Breaking Bad

Experts say it takes six weeks to break a habit.  I'm not battling pills or booze but I am trying to break a style picked up working the TV news crime beat. Newscasters have a distinct on-air style that's hindering me from doing more creative work - work that doesn't require covering dead bodies.

"We just need to get the newscaster out of you," TV coach Marki Costello said at our first session.  I'd called Marki after seeing her help former NFL pro Hank Baskett move from the football field to the studio.

Marki teaches the same technical skills like TelePrompter and breaking down copy that newscasters learn but in a way that fits the style of TV hosting. Hosting is a completely different beast than news; sort of like the difference between boxers and wrestlers - both compete in a ring but they need different abilities.

"Reveal something about yourself we'd never know by looking at you," Marki instructed in her Hosting Boot Camp, "to help the audience connect with you." 

Hosts share intimate secrets with their audiences; as newscasters, we're trained to hide behind the camera. Newscasters tell other people's stories, not our own.  Strip off that protective layer?  No way.  

I revealed that my military dad had me in boxing gloves before I could read. My tone conveyed my message: back off.

Next assignment was reading copy for a dating show. Marking stopped me after a few sentences demanding, "What do YOU think?"  

As news anchors, we're trained to stay out of the story; whereas hosts make money off of their opinions. 

"That petite woman who won't date tall men has no idea what she's missing!"  I blurted out. Great. Now the audience thinks I sleep with NBA players.

Then came a live co-hosting drill. In news, we face a camera - not a crowd. The live audience felt like a jury. I mumbled a few words about the topic - travel, told a story about a recent trip to a Third World country - and crept back to my seat. 

A hot guy from The Bachelorette leaned over and whispered, "Do you know you said, 'pooped in a can?'" 

Despite Marki's coaching, I felt  stuck.  Too old to change with habits too big to break. Six weeks in TV rehab?  At least there shouldn't be any dead bodies. 

www.facebook.com/shayholland

Girls Who Wear Pink

Kendra Wilkinson & Hank Baskett.

As a kid, I did not wear pink.  I lived in sneakers and overalls and my dad's army boots.  I loved clomping around in  his big, spiffy combat boots.  They were black and shiny and made me feel fierce and unstoppable.  

I still prefer to wear combat boots over high heels but thanks to a Playboy Playmate, I'm finally becoming one of those girls who wear pink (not a bunny suit!). 

I tuned in to the TV show Kendra on Top to watch a friend's guest appearance on reality the show. The show follows a racy former Playmate and her husband, Hank, as they leave the fast lane for family life. I caught an episode about Hank training to break into TV after retiring from the NFL. 

Watching Hank work with a TV hosting coach, I wondered if she might be able to help me, too.  Newscasters have a distinct on-air style that's gotten in my way when I audition for more creative roles.  At one commercial test, a cranky agent even snapped, "I want you to sell the sugar, not put it on the news." 

A phone call and $600 later, I was signed up for a weekend with Hollywood's self-professed Queen of Hosting. Marki Costello's roster includes celebrities like Cee Lo, Khloe Kardashian and many more.  

Time to step up my game fast. Hosting Boot Camp was just a month away. 

Since we'd be filming against in a green screen studio, I knew I'd need new clothes.  My closet is full of dark and neutral colors that look fine for reporting in the field but that are way too dull in the studio.  

Time had come to join the girls who wear...

Yep.  Pink would perfectly "pop" with my skin tone.  Bought my first-ever pink blouse.  Hope it looks okay with combat boots.

www.facebook.com/shayholland

Thrill Seekers. Younger Dates. New Cars.

**post contains graphic content**

Why is it that after doing something you’ve dreamed of for a long time, the thrill fades so quickly? You’re left wondering, “What's next?” 

I didn’t expect to hit that place so soon after skydiving.  My brother thinks he knows why:  “Some people have a mid-life crisis and buy a new car or date a younger person,” he says. “My sister jumps from a perfectly good airplane!” 

I prefer to think some of us are born with an extra adventure gene. Besides, journalists are wired to take risks; our jobs demand it. 

But those risks often come at a high emotional cost and there are few healthy outlets. How do you escape memories? 

...a teenage girl dying naked in the street fleeing the jilted boy who stabbed her...a mom's mangled body as a drunk driver who slammed into her car sits unscathed in his...fathers blown to bits in a freak accident...

...They were repairing a gas main when it exploded.  We were the first TV crew to arrive.

“GET BACK!” yelled police cordoning off the scene. “You’re stepping on them!”  

We'd unkowingly walked into the blast area, trampling bits of flesh.

After doing interviews, I went to take notes.  Something in the brush - a stark, white boulder? - caught my eye.  It wasn't a rock. 

“Commander!" I yelled, "Over here!"  A man's head...the blast area was wider than we'd realized.

Fathers. husbands. sons. How do you forget?  I've watched friends get lost trying - drinking, drugs, eating disorders. 

Without faith and adventure I'd probably get lost, too. 

So yes, I plan to skydive again. Without my brother.  "No thanks," he said, “I don't want my last words on earth to be with some man strapped to my back."

www.facebook.com

Dark Chocolate & D Cups

Halle Berry.  Photo: Entertainment Rundown.

Checking out the audience at a recent Hollywood event, not a stray hair or scuffed Jimmy Choo in the house, it was striking to see a room of mostly Black women. 

They call themselves Dark Chocolate.

The SAG-AFTRA event, part sorority/part pep rally, was hosted by a group that is fighting Hollywood's pervasive stereotype of leading ladies:  big breasts, light skin, size zero.  Black women, especially those with dark skin and curves, barely stand a chance at being cast in starring roles. 

 "Name five dark chocolate women in romantic leads on TV or in movies," the host challenged. No one could. 

Industry figures show people of any color are hired for less than 15% of all roles. In fact, Hollywood remains one of the only places where hiring discrimination based on skin color, size or age is still legal.

One of Halle Berry's stunt doubles (looking even thinner than the 5'7," 123 pound Oscar winner) sat by me so we started talking.  "Halle gave me a chance and it grew from there," Eva (not her real name) said.

Eva encouraged me to consider stunt training after I mentioned my recent skydive (omitting all the shrieking). She said a good place to start is with precision driving, where skill matters more than skin color or breast size since the actual driver seldom gets screen time.

Realistically? Doors aren't going to fly open anytime soon for women like me.  But like Eva said, you just have to be ready when one does like it did for Halle's team - which even includes a MALE double. 

Halle Berry's Catwoman stunt double (The Honolulu Advertiser photo)

Yes, a MAN (Nito Larioza) performed many of Halle's sexy-fierce Catwoman moves!

Sometimes talent does triumph over fair skin and D cups.

www.facebook.com/shayholland

Freefalling!

say your prayers!

Every once in a while we experience that surreal moment when a dream becomes reality.  

Skydiving was one of those moments.  

I've wanted to go ever since I was a kid growing up on military bases where we'd watch the paratroopers train. 

Fast forward a few decades.  One of the deadliest natural disasters in history.  Haiti.  A team of strangers risking their lives to save others.

They're the kind of fearless souls who pull people from burning buildings. climb Mt. Everest. fight wars for our freedom. attempt feats most of us wouldn't dare.

At first I felt out of place.  They save lives; they know what to do with bloody wounds and cracked skulls.  Me?  I know what to do with a camera and a pen. 

But somehow we fit. 

And that's how skydiving came up.   We got the idea to jump as a way to raise funds for an orphanage.  Our Heights for Haiti jump fell through but two of us decided to go anyway.

Ironically, we were assigned to the same plane for our tandem jumps as a team of training soldiers.  As the plane climbed, they'd suddenly vanish out the open door, sometimes mid-sentence.  I thought my heart would fail each time. 

When my turn came, I looked into heaven and began...screaming.  "Oh!  My!  God!"  

Freefalling at 120 mph (experts say it's like floating, not a rollercoaster drop; I felt both) all I could do was pray. And scream. 

When we finally landed an eternity later (ok, about five minutes), the Skydive Arizona crew made me feel like a hero just for strapping on the harness.  

But the real heroes are the Haiti team and those who risk their lives for others - you are the courageous ones.

YouTube link of my jump! My favorite part is 2:24 when Chad jumps - and I realize I'm next. "Chaaaad! Oh my God!!" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XlkSz4QFJU&feature=youtu.be

www.facebook.com/shayholland

Almost Jump Time!

Three days until the big jump!  Of course, the news would keep showing video of the 80-year-old grandma's near fatal skydive when her harness malfunctions...*

Still, we're ready (my jump partner is an EMT I met heading to Haiti after the  earthquake).  I'm more worried about the heat. It's supposed to get up to 110 at the drop zone - could be trouble for someone used to 70 degree coastal temps.

Skydiving Magazine says freefall doesn't feel like the roller coaster drop most people expect so that makes me less nervous.  They say freefall is more like "a comfortable sensation of floating; the closest thing to human flight." 

So why skydiving?  I'm still trying to answer that question but maybe it just comes down to this:  adventure.  

Whether reporting in a disaster zone or caring for orphans in a Third World slum, adventure forces me to draw on my faith in ways ordinary life doesn't.  Away from our comfort zones, we're far more dependent on God and can sense a grace higher than any adrenaline rush.

Who knows, maybe facing fear opens the door for greater grace?  And grace always precedes great exploits.  

A demon-possessed man who lived in tombs?  Grace restored.  

A soldier whose ear got cut off ambushing Jesus?  Grace healed.  

A woman caught in adultery?  Grace forgave. 

And a grandmother who almost died skydiving?  Grace saved.

Grace and skydiving? Who knows.  In any case, I like what the thrill-seeking grandma said to a reporter who suggested safer hobbies: "Knitting is boring." 

***

Grandmother's near fatal skydive:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/national/article/256956/81/Grandmother-talks-about-terrifying-skydiving-jump

www.facebook.com/shayholland

Slaying Giants

The long-awaited adventure is almost here!  Flights are booked.  Reservation is set.  Soon I'll be strapped to a stranger and hurling toward earth at 130 mph. 

The question people ask most is, "Why skydiving?"  What they mean is, "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" 

"I seem to be missing the gene that says, 'This is dangerous, don't do it,'" I recently told friends in Haiti. 

Motorcycle taxi to the market in Haiti

They were trying to talk me out of riding a motorcycle taxi to the market.  The market wasn't far but motorcylists are often killed due to the lack of traffic laws and the fact that most don't own helmets or protective gear. 

Still, I was determined to experience this common Haitian method of commute; sometimes entire families, toting babies and bags, ride one motorcycle! 

So, armed with tips from our host on how to barter for mangos and pineapples, I eagerly climbed on the bike when the driver arrived.

In Haiti, drivers use whichever side of the road is open. I held my breath as we'd swerve back into our lane seconds from a head-on collision. I feared scraping the skin off my arms as we dodged through inches-wide openings between trucks. 

I soon quit trying to ride like the fearless Haitians and clasped both arms around my driver's waist as tightly as I could.

Two hours later we arrived back home without a scratch.  Mangos never tasted sweeter.

So why skydiving?  Like the motorcycle ride, I can't explain it.  I just know it's about slaying a giant:  Fear.  Like the biblical queen Esther, it has to do with destiny.  embracing faith.  I'm tired of being beaten by giants.  

Besides, look at Esther - she took a risk and it led to a throne.

www.facebook.com/shayholland