Incline Village Realtor could be the next 'Apprentice'

Kim Mares' three children thought their mom was crazy when she told them she had tried out to appear on the television reality series "The Apprentice."

But when she made the cut of 100 West Coast applicants, they started giving her advice about how to land a spot on the show.

"My son told me, 'Mom, just be really funny and flirt with the guys'," Mares said.

"The Apprentice," an NBC reality show currently in its third season, is casting for the fourth installment. In the show, contestants must survive New York's corporate world to win a year-long, six-figure job working for Donald Trump. Mares said the next season plans to cast young people against older contestants.

The 48-year-old Incline Village real estate agent left for the next casting call in San Jose yesterday. If she's chosen during this round of tryouts, she'll fly to New York for the final cut.

Mares, who lives in Reno, heard about an audition for "The Apprentice" in Reno and decided to go without telling anyone. But when a TV news crew showed up, Mares ended up on the local news. Clients she had canceled appointments with to try out for the show saw her on the evening news, she said, laughing.

Mares said she thinks she was chosen during the first round of cuts because of her background in business, but also thinks it's because she made the casting team laugh.

At the audition, which Mares described as a cattle call, she told the casting team that she's a drama queen, a liar and a back-stabber.

She said she was kidding, of course.

"You want to stand out so if everybody says honesty, integrity and leadership, you want to say something different," Mares said. "I didn't have anything to lose."

Though she's had tougher job interviews, Mares said she was most nervous during her interview for "The Apprentice."

"This one was nerve-wracking though, because you don't know what to expect," she said.

Mares is in San Jose today with her children, who she said are acting as her consultants.

"I'm so excited, I can't believe it," Mares said Wednesday.