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Hi, just want to start by saying hope you’re doing fine. I realllly do.

So this next Oldieo is my attempt at a man-on-the-street comedy Q&A bit (you know, the sort of thing that make people look stupid). J-Raff is Antuanua, Psychic of the Future as we spent one sunny afternoon walking around 3rd Street and the Santa Monica Pier taping (illegally) and stopping everyone in our path. I was operating Nolan’s 1st generation DV cam* (see Welcome to RAC) and doing my best shaky, reality-esque capturing. For some reason, Jay was practically up all night doing something, and was coasting on fumes when we shot this, but his performance was one for the ages. All of his Q&A was lightening-quick improv, and he really hurled some classic curve balls at the poor tourists and locals.

Personal favorite J-Raff exchange:

Antuanua: I’m from Albania, we have the cold harsh winters…it took my father…
Lady: Oh, that’s bad…
Antuanua: Well, he was a bad guy…
Lady: Oh, then that’s good…
Antuanua…eh, still my father.

…Jason had an interview that night after shooting for six hours in the blazing sun with no liquids (and not to mention his all-nighter) and is fairly certain that the events in that 24 hour span acted as a catalyst for his later-to-be-discovered Type-1 Diabetes. I know what you’re thinking, Type 1 is inborn and normally discovered in early childhood development, but Jay was a rare case that was exposed and triggered at the tender age of 24. For three weeks following the shooting of this piece, Jay was practically bed-ridden and could only hold down liquids like gatorade and soda. One trip to Ralph’s, he literally spent $45 on a liquid grocery run. By the third and fourth week, Jason’s “thurst” (as we called it) had caused him to drop a stunning 30 pounds, resembling a skeleton with jet-black curly hair (I thought he looked “handsome-skinny”). He could barely muster enough strength to walk from his bed to the living room couch, and had trouble drooling words and sentences from his lips. I was home sick one day from work near the end of his home-remedied ordeal when J-Raff looked at me and finally said, “I…Drive me to the E.R. please.” Well, we got there just in time, and if he put off the hospital for one more half-day he might have slipped into a self-induced coma. If that had happened, us brain surgeons would have thought Jay’s situation had moved from “thurst” to “Zs”. He checked into UCLA, and then proceeded to stay in the ICU to get pumped with life-liquids for a good 4-5 days. When the doctors told him he was diabetic, us grandstanders were like, “Ohhh. The ‘thurst’ EQUALS diabetes, duh!”

So essentially, Jason acquired a lifelong illness to bring you 5 minutes of chuckles. And with that in mind, do enjoy Jason Raffile as Antuanua (named after the old shitty bar on Beacon St. in Boston might I add).

Enjoy and come back soon for my first Rad Rant!

Brento
Resident of the blahblahblah

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Oldieo Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.