Firstly I must apologise for the practically incoherent blog post yesterday, that’s what I get for forgetting about it until 2.30am. BUT, in other news, tonight’s Question Time perfectly proved my point. The fact that football gossip is reported in the same sentence as the massacre in Syria actually happened, when an audience member forced the panel to segue from a heated discussion about how best to react to such a humanitarian crisis, into a discussion of John Terry’s suspension. The main distraction was Ann Leslie’s bizarre performance, in which she drunkenly slurred her way through repeated assertions that, as a foregin correspondent, she was the only person who could possibly discuss anything due to her being friendly with everyone in the entire world, except nurses it would seem. Yet my personal highlight was Steve Coogan, whose failure to become Alan Partirdge disappointed many a Twitterer, who refused to be drawn into the discussion, stating that he had no opinion whatsoever on football. How refreshing, yet damning, that on a panel with both Tory and Labour politicians, a member of the House of Lords (I LOVE Shirley Williams), a hasbeen journalist and David Dimbleby (the man is category in himself), it was left to a comedian to point out the obvious. Coogan received a round of applause for his comments, and not only from me, and the discussion thankfully moved onto the hotly contested and universally panned NHS bill. An issue that is as difficult to explain as it is to condone. So I’m not going to do either, instead I’m going to find an interesting story for tomorrow’s post, and it definitely will not involve football.
7 Kinds of Mind
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Category Archives: Thursday Me Time
Thursday Me Time: The First Step
This week has been a bit important for me, to anyone else it sounds a bit uneventful, but in my eyes i have taken the first step towards my long-desired media career. I’ve been trying to break into television production for a while now to no avail, but in the last week I was lucky enough to be involved in a casting event that gave me a tantalising taste of TV work, now I just have to repeat it a million times over. I didn’t even specifically apply to work at the event, it just so happened that a company with whom I’d previously had an interview called me to help out, and thus gave me my start. Obviously I didn’t get the position that I had originally interviewed for – yet again it was the Catch 22 of needing experience to get experience. (sigh.)
For the event I was acting as a Casting Assistant, talent scouting for a new gay reality show in the vein of TOWIE in one of Soho’s finest gay bars. It was interesting to say the least, I like to think that I am familiar with the gay scene (I challenge anyone who went to Royal Holloway not to be) and that I am not too easily surprised, but wow. Among the usual camp doilies perfecting their Beyonce moves, I met a whole array of beautifully strange people – from a drag queen with a rooster garden ornament sticking out of his trousers, to a 7ft face painted man wearing the largest blue fur coat I have ever seen. Happily, every single person was lovely (it was probably my clipboard of power) and there’s a few people who I dearly hope to one day see on my TV screen. My absolute favourite was a woman called Lola* who was born with both genders, raised as a boy and fell in and out of love with a man, then transitioned to become a woman and re-met that man and married him. She is also a go-go dancer and works at a homeless charity helping transgender people to rebuild their lives. So. Much. Admiration. The only downfall is that she was quite shy, so while I pretty much fell in love with her as soon as we met, I’m unsure if her loveliness would translate well on a show with other more outrageous characters. It’s not in any way up to me, but I can still hope.
My role at the event was very minor, I was surrounded by a cracking group of people, I realise that it couldn’t be counted as a proper position. BUT it gave me a taste of what I hope to achieve, and the chance to put something that is actually related to television on my CV (surprisingly, a job as a Waterstones Christmas temp doesn’t have people queuing up to hire me). But more importantly, I believe that I did a good job (I hope that those in charge would agree), and it strengthened my belief that this is what I want to do, and more importantly something at which I could be excellent. Now I just need to get to that second step and I’ll be away.
For more information on the reality show, visit http://www.thescenetv.co.uk
*name changed
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