Travels With Haislip!
Let’s head overseas for a fun English adventure and a real “London Grind!” First, as you can see the Tower Bridge has never looked better…one of many places we filmed with the great Alison Haislip!
I was lucky enough to travel to some fun locations with Alison, a terrific Host who also has a great sense of humor and love of adventure – so we always have a great time filming! On this trip, we were in London covering a sporting event, and we also decided to film at some of London’s most iconic locations…including the iconic London Bridge…
London Bridge Needs A Trim!
OK, it’s really the Tower Bridge, but it looks exactly like what the London Bridge SHOULD look like, right? I do think that most people just call the Tower Bridge “London Bridge” regardless…
I got the chance to shoot a lot of behind-the-scenes photos, including some group shots of the production team in action…
Here are two shots of the whole producing team: that’s our London Producer on the left, and then the team that flew over for the shoot: Ross, Bryan, Kristen and Torie…and on the far right in the back, my son Jeff. More on his London adventures in a moment…this was a great team to travel with…
It was Jeff’s first time to Europe – so I showed him around, and of course he came along on this shoot to see the team in action…and they were very welcoming to him – I mean, WHO can’t use an extra PA?
Here we are getting a picture at the Tower Bridge…wow, I guess I took A LOT of pictures of this bridge!
We had two days to film a dozen stand ups plus a couple of athlete profiles around London, so we were always on the move…Ross was there to work with Alison on scripts for the standups, and she loved working with him…here is the evidence of that:
Our expert Production Manager Kristen Wheeler was there as well to keep us on schedule, make sure our crew knew what we had coming up, and in general taking care of everything expertly as always…
Big Ben!
The team was a well-oiled machine, navigating the city and filming in front of most of the city’s great attractions, like Big Ben and Westminster Abbey…
We only had a short window of time to film in each location, so it was a matter of jumping out of the van, setting up a shot, and Alison nailing her stand up in one take…we were fast and efficient, and you can see Torie running the set like a General…
This team was terrific to work with: we just got the work done – everyone knew the deadlines we had, the city was crowded with tourists and so movement was slow, but this team never let up, and we got everything we needed…
There were even a couple of times that grabbing the Tube was the way to go…here is Jeff packed on the subway with the rest of us on the way to a shoot…
Trafalgar Square!
We also filmed for a day at Trafalgar Square, where we were covering a sporting event – and the place was always packed with fans AND tourists…
Alison hung out with the crowd and let them know what we needed to get done, and they actually listened to her and behaved while she shot all of her material…not always easy to accomplish in a crowd situation…
Because of the event, the surrounding streets were even more crowded than usual, leading to my opportunity to get a picture of two buses that “bumped” into each other – both trying to make the tight turn past Trafalgar Square…
There were no injuries, but it added to the massive traffic jam, which only made things more chaotic and difficult – but we soldiered on and got all of our shots…
I really enjoyed working with this great team: Torie ran a tight set, staying focused on the work that had to get done and pounding through a long day of filming ahead of schedule…
Torie’s “Big Binder Of Doom!”
I noticed that Torie always had a huge binder – full of scripts, production schedules and talent releases – and I loved the title of it, so I had to get a shot of it when she set it down for a moment…
Ross was also great to have there, even if, in this picture, he looks a BIT suspicious of Alison…that’s him in the green shirt behind her, looking as if she’s doing something wrong…
After the shoot was over, one of the Athletes in the event decided to lift Alison up in a victory pose…a nice way to end a long day of filming!
“Rossfit!”
Everyone know that Ross is an avid crossfit athlete, so of course, he couldn’t let just anybody pick Alison up…so he did it himself!
And Then There Was Ice Cream!
After filming, we went to dinner – and Scott Moore had a great idea for ending the day…
Aside from being a great Talent Executive, Scott knew where they served the best ice cream in London – so, in the spirit of enjoying all aspects of London, we had a taste…he was right!
The “Original” Corrado!
While In London, we also met Corrado, a great guy who happened to have the same name as Torie’s husband – so we had to take a picture of this “original” Corrado for Torie to send him!
The London Grind!
And now the story of the “London Grind”…as I said earlier, my son Jeff was along to see the filming, and one night we all went out to a bar. My son, who is 6’4”, was standing inside a very loud dance club with the rest of us when, without warning, a businessman and two women surrounded him…
Once they surrounded him, they pressed themselves up to him like they were making a human sandwich…and for at full fifteen seconds, they proceeded to dance and grind up against him – like a human panini – while we all stood and watched in stunned silence. Jeff just gave them a quizzical look as they “ground” away, then they stopped as suddenly as they began, yelled “Cheers Mate!” with big smiles, and danced off…
We all just laughed and laughed…needless to say, it was a very memorable trip to London with a great team and a terrific Talent! I’ll leave you with a shot of my son Jeff hanging out at Picadilly Circus – nobody grinding on him here…more worldwide adventures with Alison to come!
Categories: Alison Haislip, Food, London, Travel, Travel Memoir, TV Show, Uncategorized
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