Friday, March 10, 2006

Mo'Nique's Fat Chance 2006 takes Miami by storm!!!

I arrived in Miami last Saturday evening and met the rest of the production staff as well as Mo'Nique at the Marriot Biscayne Bay. This hotel sits at the mouth of Biscayne Bay and the view from my room was absolutely breathtaking. I dropped my bags in my room, freshened up and quickly headed back down to the lobby to meet everyone as we headed off to see Mo' do standup at The Comedy Store that evening. She was absolutely hilarious....just revelling in her F.A.T.-ness. She is very gracious and after the show she quickly headed to the lobby to autograph T-Shirts and say hello to her fans. A lot of people recognized me and only had the most wonderful things to say to me. It's a wonderful feeling...I swear. Sunday morning was the first stop of the five cities we are covering on the road to finding 10 finalists for Mo'Nique's Fat Chance 2006. The women started lining up as early as 6am and by noon they were about 700 strong. These women came from all over and they were of every different shape, size, color and nationality. It was truly an honor to be in the room with such overwhelming beauty. And the best thing about it was the fact that these women all came in love, bonded together and encouraged one another. If there was any hating going on that day, it was very well hidden. We narrowed down our choices to the folks we thought Mo' would be impressed with. The next morning, we (Mo' & Myself) interviewed the remaining ladies from the day before.
Without revealing anything about the actual casting, I must say that it is fascinating to watch her (Mo) at work. Everytime she opens her mouth, someone begins to heal....it's a beautiful thing to see. By the time we finished interviewing everyone, we had just enough time to make it to the airport, check in and board a plane for Baltimore, Maryland....the next stop on the MFC tour.

More to come....I promise.

3 comments:

Fresh said...

Girl, why am I just discovering that you have a blog?! You are linked up to mine :-)

-stage manager, The Wiz

Chemi Che-Mponda said...

Hi Sharon,

I was at the New York Open Casting Call but didn't make it past the first round. My number was 2074. I waited outside from 5:00am and I have to say by the time the doors opened and we got inside I was frozen. I stood outside and bonded with other women and I felt that was worthwhile

It was a wonderful experience though and I look forward to next year's Casting Call. In all my life I had never been in the presence of so many big and beautiful, proud women of all colors. Being there, I also realized that there is a real hunger for more Plus size events.

Our group was judged by a skinny white guy who in my opinion asked too shallow a question to judge anyone. Anyway, one lady (mid thirties) who I was with from the mid-west started crying after she didn't make it to the next round. I felt so bad for her and I still do because she was crushed. The feeling was ‘I'm rejected in society and I'm rejected here because of my looks, where else can I be accepted’. I understand that they needed only ten contestants and most like they only needed one or two from New York. The hunger for such events is definitely there.

At the same time I was offended by a news crew, whose camera people seemed to be laughing at the hefty women they were interviewing. And you could see smirks on some of the reporter’s faces.

It was a pleasure to see you and Alicia there as well. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing this year’s show.

Anonymous said...

Hi my name is Nichole i thought that you were very good on the show. also i do not knwo if there would be any casting calls a gain but can you let me know if it is and also can to you asked MO'Nique if she needs a model for her clothing also tell her i love her and would love to see her in person one day if she is not to busy my email address is dwnw9980@yahoo.com can you please tell her that for me she has really change my life and you as well because you took a chance and went on the show love you all