What would you do if you were given the opportunity to hang out with LPGA golfers Erica Blasberg and Sandra Gal, New York Yankees Johnny Damon, NASCAR Superstar Kasey Kahne, but the catch is you have to be in your underwear?
This is exactly the scenario I was faced with when I was invited by Puma Golf to be apart of the video shoot promoting the Puma Open for 2009. Initially when I learned about this project, I was told I might have a small cameo in one of the promotional spots for the Puma Open, and to cover it for my site. I quickly jumped at the opportunity and I was really excited at the prospect of being in a video promoting a really fun golf event.
Several days before the video shoot I spoke with the director, to go over the script and my involvement in the video. At the time of speaking with director, my role was very small and had only one line, with very little interaction with the main stars of th scene. I was ok with my small role and quite relieved, and perfectly content with my small part. I was just looking forward to seeing what it takes to make a professional video and maybe hanging out with Erica Blasberg, Johnny Damon, Kasey Kahne, and Sandra Gal. But little did I know what lied ahead of me the day of the video shoot.
The morning of the shoot a car came and picked me up to take me to the set of the video shoot, which was at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, Florida. This made me feel like a celebrity, even though I’m an F-list celebrity, it still felt pretty cool. When I went up to the green room, I was one of the first “actors” to arrive at and had no idea what to expect.
After settling in and grabbing a bite to eat, New York Yankees Johnny Damon arrived on set and entered the green room. We shook hands and I introduced myself, at that point I just tried to remain calm and not blurt anything out stupid. Shortly after Johnny had arrived, Erica Blasberg, Kasey Kahne, and Sandra Gal all showed up. Now I’m getting a little nervous, because I’m sitting in a makeshift green room with all these sports athletes and begin wondering, what am I doing here? What do I talk about? Everyone seems to know each other, except me. So I resorted to the common denominator topic, golf and the Puma Open. After a few minutes of conversation about golf and travel, I began to feel at ease with Erica, Johnny, Kasey, and Sandra. It was like hanging out with my friends.
As Erica was getting her makeup done by the makeup artist, the director for the shoot comes in to go over the script and discuss wardrobe for the scene. The director Brent begins to tell us that there has been a change in direction for the scene I was going to be in and that I would have a bigger and better part with more lines. It turns out I would be in a scene with Erica Blasberg and Johnny Damon, and it required me to be in my underwear. Immediately, I start to feel really squeamish and uncomfortable that my worst nightmare has come to fruition. Not only do I have to “act”, but I have to be in my underwear the entire scene. All sorts of thoughts started rushing through my head, like what is my wife going to think? What kind of underwear? I hope its not a pair of Speedos? It turned out that it was pair of boxers, to much of my relief.
Acting out the scene was not as easy as I thought it would be, but Erica and Johnny who are pros at this made me feel right at home when shooting our scene. The two of them were so fun to be around and the crew was also amazing at making me feel comfortable too. The number of bloopers that Erica, Johnny, and I committed during the filming the scene, were too funny and I hope to have these to share sometime soon. I have to admit, that I grew an appreciation for the hard work and talent that actors do when making a movie and understand why they make the big bucks. After a couple of hours of doing our scene, I learned so much about what it takes to film a two minute or so video, than I ever did by watching MTV’s Making the Video series.
After our scene was completed, the action was taken outside to the golf course at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, where Kasey Kahne, Erica Blasberg, and Sandra Gal filmed the other videos for the Puma Open. One of the videos featured Kasey Kane driving a turbo charged golf cart, while wearing his Nascar jumpsuit. Another scene also involved a pit crew, which were the production assitants and film crew doing car maintenance on Kasey’s golf cart. By mid afternoon production had wrapped, and I was off to the Orlando Convention Center to cover the rest of the days coverage of the PGA Merchandise Show.
In the end I had such a great time hanging out and getting to know all these athletes, and being able to participate in a totally fun video shoot, even if it required me to be in my underwear.
If you want to have as much fun as I did, you should sign up for the Puma Open, which is going to be in 15 cities this year, up from 9, a year ago. Make sure to visit thepumaopen.com next week to watch the promotional videos I got to be apart of for the 2009 Puma Open.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I hope you demanded reciprocity – Erica Blasberg in her skivvies too!
strike out pitiable
erase see sorrowful 2