Disney After Dark Read Free

somewhat against his will, mostly at his mother’s urging.
    At the time she’d had no idea she was making him into a middle-school rock star. He remembered it well.
    * * *

    “There will be money in it,” his mother had said. “Your father and I can put a little something away for your college.”
    “I don’t know, Mom,” Finn had complained.
    “This is Walt Disney World, don’t forget. You would be a host, like a guide, in Walt Disney World.”
    “It’s not exactly me. ”
    “It’ll look like you. Sound like you. It’ll seem like you to everyone but you. You’d be there for years, Finn Whitman. Maybe forever. You can’t get any ‘cooler’ than Disney World.”
    His mother didn’t know everything, but when she was right she was right. Finn loved the Disney parks. So did his friends. Even though they lived in Orlando, they all went to the parks whenever they could afford it. “But the Magic Kingdom, Mom? It’s for little kids. At Disney-MGM, sure! Animal Kingdom would be awesome. But the Magic Kingdom?”
    “You love the Magic Kingdom, and you know it. Besides, the rest of your family would get complimentary passes—several a year, every year, for life. As in, forever. We could basically go whenever we want.”
    “Without me.”
    “I thought you just said you’re too old for the Magic Kingdom.” Finn’s mom could twist almost anything he said. He picked his arguments carefully with her. She had explained the terms of the contract to him, but Finn hadn’t really paid attention.
    “Tell me about the disguise stuff again,” he said.
    “You would only be allowed to visit the Magic Kingdom with prior approval. Once permission is granted, you’d still have to go in disguise. But a hat and sunglasses would be enough. You’d only have to wear them when you’re in the Magic Kingdom. They can’t have two of you running around, the real you and the hologram-host you. It makes sense if you think about it.”
    It did make sense, but he wasn’t about to admit that.
    She said, “It sounds so easy. All you do is let them film you walking and gesturing. You read the script a couple times into a microphone. They process the film, or whatever, and, presto!
    You’re a hologram-host at the Magic Kingdom. With a college nest egg and lifetime complimentary passes. Finn, you love special effects! What they’re offering is for you to be the special effect. How much cooler can that be?” She was right again, but he resisted an all-out agreement. His mother had once called a new toaster “high-tech.” What did she know?
    “All I have to do is audition?” he asked, testing her.
    “That’s right! They might not even take you.”
    “Mom,” Finn said, “this is me we’re talking about. Of course they’ll take me.”
    “Excuse me, Mr. Hotshot, but I do not want to hear you talking that way, and you know it. If this is going to go to your head, we are not doing this.”
    Actually, Finn’s mom loved to hear him talk that way, though she pretended otherwise. She had schooled him in self-confidence. He’d auditioned for several things and never won a part yet, but not because he lacked confidence.

    “Okay. I’ll do it,” he said.
    She beamed. He loved to see her like that—bright-eyed and childlike.

    A month after Finn had passed the final audition and won a place as a Disney Host Interactive, or DHI, he arrived at an enormous soundstage at Disney-MGM Studios.
    The size of a jet aircraft hangar, the soundstage was rigged with hundreds of film lights, a green screen that filled one entire wall, trampolines, cameras, boom microphones, and dozens of scruffily dressed crew members. He’d never seen anything like it, except in movies, though he did his best to pretend otherwise. A college-age girl dressed in black and gray wore a headset with a microphone mouthpiece, a fuzzy black ball by her lips. She called herself a “PA.” It took Finn four days to realize that that stood for production assistant.