film set!"

Huang Bo, however, did the opposite and dragged him to the vicinity of the crew's bus. However, there were quite a few people there, and one bus certainly couldn't accommodate them all.

Seeing the seats being filled up quickly, Huang Bo had a sudden inspiration and told Man Wenjun to raise his hand high, then shouted, "Let me go first! My brother and I applied to the Central Academy of Drama!"

Upon hearing this, everyone instinctively turned around to look, and the person who was either the group leader or the assistant director also looked over.

Man Wenjun and Huang Bo took the opportunity to squeeze closer. The other person looked Man Wenjun up and down a few times and asked, "Did you apply to the Central Academy of Drama?"

"My brother and I applied for the exam."

Huang Bo quickly chimed in, "He got in, but I failed—my brother's name is Gao Hu, and he's from the Central Academy of Drama's class of '94."

Hearing him speak with such conviction, the long-haired man didn't say much, just waved his hand and said, "Go on up."

"Okay~"

The back seats were already full, so Huang Bo saw that the long-haired man's bag was on the passenger seat and pulled Man Wenjun to sit in the front.

When he had recruited enough people and was about to leave, he took out some good cigarettes to impress the other person, offered him one, and chatted with him with a smile: "Director, do we extras have a lot of work?"

"Quite a bit."

Whether it was because of the director's name or because he had a friend studying at the Central Academy of Drama, the long-haired man took the cigarette and casually said, "But you have to go to the film and television base to wait for work. Our crew needs a lot of people, and we heard there were events here, so we came here specifically to recruit people."

Hearing that there was usually a lot of work to be done, Huang Bo got the idea.

Although he still prefers singing, he can't support himself by singing alone in his current situation.

When I accompanied Gao Hu to prepare for the art college entrance exam, I did come into contact with some basic acting skills. I may not be qualified to be a professional actor, but it shouldn't be difficult for me to make a living as an extra.

Just as Huang Bo was about to ask for more details, Man Wenjun, who was standing next to him, asked in bewilderment, "Why don't you look for people in the movie theater? I've been there once, and there are just as many people there as here."

"Haha~"

Long Hair said vaguely, "Our job is a bit difficult, and the tourists are here to have fun, so they may not be willing to follow the crew's management."

Upon hearing this, Huang Bo guessed that he had probably been tricked, but since he was already there, he could only let things take their course.

As he expected, the cast had to play disaster victims struggling to move forward in the rain. Although the crew provided a full set of costumes, who would want to be drenched in cold water in the middle of autumn?
In the end, less than half of the people stayed behind. The rest preferred to forfeit their tickets back to the city rather than comply. Huang Bo and Man Wenjun both stayed, after all, poverty makes people lose their will and a thin horse has long hair.

Longhair even made a point of putting him at the very front and giving him a close-up shot.

Huang Bo did a good job, and later even exchanged contact information with the assistant director, Changmao.

The next day before dawn, the two went to queue up at Tengger's restaurant. This time they passed smoothly, but apart from earning a meal, they did not receive any extra attention.

So after that day, Huang Bo and Man Wenjun started doing odd jobs at the film studio. When they weren't working, they would sing for the other extras to keep them entertained, waiting for the fourth season of "I'm Crazy for Singing" to start, or maybe there would be some other shortcut...

(End of this chapter)