Mardi Gras is coming to Penn State early this year.
At 9 p.m. tonight, Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave., is holding open casting calls for several reality shows, including Blind Date, Real Break and The 5th Wheel. Ace from The Real World Paris will be the emcee for the Mardi Gras party. Admission for the all-ages event is $6.
"We were very fortunate to get Ace," David Wells, director of operations for the Crowbar, said. "He seems to be a really popular and likeable guy."
The Crowbar will be one of the stops on MTV's Campus Crawl Tour.
"There are Real World cast members from several seasons that are split into groups and visit different bars on different nights," Sara Dai, a publicist for the tour, said. "The cast members will be visiting 50 bars in 50 cities. They will be holding contests as well. A camera crew will be filming the different stops on the tour and we are looking to possibly produce a video or DVD from the footage."
While Ace is in town, he will be promoting the new Student Crew card, which will soon be available in State College.
"The reason we got Ace was to get the word out," Jason Lowder, the campus director of Student Crew, said. "We are launching these programs in the top colleges nation-wide," Lowder said.
The ID+ cards students at Penn State currently use are affiliated with Lowder's company.
"I think that this entire program will be condensed into one card with ID+ and Student Crew capabilities within a year or so," Lowder said.
This would mean that one card would give Penn State students access to several discounts at local pizzerias, sub shops and night clubs. The Student Crew card can be purchased for $10 at local businesses and through student groups and organizations. It can be used for weekly and monthly discounts at 15 local businesses.
In addition to promoting the card, tonight's show will also feature several prizes.
"The girl and guy that have the most beads can win a free spring break trip," Lowder said. "We want to create excitement about this new program."
The Crowbar event will also feature casting calls for a number of reality TV shows.
"We will be doing preliminary casting," Lowder said. "Everybody can fill out an application, which involves having a digital picture taken. Then we send these off to the production company, who will go through the applications for possible contestants," Lower said.
Wells is looking forward to tonight's festivities.
"This should be a pretty cool night," he said. "We hope to host more Real World cast members in the future."
