Sasha Is a Monster

Soooo, Monday was EXHAUSTING. But also super fun. The studio had someone pick me up at my hotel at 7:30 and we drove off to the Sunset Bronson studios, where I made the most exciting discovery of the day — I had a dressing room with my name on it! That was a first! I was very excited.

I got to check out the set, which was AMAZING. I’ve shot pilots before, but I guess this show already had a network associated with it, so it was a pilot that they definitely intended to air. That meant instead of being in front of a green screen or on a shoddily put-together set, we had an incredible, gorgeous, full-blown living room set … and a live studio audience. Yeah. I was not expecting that part.

But basically the show, The Gossip Queens, is a round-table, View-style discussion with four comedians: Loni Love, Kym Whitley, Micah McCain and Alec Mapa. They’re planning to bring on celebrity gossip bloggers regularly to dish with. Because I was the first guest on the show, and I was there super early, and I had the opportunity to hang out with them a little bit in the makeup room and the green room. They are all freakin’ hilarious, hard-working and very kind. No one was a diva or rude to me — they were all super nice and fun to be around, which was a relief. The show’s produced by Byron Allen, who I also got to meet and spend some time with. He, too, was amazingly funny, kind and attitude-free. These people are all extremely talented and professional and they work their butts off. Everyone working on the crew and backstage was the same way. I was prepared to deal with a whole lot of egos and attitudes, and I got none of it. Everybody was so great to be around. I felt like I was among friends.

They brought in the audience and the show started taping around 11 am. I sat in the corner of the studio and watched them do their opening round-table chat. It’s all improv’d, and the comedians were hilarious. I was laughing my ass off. I mean, I’m kind of funny in person, I make jokes and stuff, but these comedians really have it down to an art. I couldn’t believe how funny they were off-the-cuff. My stomach hurt from laughing. When it was my turn to go on, I swear I wasn’t even nervous. Not even a little bit. I don’t know if it was the swine flu or what, but I seriously wasn’t even a little nervous. It was weird. But the segment went really well, and afterward Byron Allen came into the green room and gave me a big hug and was like, “You did great! That was fantastic!” I was like, “Really?” It was all very surreal.

Backstage, I had the opportunity to hang out with some of the other guests, including MK from popbytes, Carrie from Celebrity Smack and … drum roll please … the legendary Janet Charlton. That was totally a trip — I couldn’t believe she was there. I was like “I can’t believe I’m meeting Janet Charlton!” and she was like “I can’t believe I’m meeting the Evil Beet!” Ha! She, too, was very nice and easy to talk to, even though she was arguably the most famous person there. I got her card and emailed her that night to ask if she could make time for a phone chat with me, because I want to pick her brain for everything it knows about the industry. She wrote back with a very gracious response saying that she’d be happy to. Hooray!

All in all, it was an extraordinary experience and I had a blast. I have no idea when or where the show will actually air, or if my segment will make it to air, but I’ll keep you guys posted if it does.