Food Network Adventures

So remember that great show we know and love as Double Dare? Or Family Double Dare? It was the show of my childhood. Every kid ages five to twelve wanted nothing more than to run through a giant ear to grab a flag or slide down an ooze-covered slide into a pit of pudding, but more than anything else, they wanted to be SLIMED.

Alas, times change, and even though Retro TV will air early episodes of our childhood gameshow, the studio is gone, and those dreams are only just a memory.

Now remember the host, Marc Sommers, the personable and witty yougn man with a rumored OCD problem that could shock and awe?

Well, I met him! Yup, I met Marc Sommers this past weekend while helping out at a shooting of the new Food Network show Restaurant: Impossible. Sommers is the executive producer, while the famous Robert Irvine is the show's host.

So dear Charles Shaunessy of the 90's TV show The Nanny, you are no longer the most famous person I've ever met.

So let's recap, how did I meet these two television celebs? I took a chance.

My school's career center sent out an e-mail a few weeks back advertising a need for volunteers for this show. It was unpaid, but when I saw "Food Network" in the description, I felt this could be a good opportunity to meet people in my field and to network a bit.

So I placed the call. Originally, they only had spots left for extras, which sounded less appealing than the nothing I had planned for that weekend. I said thanks, gave the contact my phone number, and hung up with disappointment.

Then, the Wednesday before the shoot, I got a call saying they needed more volunteers. My job would be simple: be the bitch, and do whatever I was told. Easy.

On the day of the shoot, I got up early (5:00 a.m. to be exact), showered, and hopped into my car. I had to be in Providence at 7:00 a.m., so I stayed at a friend's house that night to get teh most sleep possible, even though we stayed up until about 3:00 a.m. I had a minor mishap with my GPS, which resulted in my purchase of a map of Providence.

I showed up late (7:30 a.m.) and jumped right into work. I won't go into too much detail, but it was tiring. I ahd to lay out hundreds of ceiling tiles to later repaint, touched up on wall painting, cleaned the floors of teh restaurant, and cut the worst paper table cloths anyone could ever see.

I even gave attitude to Irvine a little, when he kept refusing to deal with my issue, and when he told me the paper looked like crap, I told him to try to cut a hundred tablecloths with a heavy roll of paper, an incline on the table, and wind. Later he said I was tough for doing that. Respect, thank you very much.

By the end of the day I was exhausted. It was so hot and sunny that I drank five giant waterbottles and didn't pee once. I'm pretty sure I burned too because my skin was a pinky color the next few days after.

But I did what I went to do, and I think I did it well. I met the camera crew, shot the shit with them, and got to see what they do at a reality TV show. It was fun, and despite the fact I fell asleep at 8:00 p.m. that night, it was worth it.