And Then There Was The Reality Show

Sooooo.

Apparently there’s a movement afoot in 2010  – a movement focusing on mom bloggers who might potentially be interested in participating in a reality show.  I have absolutely no experience with reality shows other than watching “Project Runway” and “Top Chef” with reckless abandon.  Oh.  When I want to punish my beloved hubby, we watch “Next Comic Standing” to remind him he was next in line to be the “Next Comic Standing” when his whole “I’m single and can’t find a good date” award-winning act was thrown out the window when he met me — Julie, the nightclub-singing wackadoo.  He is singularly the  finest guy I’ve ever met — even though he won’t let me hang a giant picture of Judy Garland in the family room.  But he looks like Steve Martin, he is my lobster and he freakin’ cracks me up.  Did I mention we both have an abhorrence for housekeeping and watch BBC America instead of going to church?

I take pride in that — and in singing show tunes when I can’t cope.  

So.  What do I have to offer Project Mom Casting?

Scene:  Me.  Blogger mom.  Thrilled with having pro-created two of the most darlingist girls at home who I try, consciously, to parent with a healthy dose of modern parenting and a  ”get your shit in gear and pay for our retirement” philosophy.  

Scene:  Me.  Thoroughly sucked into the suburbia dream by buying a dilapidated house in Maplewood, NJ, which forces me into the world of media sales & marketing to pay the mortgage, led by the most brilliant of marketers, Risa Crandall.  (Need footage of me spinning sales drama? Follow Risa and me as we traverse Manhattan’s media world.)

Scene:  I walk through Times Square, New York City, after a cocktail with the soon-to-be Tony Award winning composer Marcy  Heisler of the Broadway-bound Cinderella musical ”Ever After.”  Then I chat with the star of the Pulitzer Prize -winning musical ”Next To Normal” — the amazing Marin Mazzie.   Life is nothing without a good show tune accompaniment helping us survive.  Please.  “A Spoonful Of Sugar” works fantastically when you’re digesting bad news (or a bad Pinot) and you know it.

Scene:  Me.  Face to face at the town pool with the soon-to-be star of an HBO drama.  Baby on my hip.  No makeup.  The 20 lbs still packed on from pregnancy.  Whoot!  Whoot!  Comic gold. 

Scene:  Me.  Having cocktails with members of my “Matinee Moms Network” as we have a drink or two, prepping ourselves for a great Broadway show or film premiere, chatting about how we will cover it on our blogs.  Women make 70%  of ticket purchases and we drive 85% of the purchases of live theater entertainment.   ”Glee” and “American Idol?”  We have a serious investment in whether these show do well on Network TV.  Don’t under-estimate our power in the media world.  We’ll F%*^*in’ slay you.  I wrote of my tribe’s power in this post. 

Scene:  Me meeting with the country’s top arts educators — I’m working to understand what makes a good arts education program and how I can motivate my readers to invest in their child’s education, music instruction and tree house/backyard musicals. 

OK.    So what is the “reality” with me?  What is “reality” with blogging?  No clue.  Maybe  it’s saying to the Universe, “How will I not lose my creative soul as I work a full-time job, put food on the table, pay the mortgage and keep my creativity in tact?”  It — possibly– is blogging as I’ve learned over the past year.  It’s finding my tribe online.  It’s moving and motivating the entertainment industry.   We love theatre, film, television and music passionately, and we want our kids to find their own passion and travel the creative road they’re meant to follow. 

That’s the Act I curtain. 

 Act II?  That’s up to you.

Thanks for listening!

Julie

This post is part of the Project Moms Casting occurring at the Blogher ‘10 conference in NYC. 

♥