June 17, 2018 9:00 pm

A StarTalk Intern’s Transition into “Adulting”

Today’s guest blog post is by StarTalk intern Sabrina Ancona. Sabrina is a current junior majoring in Marketing at State University of New York at New Paltz. She works on digital marketing and SEO for StarTalk and also enjoys writing assignments like this one. She has always taken an interest in the universe and enjoys reading about new discoveries in astrophysics. 

There I was, a Long Islander born and raised, in my neighboring city to attend an event that would change my perception of the city in which I’d essentially grown up from those of a youngin’s eyes to a “grown up’s.” I walked through the streets to the destination with a facade of confidence, but hiding my internal bundle of nerves. The city was New York, of course, and the event, a taping of StarTalk Playing with Science.

Before I get into the details of this incredible day, let me introduce myself. My name is Sabrina Ancona and I am a marketing intern here at StarTalk. I’m a junior attending SUNY New Paltz, studying marketing… but still honestly pretty lost when it comes to what specifically I want to do with my life.

So, in this typical time of young-adult confusion and existential crises, nothing could have been a better remedy than being able to be a part of something like this. Meeting with celebrities of StarTalk, seeing the behind the scenes of production, filming, and everything that goes into making an episode as great as it is. How much cooler could my introduction to my potential career path be? It was almost like my inner child kept saying, “Is this real life?”

As routine as this recording session may have been for the production engineers and Chuck and Gary themselves, they still made it seem as awesome as possible, with their warm welcomes and excited personalities. Walking in, my first greeting was by fellow intern Benjy, who also attends the same college at SUNY New Paltz. It was nice to have some ice-breaking introduction to the whole intimidating set-up: conversing about our college, our career paths, his time at StarTalk, and of course how we as 20-somethings are still pretty clueless when it comes to our futures. Although, we certainly both felt less nervous about our futures by being able to be a part of the day we were about to have.

After conversing with my fellow intern, I couldn’t help but take a few moments to take in my surroundings. A real life studio, set up with a casual room that included a couch, phones and chargers lying around, scattered food and water, decorated with pictures of other shows produced by the company. After looking around the waiting room, my eyes halted at the room full of fancy buttons and computer screens peaking out from behind the glass windows. I then introduced myself to the production engineers, in awe of all the light-up things that were happening in what looked like some kind of fancy robotic game.

As a marketing major in college, production and the engineering that goes with it never really crossed my mind, but all the questions I had ever had about what happens behind the scenes were brought to the surface now. After inquiring about some general functions of the equipment and the different roles the three guys in the room held, I let them get back to work. (But, of course, I couldn’t leave the room without taking a picture of the Rick and Morty figure held on one of the computers.)

Then came the English accent. Gary O’Reilly, one of the hosts of the show about to be recorded, had entered the room. His larger-than-life personality was clear from the plenty of videos I’d already seen of him, but he was even cooler in person. He took the time to ask about my major, followed by a discussion of the importance of marketing and sprinkled it with some of his own wit and humor to lighten up the conversation.

Shortly after, in walks Chuck Nice, holding a Starbucks coffee and snack, with an energy that was overflowing with excitement (and likely caffeine) from the start. He too, kind and warm welcoming, sparked my enthusiasm even further.

After some 10 minutes of conversing among the crew, exploring the room with my eyes and eating a snack, the production began. I had too much energy to sit at first, so I stood in the doorway of the engineering room, watching as the engineers did all the complicated stuff they do, speaking through the mic to Gary and Chuck, scrolling through the topics of the show, and laughing at the stars’ jokes. I also got to talking to the production engineer, StarTalk’s video producer Ben Ratner, who made sure to make Benjy and me feel comfortable and invited us to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

The casual flow of it all struck me as odd at first, but led me to realize how stellar they all were at their jobs and how well they worked together like a perfect star system. Chuck and Gary didn’t follow a teleprompter or any kind of specific lines with multiple takes, but rather spoke from their own knowledge, sense of humor, and personalities, to create a show worth watching. Their banter was refreshing, and they didn’t even have to put on an act as their natural charisma shone through with every segment. And as much as I’m not into sports much, I found myself super-interested in the topics they were discussing, likely because of the people discussing it.

After some time in the engineering booth, I looked through the glass door into what I had first believed was an off-limits area. But, as I was watching the magic happen from inside, I was told I could sit behind the scenes of the studio itself! Behind the cameras were sports-event like bleachers, adjacent to a comfy couch and window with a nice breeze. Up above were bright lights that I’m surprised didn’t blind Gary and Chuck, and straight ahead was the wide array of equipment, cameras, televisions, etc. Of course, the main event, though, was the desk, the green screen, and the guys sitting there.

As I watched, I got to meet some more of the StarTalk crew, none involved in production, but just happy behind-the-scenes viewers like myself. With more warm welcomes, on- and off-the-air jokes, and picture taking, I began to become a lot more comfortable with my choice of a career path thus far. Although I’ve barely touched the surface, I felt a wave of calm as I imagined myself doing something where I get to be around such inspiring people, doing a job that interests me as much as this internship has so far.

If you’ve made it this far into the blog post, I thank you for taking this journey with me. If this gets published, it’ll be my first blog post ever (Woo-hoo!) further pushing me into the “adulting” portion of life. So, whether you’re a clueless college student like me or just anyone who’s taking life one day at a time, I hope this gave you a little inspiration to trust what your life has in store for you and to never look back… instead, to keep looking up.

(Oh, and if you want to join me on my journey through my career, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.)