American Idol producer Patrick Lynn directing traffic during auditions on Thursday (Aug. 19, 2010) in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — Don’t know much about Patrick Lynn other than he scurries pretty good.

Like up a ladder, down a ladder, from one person to another, all around a ball field.

And as a producer he kinda has the personality of the show he helps produce — American Idol.

He’s upbeat, cordial, quick with a response. He’s fast. You know, the show is fast, the pace is non-stop, it’s a friendly show, one that you invite into your home twice a week.

That’s Patrick Lynn.

Thursday he spent a good portion of his early morning hours on a ladder directing crowd shots during AI’s rehearsals for Season 10 at AT&T Park. And he thought back to two years ago when he was doing the same thing at the Cow Palace across town.

“Literally, all Idols start in this crowd,” Lynn said. “Adam Lambert was one of these guys,” he said as he waved his hand over the throng. “We recognized him around the end of this first day.

“You know Adam is really tall and we had heard there was some guy who had done Broadway stuff and he was pretty good. Of course, when it came to the second round we were told to keep an eye out for him.

“I remember talking to him after the second round and asking him about the play “Wicked” that he was in and he was just a super cool guy then.”

Of course, Lambert went on to finish second in Season 8 and Lynn is back continuing the AI beat.

“What is my function as a producer? You mean after I get off the ladder screaming at people?” he laughed.

“I am one of the two producers. I run the auditions on the road. My job is to make sure that everybody is lined up, to make sure that everybody gets inside and that we actually get the ball rolling, we get the auditions going.
“We have a lot of people here. Everybody gets their chance today.”

So, are the auditions for milestone Season 10 just like they were for Season 1?

“Oh, no, we’ve learned a lot over 9 seasons. We used to line up in the streets. They all want to be in first, they want to tryout first and they all want to win American Idol.

“We have done it twice at the Cow Palace and we did it here back when it was Pac Bell Park. This is where we found William Hung.

“This year it came down to availability. But we love doing this on a baseball field, that is one of our favorite things. A lot of times we’re confined inside in an arena, but here we get to do it outside in the sunshine.

“It is going to be gorgeous today. When we were back in Austin it was 100 degrees at 8 o’clock in the morning.”
Of the 9,200 who showed up to audition in SF, how many will advance to the next round?

“We don’t have a quota on how many come back, but usually out of a crowd this size there will be 300 or 400 people.”

Just another day in the life of an American Idol executive who hasn’t been home to Burbank for 34 days.