Rarely do I ever
say "don't skim" for an entry. I fully accept and
understand people just do not have the time to
read/view the ridiculous amount of things I produce.
But, a few times in the past 10 years I have actually
had to come right out and say "don't skim". Moments
like this are rare. They are the
backbone of this entire Journey. They are the
"egg" you are happy to throw in the air and your feet
can't touch the ground. Enjoy this moment, it will
soon be replaced with a bunch of other emotions - and
nowhere near as special as "potential". :-) So, this
is how I initially started this entry:
DAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.
I actually sat for
5 seconds and looked back over the OMG's to see if I
did them right 'cause I typed it so fast.
I didn't. So I fixed it.
This is... wait!
Journey Gods! WAHOO! Great to see them
again:
Johnson
Will
The Random
God
The
Happy God
~* ~
ZAPPOW!
~* ~
RANDOM!!!
~* ~
ZAPPOW!
~*
~
~* ~
ZAPPOW!
~* ~
HAPPY!!!
~* ~
ZAPPOW!
~*
~
A
2
Journey God Strike!!!
So excited. This
will probably be locked for a bit, but I have to
write. Sometimes the stars just absolutely align. I'm
not gonna even hesitate to throw this egg in the
air.
I told the 3
ladies I work for a couple weeks ago about the
Europe/Africa trip as I wanted to give them enough
time to officially freak out. LOL. There's a specific
monthly newsletter that I design for a really big
account that they don't want to do without me... but
alas for June they'll have to. They were excited for
me though. They know how temporary this job is
(although we've thought that for nearly a year now),
and want to see me succeed.
One of the bosses,
Barbara Weller, mentioned my trip to her husband Robb,
who runs a production company and is currently working
on content for "The Africa Channel" in Africa, and
asked for my demo to see if maybe I could do something
for them while I was there. When she first told me
this, I had to leave the office. I closed the door
behind me, got chills, and my eyes welled up. Not
because I thought this would turn into something huge,
but because I was risking SOOOOOOOO much with this
trip. In no uncertain terms can I afford this trip -
but my heart told me to do it. Hours later, I found
renters for my house when I'm gone, I'm pitching to
Atom Films to sponsor some of the videos (and now even
CBS News) and the following day she tells me this. I
had started an avalanche. I was stuck in the middle of
this mountain jumping up and down screaming
"LET'S GO, LET'S GO, LET'S GO!". And
with one click of the submit button I started
into motion soooooooooo much. It really can feel
spiritual when things like this happen.
Now, I've always
known who her husband was. It was never lost on me
that there was an opportunity here - but how do you
broach that subject? "Hey, I'd rather work for your
husband's company, can I give you my demo to pass
along?". As well, I needed a J-O-B, more than a lead.
So I kept everything very secret. Best way not to
get hired is show the company how successful you are
at doing something else.
So he saw the
demo. Loved it. Passed it to the head of development,
Deb Supnik. She, and I quote from him on the phone the
next day, "ran out of her office immediately asking
when can we get him in for a meeting." She writes to
my boss Friday while I'm at Coachella, the following
email:
Hi
Barbara!
Finally got
to my backed-up email and watched the links on Adam
Kontras. I think he is special!!!! Went right in to
talk with Robb and I suggest we try and schedule a
time to meet.
Adam has had
terrific success already and hopefully we can do
some things with him for W/G.
Let me know
how I should proceed.
Hope all is
well with you!!!!!
Deb
Barbara pulls me
into her office today and tells me about the email
from Friday. She summarizes the email and, honestly a
bit unnerved, says this probably has nothing to do
with Africa. I actually knew that from the tone of her
husband's call to me but remember, I haven't read
the email yet. Then she forwards it to me so I can
contact her.
Whew.
I've read a lot of
emails from heads of development. A lot from potential
managers. A lot from potential
everythings. This email is different. Not only
is there no "but" to be found... it shows enthusiasm
that TOTALLY DIDN'T NEED to be told.
You don't have to denote "went right in to talk to
Robb" or "hopefully we can do some things for him".
But she did. This is a clear-as-day,
not-even-a-hint-of-holding-back: we're interested,
let's do this now.
I also
know the demo they got. It's "The Egos"
and "Up & Adam". In fact I'll just
post it again right here. If you're the
head of development at a production house,
and you're excited after watching this,
you have some specific things in mind.
That's what Production Companies do. They
invest in shows, talent, that they feel
they can sell to a network or cable
company. I've talked with a few out here
and while all have been positive, nothing
has moved this fast.
It gets
better.
So I google her
name. And amazingly, I've heard of her before. In fact
I even saw her in old footage from a documentary. Why?
Because, this is so ridiculous, The Beatles manager,
Brian Epstein, asked her (at 13 years old) to start
the Official Beatles Fan Club. She ended up doing so
well, she started arranging their press conferences,
fund raising events - even appeared on The Tonight
Show with Johnny Carson for her work with them. She
still consults on several Beatle related film and
video projects. My boss told me she knows Paul
personally and he even calls to sing Happy Birthday to
her.
Doesn't end there.
She worked for CBS for 14 years. 7 in NY, 7 in LA at
Television City and was primarily in programming where
she worked, among other things, in late night. Ready
for the cherry?
She's also a
personal manager and CEO of "Off Sunset
Management".
Oh and what has
she done as head of development at Weller/Grossman
Productions? From her bio:
"...Debbie
has identified and/or discovered many of today's
most notable hosts on both broadcast and cable
television."
Not that I'd be
good at hosting or anything. I'm still not done.
I write her back
and a couple hours later she tells me Thursday at 4 -
because everyone at the company wanted to wrap things
up so we could ALLLLLLLL talk. ALLLLLLLL talk at
the end of the day. I'm not meeting the head of
development, I'm meeting Weller & Grossman
annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Deb.
So clearly my mind
started reeeling. Had to call the one man who
always gets the first call for things like
this: my father. I had my pocket cam with me and
figured it would be funny to tape what I looked like
while I was on the phone with him at my building's
patio. This is awesome...
PLEASE HIT THE "HQ"
BUTTON
WHEN IT STARTS!!!!
I try to sit down.
LMAO. That is such a wonderful moment for me to watch.
I all sit down and stretch out like I'm gonna stay
there and then immediately have to get back up and
pace again. HAHAHAHA. Precious shit. It really doesn't
even feel like me. I'm happy for that dude in the
video that i've been following all these years.
Goddamn - I'm
really gonna be schizophrenic when I hit my 70s aren't
I. Oh well.
