So, Laremy Legel — the brilliant and hilarious film critic over at Film.com — and I have been trying to get RealNetworks to give us our own TV show for, uh, coming on about four years now. It hasn’t gone over very well. Laremy managed to get a (very hilarious) podcast up and running for about a year, and I think he did a weekly (very hilarious) vlog for a couple months, too, but that’s about it. (Seriously if I were a major network, I’d hire Laremy to do a talk show right this minute. He’s one of the most laugh-out-loud-funny people I’ve ever known, and he’s damn likable.)
You see, RealNetworks owns Superpass, which is essentially a subscription-based online channel. It’s made a name for itself with 24-hour live feeds from CBS’ Big Brother house and a shitload of related exclusive content. RN also produces a bunch of original content for Rhapsody, our subscription music service (which isn’t really ours anymore because it’s spinning off, but whatevs). As such, our office includes a full-on sound stage with a professional production and editing crew. Inexplicably, no one has agreed to put any portion of that budget toward the sure-to-be-a-hit Laremy & Sasha Talking About Stuff That Matters to Us show. I know, I know. It’s weird.
Enter Chelsia Hart, whom we hired this past summer to take on a marketing role for Superpass. Chelsia made a name for herself by kicking ass and taking names on season nine of Big Brother, and, as such, she has an uncanny understanding of its fan base, not to mention their undying loyalty. When we first hired her, I was kind of peeved. I may have ranted a bit. To everyone. Like this: “Let me get this straight: You hired a reality TV bimbo to handle online marketing? Can she even work a computer?” Chelsia was brand new to Seattle and, I’m sure, petrified about her first “real” job — she was a college kid when CBS plucked her out of Iowa and tossed her on television — and, as a result, she didn’t talk much. I assumed she was a horrible snob and I decided to dislike her. I wasn’t exactly mean to her, but I didn’t go out of my way to befriend her, either. Of course, as these things work, one thing led to another and she’s rapidly become one of my best friends, and, to quote Kelly Clarkson, my life would suck without her. I need to stop pre-judging people.
ANYWAY, the company has been JUST DELIGHTED to give Chelsia her own weekly show. With use of the sound stage and the production and editing crew and basically full creative control. In fairness, she is way, way cuter on camera than Laremy and/or I am, she’s an actual recognizable face, and she has a way bigger fan base than both of us combined, but … actually I’m not sure of what the “but” is. BUT STILL.
The show’s called Back to Reality with Chelsia Hart. She’s been sweet enough to bring Laremy and I on as helpers, because we already work in the building and we don’t add anything to her budget, probably, but I like to think it’s also because we’re immensely talented. ANYWAY. We shot the promo today, and I always forget how much damn work it is to tape a television show with actual production quality. I’ve been lucky enough to do cool shit like this in my life, but I always go into it thinking, “Oh, this’ll take ten minutes. They only need three minutes of content from me. It’ll be so fun and easy!” And then three hours later I’m sweating and exhausted and brain-dead and muffling my sobs and someone is still adjusting the lights and messing with camera angles and thinking we should probably do just one more take. We do not give any of these Hollywood people enough credit. It’s exhausting and draining and VERY HARD work that requires focus and brainpower, although there’s still a lot of creativity and fun involved. We had a great time — pics are in the gallery below, and I’ll post the actual promo here once it’s on YouTube. Hopefully it’ll turn out awesome!
