It started as a favor for a friend — sort of.
She wanted Isaac Stout, 21, a University of Arizona student, to go with her to a casting call for the MTV reality show "The Real World."
He wasn't interested; she persisted. He still said no, and she left.
But then she was back.
"They're offering 'front-of-the-line tickets' on the radio," she said. "Will you go if we get them?"
He agreed with the understanding that she'd quit asking if they didn't.
They got the tickets.
It was winter, and Stout was home in Cleveland when a call came from an MTV staffer asking if he'd like to spend the next several months in Australia.
Because, G'day, mate! — Stout had been picked as one of the four-female, three-male cast to fly Down Under for the four-month filming of the show's 19th season: "The Real World: Sydney."
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The show premieres Aug. 8 on MTV, bringing together seven people from different backgrounds and parts of the country to live together in a Sydney mansion.
Over the course of the season, MTV promises, viewers will watch the unfolding of jealousy, intense conflict, tension, romance and the unraveling of tender relationships resulting from unresolved issues in a cast member's past.
Stout's role in the cast's farrago of personalities was "the alpha male" (his description), the show's party boy, the one who thinks nothing of swimming nude in the house's indoor aquarium.
"Some of the others flipped out over all the cameras installed around the house to follow the cast's every move," Stout said.
"But it didn't bother me. I've always liked looking in a mirror. Maybe I'm a little conceited and a little brain-damaged."
Stout, who had to miss the 2007 spring semester to be on the show, also will miss the fall semester.
A junior majoring in music business, he is working on a clothing line and a CD with his band.
"It's stuff that I didn't have time to do while I was in school, but now that I've taken time off, I might as well finish," he said.
He does plan to complete his degree, however, and, if his plans hold up, he'll be back at the UA in the spring.
On TV
"The Real World" airs at 10 p.m. Aug. 8 on MTV.
