The festival life
Junior Diem Dang gains a professional opportunity be attending the Beyond Wonderland music festival.
My favorite videos to watch on YouTube are late-night talk show interviews. So when it came time to start picking internships for my Semester in Los Angeles, I thought I could do an internship at a talk show.
Soon after my meeting with the program director, I quickly realized that landing an internship at a talk show with zero production experience was as likely as successfully raiding Area 51.
So I went back to my old antics and settled for late-night television being between myself, my bed, my cell phone and my gluten-free cookies. Fast forward a couple of months, and I am now living across the street from the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” studio.
I was watching the show on my phone when I got an email from program director Isabel Shanahan. We were going to get to watch a live taping from the green room!
The day arrived, and IU Semester in L.A. alumna Tierra Brown, BAJ’18, gave us a backstage tour of the studio. We ran into Guillermo during our tour, and I completely geeked out. Tierra let us go onto the roof so we could get a cool view of Hollywood Boulevard without being bombarded with guys selling us their mixed CDs. Then we were taken to the green room, where there was an open bar and free appetizers. Dinner and a show? Yum.
I got a glimpse of Jeff Goldblum during the commercial break as he went backstage to get ready for his jazz performance. Truly a jack of all trades. Then, our lovely tour guide took us to the stage, and we were in the front row.
The experience was incredibly memorable, and I hope to be back at Jimmy Kimmel for more shows. Maybe even as an employee.