Surprise TV Show

The TV show Surprise has been on for over 12 years now, and it's a big old dinosaur that every early bird end up watching on Sunday morning - willingly or not - by zapping. Surprise was originally dealing with a ridiculous amount of funny facts and stupid things that happened in the past all over the world - thus requiring foreign actors - I was told. That explains why they would make sure that al least one character has a porn-stache or a clown wig (the endearing words of a fellow actor who's been on the show for many years). These days, however, the stories are more often darker stories than funny ones. Drugs for athletes, bank-robbing resulting in murder, nuclear tests, unpreviously seen diseases... which technically require no funny props.

I guess the point of making foreigners look hillarious on TV didn't change, so here's that.

I've been to different places so far for filming, Incheon seaside, Yangju's set, a Catholic church, an empty University in a mountain, Ilsan's Dream Center area.... but we never really get that much time to enjoy visiting the places per say.

I mean, regular actors might.

I don't.

I always seem to have something weird that sets me appart from others wherever I go...

In Japan I was the only foreigner among the students - that's to be expected.

Back home, I was the oldest in my college class, cuz I started later (thank you Japan) so I had nothing to talk about with people in my classes.

In University, I hung out with Asians in Montreal, and obviously was treated differently.

Back in my hometown, I was always the weirdo- for the best and the worst - who liked Asia too much.

In China, I ended up hanging out with 2 of the 3 Koreans in the exchange program, and thus, while they were studying in Canada and my Chinese was better, Chinese people always talked to them even when I was the one speaking...

Did life do that, ordid I do that to myself, I don't know.

What I know, is that I get used to being singled out for random reasons and don't make a fuss of it.

In Surprise, I ended up the amphibian of the crew.

I am not completely foreign, not completely part of the Korean team. I came in as an actor for the show, but at the moment I came, the Korean manager/translator quit her job and I was asked for help doing that. I didn't know it was not going to be temporary, but so far I'm happy with how things turned out.

So I am an actress, and a translator.

What it implies is that I run from one set to the other from the very first filming to the very last set. I translate stuff for the actors who don't speak Korean when the staff speaks to them and need to stand on both sides and walk on eggs quite often (I totally understand the actors being pissed at quick changes in schedule, and understand why the Korean staff changed things, but still have to make sure both sides stay happy...) I need to know the lines of every actors (or at least know which page of which script the stuff is written on, so I can make sure they say their lines alright), and make sure everyone is changed and ready for each scenes according to the scene listing (the stories are, of course, not filmed in the order they will be played on TV, since the location, time and sets have to change throughout the day). I thus need to know who is who, where everyone is at all times, and what is coming next.

To be honest, I am VERRY bad at planning. So this is not an easy job for me. However, there is always a lot to learn so it's satisfying when things go smoothly. I remember the second time I helped out on set, the assistant director made a modified schedule sheet for me, with the names of the actors instead of the names of the characters (normally each scene has the names of the characters, as well as basic costume specificity if needed, but being new, I knew no one and thus, both characters names and actors names were unknown to me. It was a biiiig mess in my head). I was very touched by the gesture.

On top of that, I need to make sure I actually dress up and show up for the few times I show up in the stories as well. AND I need to do my best to actually act it out nicely so they keep giving me more roles.

The Producers are not always the same. While the camera crew is always there, the directors alternate every week. I think there are four total. It seems to be a random order - maybe depending of their own schedule, and if they actually have a better set to be on during filming day - because while the first 4 weeks I was here they were all different, since then some have come two more times, and some haven't.

Some directors film super fast and everything gets wrapped up quickly, some go about taking shots on and on and on until it gets very late.

I get on the bus at 7AM every Thursday, and the time I leave is never set in stone. The earliest I have gotten on the bus back was 8PM, and the latest time I've reached home was 6AM the next morning. Those are long days.

Plain ators have it better. And main characters have it best. Plain actors wait 90% of the day, so they get time to sleep and stuff. They need to change a couple of time, but they get to take long naps at times. Main actors don't really have to change all day, they stay the same character and can focus on lines.

Amphibians like me have to both make sure I do my part, and the others do the same. I don't get to sit much, even less to sleep. However, the day usualy goes by very fast.

Ultimately, every Thursday has it's load of everything. For stress, to happy joking, laughing about bad translation of scripts, and acting out of it, wig wearing, old gradma clothe trying and pizza eating....All of that with the occasional cameo of famous Korean actors and staff....

If you can read Korean:

http://www.segye.com/content/html/2015/11/19/20151119001514.html

http://www.segye.com/content/html/2015/11/19/20151119001518.html

#SurpriseTVShow #actinginKorea #KoreanTVshow #SouthKorea