As we all know, I wear many hats. When it comes to Room 28 though, I've stuck mainly to management, promotion and the occasional video cameo. Last night however, that all changed.
Orphans International and Capicu! came together to raise funds for Orphans International Dominican Republic branch at La Pregunta Arts Cafe by way of a variety show. I arrived a little early to the event, which would be masterfully emceed by Papo Swiggity and Divine. After me, arrived Mike and then Jaime. They retreated downstairs to the green room to run over the skit they'd be peforming with Jerry. As the show was close to starting I made my way downstairs and found Jaime and Mike looking worried. It turned out Jerry was stuck in New Jersey and the closest he could come to making it was maybe an hour into the show. We all looked at each other for a moment and then I checked out the script. They were going to redo a skit called Hooters Waiter, but without their third person it wasn't going to fly. Jaime was looking at me right in the eye and I knew what he was thinking without asking it.
"You want me to do it?" I asked.
"Would you?"
The big "dun dun dunnnnn" behind this is that I'd never done a live stage performance before and I really don't go around promoting myself as an actress outside of the small cameos I've made. I looked over my boys whose stomachs were clearly tied in knots and said, "Ok. I'll do it. But we need to rehearse the shit out of this RIGHT NOW."
And so we did. For the next 30 minutes we ran the skit over and over until finally we all thought, This is actually going to work!
We returned to the cafe to hear the likes of Homeboy Sandman who just happens to be on my friend Sucio's label (High Water Music) and whose flow caught my interest immediately. It was after HS that our group was introduced and Jaime approached the stage to help the audience transition to comedy with his stand up. He did his thing (as he always does) and segued into our skit.
Was I nervous?
TERRIBLY!
Until I got to the stage that is. Once I was up there seated across from Jaime, all nervousness flew out the window and I just went with it, which isn't hard at all when a) you know your boyfriend's comedic timing like the back of your hand and b) Mike shows up in short shorts and my main job is to act like there is nothing more I want than his package. I had lines and they were delivered well, we heard the crowd laugh uproariously and when it was all over we each received congrats and praise... even me; the little one that never did stage before. Now I know what Jaime means when he talks about the high he gets from performing live. I'm hoping to find a clip of the video to share soon, will post when I do.
Interesting night. A new task under the belt. Who knew.
Showing posts with label room 28. Show all posts
Showing posts with label room 28. Show all posts
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
New Reality Series?
Sometimes even when we're not filming, we are...
Check out me, Latin Daddy (Mike) and Jaime on our way to Connecticut last December...
Check out me, Latin Daddy (Mike) and Jaime on our way to Connecticut last December...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The NYILFF and Me
A monster was born several months ago. It began when the mastermind of the NY International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF), Calixto Chinchilla, asked Jaime and Jerry to pen a script for the NYILFF promotional commercial. Me, being the duo's manager (oh, I didn't mention I do that too?) had them camp out at my house to break night writing the script. They call it "forcing creativity", I call it "getting their asses to write on purpose." Inevitably, it worked and the next day they had a script to present. There were giggles around the room as it was read aloud and we were all convinced it was a winning piece.
Over the next few weeks that followed, an audition for the commercial was held where both Jaime and Jerry were asked to try out, and having been the ones to create the thing, they landed spots easily. Mike was asked to audition as well and quickly made the cut. The final version, which combined both their script and some improv from the actors wrapped up in June and looked a little something like this:
Over the next few weeks that followed, an audition for the commercial was held where both Jaime and Jerry were asked to try out, and having been the ones to create the thing, they landed spots easily. Mike was asked to audition as well and quickly made the cut. The final version, which combined both their script and some improv from the actors wrapped up in June and looked a little something like this:
New York International Latino Film Festival 2008
This is an unaired version of just Jaime and Mike's cuts re-edited by Lyn-don McCray:
New York International Latino Film Festival Promo Shoot
On the weekend of July 4th the commercial was released to AMC theaters around NYC. People who ventured to see Dark Knight were greeted by the witty catchphrases of my boys. Another catapult to stardom was the release of the commercial to Time Warner Cable channels. I started to receive feedback that the commercial was viewed on TBS, TNT and the Food Network. But, it was the week leading into the festival that brought the spot to air during the Today show. As I stood brushing my teeth, I overheard "It's about a girl from the Bronx" come from my TV and ran out (brush still in my mouth) to watch the commercial in its entirety. There's something incredibly gratifying about seeing the faces of your friends/clients on the tube and it not be an appearance on the local news.
Before we knew it, the week of the festival had arrived. It all began with the opening night/red carpet for the premiere of "American Son". Jerry's face was plastered all over welcome signs and volunteer badges, while Jaime appeared on the badges of filmmakers. These still shots, taken during the commercial filming, were everywhere and semi-creepy after a while, but nonetheless they only demonstrated how closely associated the guys were with the festival. Jaime you forgot your badge? No worries! Just go stand next to a filmmaker and smile, they'll let you in.
The red carpet frenzy wasn't entirely new to me considering I've worked them as a runner in the past. What was different was seeing the likes of Daddy Yankee and P-Rod (Paul Rodriguez's son) walk down that fuzzy crimson walkway. The majority of the celebrities were Latino (shocker!), and although the title of the festival clearly indicates the films must in some way relate to Latinos, this was still new to me. Furthermore, seeing a young woman nearly pass out from extensive bouts of crying after passing by Daddy Yankee, made me do a double take. What world is this? Who cares! I love it.
Wednesday's premiere of the short film "Sandman's Box", was a proud display of the hard work created by my good friends and colleagues. Watching them all up on the big screen, or knowing they were behind the camera, was an exhilarating experience. Not to mention I forgot how mentally horrific the premise for the film was and nearly spent most of my time hiding my face behind my hands. It was a scary as hell masterpiece.
(Cast, director and producer of "Sandman's Box")
The next five nights consisted of juggling red carpet interviews, attending premieres and making new friends. By Sunday we were all burnt out and wrapped the week up with some laughs, some awards and some great memories. I could consider that I was pretty involved in the festival this time around, but something tells me they haven't seen the last of me ;-).
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Let's Play Catchup
The reason for this website/blog is to centralize the results of all my running around. I'm often asked, "So Lauren, what do you do?" with the asker thinking there's a simple answer. By far, there is not. How can I summarize?
A random blog I used to keep caught the eye of an Associate Editor at Rap-Up Magazine, who reached out to me via the ever so useful Myspace, and asked if I had any interest in music journalism. Sure, I could
totally do that! ( I was bluffing, I'd never even tried at it.) And just like that I was given the opportunity for my first phone interview, a piece on Miss Issa. Sweet girl, haven't heard from or about her since. Oh well, wherever you are Miss Issa, thanks for helping me open the door! From that piece which was ripped apart by my editor (rightfully so!), I began to improve my journalistic skill and went on to interview the likes of Kia Shine, Zion, The Dey and even attended the Boost Mobile Rock Corps Concert in Radio City Music Hall where I met the boys from...
Bombin' Magazine. Completely by chance, I sat next to the Editor in Chief and Creative Director from the mag who happened to be totally cool, totally
talkative and totally ready to bring me on board. At first it was all about connects, like how I could have a star-studded birthday party (with all the friends I'd made along the way) and have it dubbed as their extravaganza fully equipped with the tasty liqs of Trump vodka. But later, as the EIC suddenly reali
zed, "HEY! This chic can write!" I was brought in as a contributor and given the chance to interview my good friend and mentor, Bobbito Garcia (turntable master with an extensive sneaker sense and even greater heart.) Pics from that interview will come in time. OK, here's a little sneak peek right up above.
I've been a writer fo
r as long as I can remember. From fiction, to poetry and in more recent years, journalism. (This lovely artwork on the left is the actual makeshift book jacket for one of my novels created around the age of 11. I know, it's amazing I didn't become the next Rembrandt!) If I had to choose a "passion", writing would be it. Unfortunate for me, and the majority of writers in the world, it rarely makes you an incredible amount of money...unless of course you're writing the next tell-all novel about the secret sexcapades of so and so celebrity, and I'm sorry but my time (and attention span) doesn't allow for such. So since I can't make a living off that I....
r as long as I can remember. From fiction, to poetry and in more recent years, journalism. (This lovely artwork on the left is the actual makeshift book jacket for one of my novels created around the age of 11. I know, it's amazing I didn't become the next Rembrandt!) If I had to choose a "passion", writing would be it. Unfortunate for me, and the majority of writers in the world, it rarely makes you an incredible amount of money...unless of course you're writing the next tell-all novel about the secret sexcapades of so and so celebrity, and I'm sorry but my time (and attention span) doesn't allow for such. So since I can't make a living off that I....Have a full time job working with great people... which I'll never talk about here, so in which case we'll move on to how I...
Jumped into the entertainment
business as (at first) a model. Don't laugh, I'm not that hideous. Ever since I had broken out of my ugly duckling/ tomboy phase at the age of 16, people started telling me I had great skin, was pretty, photogenic, yada yada. At 21 I gave in and linked with a (then) amateur photographer named Nathan Blaney. Over the next 2 years, Nathan and I would develop a friendship and an awesome portfolio. I like to think that my begging of Nathan for extra shots helped catapult him into photography greatness... or maybe he's just totally great on his own. (Did I mention I'm full of myself? I'm so not!) With some awesome head and glamour shots on my plate, I started to contemplate next steps. There was something else I'd been harbouring since childhood... The inescapable want to be a star. Although I'd dabbled ever so lightly in improv during college, I had no formal evidence to conclude that I could act. I was going with a gut feeling based simply on the fact that I'm terribly convincing when I tell stories (some people call it lying, I call it "saying what's necessary for everyone's lives to stay happy"), and what is acting but telling someone else's story? So then I...
business as (at first) a model. Don't laugh, I'm not that hideous. Ever since I had broken out of my ugly duckling/ tomboy phase at the age of 16, people started telling me I had great skin, was pretty, photogenic, yada yada. At 21 I gave in and linked with a (then) amateur photographer named Nathan Blaney. Over the next 2 years, Nathan and I would develop a friendship and an awesome portfolio. I like to think that my begging of Nathan for extra shots helped catapult him into photography greatness... or maybe he's just totally great on his own. (Did I mention I'm full of myself? I'm so not!) With some awesome head and glamour shots on my plate, I started to contemplate next steps. There was something else I'd been harbouring since childhood... The inescapable want to be a star. Although I'd dabbled ever so lightly in improv during college, I had no formal evidence to conclude that I could act. I was going with a gut feeling based simply on the fact that I'm terribly convincing when I tell stories (some people call it lying, I call it "saying what's necessary for everyone's lives to stay happy"), and what is acting but telling someone else's story? So then I...Had a talk with my friend Pablo a few years after we'd graduated from Rutgers together and he told me there was a script. A script he'd written and wanted to shoot. Said script only involved one actor...playing 5 different roles. Ok. I've never acted before and suddenly I'm a one woman show. A hus
tler who doesn't have time for bullshit. An annoyingly sweet housewife. A party 'til she drops, drunk. An irritated grad student. And the last character who has no clue what's going on (kind of like me in real life). It was a Sunday when we shot it, took about 6 hours and when it was all said and done, I felt sort of confident. Surprisingly so. It wouldn't be until months later when the short had been edited and released, that I would undergo a life changing experience which made my want to act fall quickly to the back area of my brain. My ambitions were fizzled and instead of embracing the positive reviews of my work, I would smile, say thanks, and just continue on an aimless road towards...blah. That was until...
tler who doesn't have time for bullshit. An annoyingly sweet housewife. A party 'til she drops, drunk. An irritated grad student. And the last character who has no clue what's going on (kind of like me in real life). It was a Sunday when we shot it, took about 6 hours and when it was all said and done, I felt sort of confident. Surprisingly so. It wouldn't be until months later when the short had been edited and released, that I would undergo a life changing experience which made my want to act fall quickly to the back area of my brain. My ambitions were fizzled and instead of embracing the positive reviews of my work, I would smile, say thanks, and just continue on an aimless road towards...blah. That was until...A random blog I used to keep caught the eye of an Associate Editor at Rap-Up Magazine, who reached out to me via the ever so useful Myspace, and asked if I had any interest in music journalism. Sure, I could
totally do that! ( I was bluffing, I'd never even tried at it.) And just like that I was given the opportunity for my first phone interview, a piece on Miss Issa. Sweet girl, haven't heard from or about her since. Oh well, wherever you are Miss Issa, thanks for helping me open the door! From that piece which was ripped apart by my editor (rightfully so!), I began to improve my journalistic skill and went on to interview the likes of Kia Shine, Zion, The Dey and even attended the Boost Mobile Rock Corps Concert in Radio City Music Hall where I met the boys from...Bombin' Magazine. Completely by chance, I sat next to the Editor in Chief and Creative Director from the mag who happened to be totally cool, totally
talkative and totally ready to bring me on board. At first it was all about connects, like how I could have a star-studded birthday party (with all the friends I'd made along the way) and have it dubbed as their extravaganza fully equipped with the tasty liqs of Trump vodka. But later, as the EIC suddenly reali
zed, "HEY! This chic can write!" I was brought in as a contributor and given the chance to interview my good friend and mentor, Bobbito Garcia (turntable master with an extensive sneaker sense and even greater heart.) Pics from that interview will come in time. OK, here's a little sneak peek right up above.As the writing assignments continued to come in, both from Rap-Up, Bombin' and then other publications like Latino
University Magazine, I kept up my pen game on print. But, in the between time I started a blog on both SiTv.com and HuffingtonPost.com where I told the stories behind my interactions with stars like Zoe Saldana, Matthew Fox and The Dieting Mavens of Madison Avenue (ok so they aren't celebrities, but they are trying to look like them!), and my thoughts on Latinos in entertainment in general. And while I'm on the topic of Latinos in entertainment...
University Magazine, I kept up my pen game on print. But, in the between time I started a blog on both SiTv.com and HuffingtonPost.com where I told the stories behind my interactions with stars like Zoe Saldana, Matthew Fox and The Dieting Mavens of Madison Avenue (ok so they aren't celebrities, but they are trying to look like them!), and my thoughts on Latinos in entertainment in general. And while I'm on the topic of Latinos in entertainment...I 
might as well wrap this intro up with a story about where I've been spending the majority of my time since September '07 (while still toying with all the above.) That story would revolve around a comedy troupe called Room 28. What started as an adventurous evening at a house party within the confines of an apartment whose owner I hardly knew, would magically transform into a friendship and partnership with a group of multi-talented individuals that I may cherish for the rest of my life (unless of course one of them turns around and writes a tell-all book about moi!) On a random Sunday, I was invited to sit in on a day shoot for some sketch comedy skits. What I never would have imagined is how that one experience would be enough to convince me that with them is where I belonged. Furthermore, it would be the catalyst to boost my creativity, my management skills and my love life. It would be with them, spending endless weekend hours, that I would get a better glimpse at what I want from life, and how to make it work even if I have to spend the other 40 hours of my week making that thing people find necessary to survive (strange substance called money.) But what doesn't pay me, ignites my passion (creative passion! this isn't a bio for Nora Roberts!). And what's life without passion?
might as well wrap this intro up with a story about where I've been spending the majority of my time since September '07 (while still toying with all the above.) That story would revolve around a comedy troupe called Room 28. What started as an adventurous evening at a house party within the confines of an apartment whose owner I hardly knew, would magically transform into a friendship and partnership with a group of multi-talented individuals that I may cherish for the rest of my life (unless of course one of them turns around and writes a tell-all book about moi!) On a random Sunday, I was invited to sit in on a day shoot for some sketch comedy skits. What I never would have imagined is how that one experience would be enough to convince me that with them is where I belonged. Furthermore, it would be the catalyst to boost my creativity, my management skills and my love life. It would be with them, spending endless weekend hours, that I would get a better glimpse at what I want from life, and how to make it work even if I have to spend the other 40 hours of my week making that thing people find necessary to survive (strange substance called money.) But what doesn't pay me, ignites my passion (creative passion! this isn't a bio for Nora Roberts!). And what's life without passion? Keep reading,
Lauren
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)