How NOT To Do A Job Interview (With OMG Chelsey Pucks)

Susan notes: I briefly met Kelly-Anne Lyons at Barasti Bar in Dubai earlier this year. I had no idea when we exchanged cards that Lyons is an actress, so I was a little surprised when I got an email from her a few weeks later with a link to an online series of videos called Chelsey OMG in which she plays the starring roll of Chelsey Pucks, a 21-year-old American visiting London.

Lyons is an amazing young woman and a great actress who does a fantastic job of playing Chelsey. I love these two segments, which I think are perfect examples of how NOT to do a job interview.

 

 

 

Here’s what Lyons says about Chelsey, the show, and how it developed:

The show was written by Nat Coombs (who also plays Jens in the show) as a television sitcom. As he was shopping it around to different Production companies, Channel X wanted to produce it and had the idea to make it into an internet series. I think this is a great idea for many reasons.

First of all, many people are watching their shows via the internet these days, and it’s possible in five years, we’ll all be streaming our television through our internet. Also, in today’s busy world, many people don’t have time to watch a 30-minute or one-hour program on television. This show offers a “quick fix” of entertainment that people can watch, have a quick laugh, and get back to their busy lives. Lastly, it’s such a new and exciting medium that hasn’t really been done until now.

The show started with scripted episodes, but the producers allowed me to change the script and also use quite a bit of improv. As we began shooting, they also found many of my personal life stories very funny, some of them being from growing up in America, as well as some incidents when I moved to London.

We created the ‘What’s on my mind’ episodes from these conversations, many of which (but not all) are just extremely exaggerated versions of my own stories. Two examples would be “Trifle” and ‘Betsey the Dog.” I did gain a bit of weight when moving over because I became addicted to Trifle and began enjoying the family size Marks and Spencers one for dessert every night or two (-:.

My dog Katie was depressed when I left American and the vet tried to convince my mom to put her on prozac (which my mom refused). However, if you watch those videos, you will see the exaggerated versions of those stories. 
 
We also decided to create some improvisational hidden camera sketches. One day I went around London, asking members of the public for directions … proceeded to strike up a conversation … and then asked them to meet up again/for their number. We were surprised with the amount of people that ended up liking Chelsey and were happy to share their information or meet up with her again.

In Paris, I stood one street away from Notre Dame and asked people where Notre Dame, the school (which is in the USA) was. When people tried to direct me, I assured them they were wrong and proceeded to have friendly disagreements with frustrated people. These two hidden camera bits have not been shown yet but I’m sure the footage will be used in the future.

And of course, you saw The London Paper Interview. This was originally 45 minutes of improv. The Producers set up an interview with him that would be taped, telling them that someone on their TV show wanted to be his assistant. He got such a kick out of the interview that he ended up writing a full-paged article in the paper a couple weeks afterwards.

The show is currently on Bebo and You Tube. We have about 3 millions viewers and when we were airing new videos at regular intervals, we were getting 300,000 new viewers each week. The Producers have thought about the possibility of making it into a television sitcom, but for now they want to focus on doing 100-300 internet episodes.
As you can see on bebo, many people believe she is real and write her messages, and usually receive messages back in return. The show has just been signed on for a second series. We are unsure if we will leave it on bebo and you tube. The reason is that our main site is now going to be www.stardoll.com.

We will begin shooting the second series for stardoll in the next couple weeks. 
 
I have really enjoyed my character and the show. I’ve had quite a bit of input into the creation of the character. She was originally the stereotypical “energetic but dumb, young American in London.” She does defend this stereotype a large portion of the show, but I think people love her because of her huge heart.

I’ve tried to emphasize her energy, heart, and fearlessness to try new things or meet new people. She definitely has flaws … she’s sometimes naïve or too trusting in people. She also does have more than one ditzy moment. However, she is a good person and always has a positive outlook, which makes every day an adventure and exciting experience for her.

Despite being insulted by people like her NWE (new worst enemy) in the show, she never seems to be too affected by it. Even after these incidents, she continues to speak her mind, and always wants to share her opinion or thoughts with people, no matter how silly.