Celebrities: I finally realize how strange it is to have them. I don’t think it’s as prominent in other countries, and they even know ours. The reason I’m thinking of this is because last week I worked on The Voice, airing later this month. Carson Daly is the host. The panel consists of Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Cee Lo, Monica, Sia, Reba McEntire, and Blake Shelton. The first day on set I was in the video truck, closely watching the director. I’m used to how live productions work because at PSU I worked in the video room for the sports productions. The whole day was spent running through how the show would go tomorrow. What shots to take, where people needed to stand, etc. I had some freedom to roam throughout the day so for awhile I hung out by stage. That’s where I had my first encounter with Blake. I was making a PBJ sandwich and he walks off stage to crafty.
“Classic peanutbutter jelly,” he says. My first thought was, I feel like he’s one of the talent, but not knowing my country singers well I only found out later that he was Blake. So yes, I had a conversation about PBJ sandwiches with him, which is pretty cool. Later that night – long day, about 14 hours- Cee-Lo came to rehearse. Seeing him was awesome, I love Gnarls Barkley. I was lingering against the wall, and he was waiting by crafty to go on stage. Next thing I know I see him sitting on the drink cooler. No, no, no, not happening in my presence. What if some poor dehydrated crew member needed a drink? Think anyone is going to ask Cee-Lo to get off his rather large butt? Not likely. I ran upstairs and grabbed a folding chair. I tapped him on the shoulder, and offered the chair. Along with the cool stuff I got to see and do there is always something to balance that. It happened to be moving all the furniture, books, everything for wardrobe into another room, and swaping it. Luckily I wasn’t the only person doing this; I’m not the strongest person. My second day on set I was working in the area with the talent.
Each person had trays of food placed in their room. There was a table set up in the hallway with bagels, fruit, cereal, sandwiches and a lot of other snacks. It was my job to hang out up there to make sure everyone had what they needed. It was really similar to working in crafty. From this job I was around all the talent. Interesting to say the least. My only encounter with Christina was her walking by me. She didn’t look like the happiest person, bad day maybe and she’s shorter than me. I didn’t talk to Adam at all, but he was around. Blake was definitely the friendliest out of them all, I saw him around talking to different people, always smiling. I was walking with a Starbucks order and Reba commented that they looked good, luckily for me she didn’t ask for one. I already made two runs for Christina.
She can sure drink a lot of Starbucks. A couple other people I was working with ran there as well, between all of us we probably made 5 runs. There was a closet where we kept all of the food. We ordered trays of sandwiches, fruit and veggies, cheese, and hummus and by the end of the night half of the food wasn’t even touched. I was in the closet preparing to put some things out on the table and I hear someone come in. I look up and Carson Daly is standing there. I was pretty surprised when he said “hi.” I continue sorting Starbucks napkins, uhhh what was I doing? He stands there. “Can I get you something?” I’m not quite sure what he’s doing and I think, please take what you want and go, lol. Normally their assistants would come to me if they need something. But he said, “No, I just wanted to get a picture.” Of me? How flattering. “I always take a picture of the room with all the food in it.” He says something along those lines and that’s great. I continue to stand there, sorting Starbucks napkins, my God there’s so many. “It’s okay, I’ll just crop you out.” He says and I answer, “oh, It’s okay.” Haha. I contemplated asking to get a picture with him but didn’t. It was funny to meet someone that I used to watch on TRL as a teen.
Working on The Voice was an awesome experience. When working with the Talent I wasn’t near anything that was being shot, and it was something I’ve never done before. I actually didn’t mind it. I was able to meet the people in wardrobe, and I liked to see what goes on backstage. It was my first time at a studio like that. Coincidentally the TV pilot that I worked on had their office in the same building. Mad Men was also being shot there. It was a really cool experience that I’m thankful I was able to have!
