Brett Sauro never saw it coming.

He didn’t see the hidden cameras under the street signs, he didn’t see the hidden onlookers from inside the gray Ford Expedition parked across the street and he didn’t see the earplug-wearing producers running around Marshall Street trying to make sure everything went according to plan.

He had no idea he was a contestant on MTV’s hidden camera show ‘Boiling Points.’

The show, which places unknowing participants in annoying situations and irritates them until they reach a breaking point, wrapped up production on the Hill yesterday afternoon after arriving in the area on Monday morning. Contestants win $100 if they can make it past the ‘boiling point.’

Shortly after the production crew’s arrival, rumors quickly spread throughout the student body about the television show’s presence. Still, Sauro, a sophomore engineering major, and many other Syracuse University students made for easy targets in the scams attempted by the show’s actors and producers.

‘I knew that they were in town,’ Sauro said, ‘but I thought they had already left.’

So did many of the students who fell for the scams being run yesterday on the Marshall Street sidewalk in front of J. Michael Shoes.

Sauro was on his way back to his dorm room after running errands at CVS when he was stopped by a man in a blue dress shirt and khakis holding a clipboard. The man was standing in front of a sign that read: ‘Campus Survey. Help us help you. Enter for a chance to win an mp3 player.’

Sauro, who had some time on his hands, decided to stop and answer some questions. He offered the man his SU identification card to prove that he was, in fact, an SU student, and immediately thereafter, he was off to the races. Little did he know that 27 minutes later he would still be standing on the sidewalk answering the same questions he had been the whole time.

‘He just asked me a ton of questions and he kept making mistakes,’ Sauro said.

‘He asked me the same question over and over and was like, ‘I didn’t get it last time. I can’t read my handwriting.’ I thought he was just trying to be annoying. I thought he was a smart ass.’

Still, Sauro, who eventually demonstrated the patience to last past the production crew’s designated ‘boiling point,’ says he had some urges to just walk away from the survey. In fact, he says he was just about to grab his ID back from the man questioning him before he was told he had won.

Then the actor asked Sauro about gambling and, specifically, how much money he would gamble away. His answer was a hundred dollars – because that was the highest option given in the multiple choice question.

‘Then he was like, ‘How would you like to win a hundred dollars?” Sauro said. ‘And I was like ‘Oh God.”

After 27 minutes, he’d finally caught on to the game being played with him – and he had won it. He was immediately handed a $100 bill and showed the hidden cameras so he could smile into them.

Most participants, however, were not so lucky.

Shea Meddin, an undecided freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences, was approached by an actor in the show on Tuesday while in line to buy books at Follett’s Orange Bookstore. The actor began asking Meddin questions about the classes he was taking, the books he was buying, and what he was doing afterwards. When Meddin wasn’t overly responsive, the actor grabbed a book from Meddin and played keep-away with it. Meddin was not amused. He tried to grab the book back, but was unsuccessful in his efforts. When the actor asked him what he was doing after buying the books, Meddin told him he had to go to class. Then the actor claimed to know that Meddin was lying.

‘He said, ‘Ya, I know your schedule. I see you in class, you look kind of cute. Can I call you?” Meddin recalled.

That was when Meddin decided he had had enough.

‘I was like, just give me the fucking book back,’ Meddin said. ‘I was like, what is this guy doing? I’m going to get raped. I almost hit the guy.’

The production crew was able to successfully run its scams with the help of J. Michael Shoes and Follett’s Orange Bookstore. For both stores, participation in the show was a no-brainer.

‘I thought, well, why not?’ said John Vavalo, owner of J Michael Shoes ‘It’s a little exposure and it doesn’t cost me anything. They’re very, very nice. They even put me on their insurance policy, so in case there’s any problems I’m covered by MTV insurance. And there’s a lawyer with them all the time. They cross their T’s and dot their I’s and they have to because people are ready to sue at anything.’

With the advance warning of the crew’s arrival, both places had informed their staff of what to expect.

‘I brought the staff in,’ said Wayne Beach, store manager at Follett’s, ‘and I told them to go about their business and keep their heads down and help the customers because this guy next to you is going to be doing some pretty crazy stuff on the register and you’ll probably want to bust out laughing. And they did. Hardly any of them reacted at all.’

For the most part, the scams seemed to run successfully. Still, producers and actors could not comment on the show because, until production on the season is wrapped up, MTV forbids them from going on the record about their work.

Vavalo, though, was sure the producers found their efforts were worthwhile.

‘They’re working hard,’ he said. ‘They’re here at eight o’clock in the morning and they don’t leave until six at night. But they’re happy with what they have. I know that.’

And contestants like Meddin, who were scammed on camera but lost, were left impressed with the show’s ability to take advantage of the nave.

‘I always laugh at those people,’ he said. ‘Shit like that never happens. You get so caught up in the moment that you just don’t feel it.’

Published on September 1, 2004 at 12:00 pm