Friday, April 22, 2011

Lunch Lady Land

"In Lunch Lady Land, your dreams come true.
Clouds made of carrots and peas.
Mountains built of shepherd's pie
And rivers made of macaroni and cheese.
But don't forget to return your trays
And try to ignore my gum disease.
No student can escape
The magic of Lunch Lady Land."-Adam Sandler


The only part of the song that really holds true towards me is the gum disease part. And I had a gum graft done in September so I'm all good now. Why this talk of Lunch Lady Land? Because, I now can add this to my resume. Not because I volunteer with the PTA at my children's schools to serve "hot lunch", or because I actually work as a Lunch Lady at a school, but rather because I portrayed one yesterday in my acting debut in the new Boom Entertainment/B96 commercial being filmed.


I had not anticipated participating in the actual commercial yesterday. I thought I was to spend the day with the crew, fetching lunch, taking notes, and just helping out Jordan and Video Dave with whatever they may need. Rather, I got to watch DeAnna of DeAnna's Salon work on our lead actor in her stiletto heals. I am in awe of her. How the hell she stands in those ALL DAY long and cuts hair is beyond me. Props to her! I got to see the latest in male Prom fashion. I got to watch Devin stand holding a microphone steady in the air for rather long periods of time. It's a good thing he works out the way he does. Those arms come in handy.  My father did a drive by in a Budget truck and was honking the horn and slowing down traffic on Dempster.  


The fun really started at Stevenson High School. First off, let me start by saying this school is simply GORGEOUS. They have 5 cafeterias, a make shift Starbucks, an "aquatic center" (in my day, this was called a swimming pool) and many, many buildings, fieldhouses and all sorts of other goodies.  The school was very accommodating towards our needs. I ordered food to feed our crew. We took a short break in order to eat. Then, everyone started getting things ready to begin shooting. I went to buy some water from the vending machine. (By the way, they don't just have bottled water. They have Dasani, flavored Dasani, Vitamin Water and Smart Water) I came back to find several of the Lacrosse players eyeing our leftover food and bottles of Gatorade. They looked around to see if anyone was watching them, and they began to help themselves. Um. Excuse me. This is NOT a buffet! I quickly let them know that we don't steal things that do not belong to us.  They had no idea they decided to mess with the wrong woman. (An old, bitchy woman in their eyes...I heard them mumbling.)


Anywho....some filming occurs and the next thing I know, Video Dave is trying to explain to me that he needs me to play the lunch lady in this commercial. WTF? I didn't sign up for this. I didn't want to do this. I had no make up on. Video Dave, David and Frankie were trying to convince me that I was really good at being an angry, mean person and this is what they needed the Lunch Lady to be. Was I supposed to be flattered by this?  Is this how I am viewed by my fellow co-workers? (I mean, I know I am viewed that way by many people, but I thought these people were my friends!) I argued for a while about why I didn't want to do this and the bottom line was, they needed me to just say one line and they had already moved our leftover food to the cafeteria area and had started setting up the lighting. Ted, the Stevenson Activities Director who was allowing us access to what we needed even found me a dirty, used apron to put on. Oh joy! Thank goodness he didn't find a hair net.


It took a couple of takes, but I think I did an ok job. Steve, who was coming to pick me up from the shooting, actually arrived just in time to come in and watch me film. I never saw Steve run so quickly from a parking lot into a building. He came in and started snapping pictures with his phone and sent them to the kids who were at home. He told everyone that had he known I was doing this, he would've gotten a hair net for me to wear. How considerate!


So, all in all, I don't think I will be making anymore commercials but I did have a fun day with all the guys. I hope the rest of the shooting went well last night. Everyone should look forward to seeing this commercial online, hopefully next week!
And a special shout out Happy Birthday to Video Dave today!

1 comment:

  1. I am very proud of you. I'm sure that you made a great "lunch lady". Perhaps you will be the one to get me to the red carpet. I'll be cheering you on!

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