AUSTRALIAN JAZZ SINGER and radio show host, Paisley Beebe is the 'Cool Cat of Chat' in her new weekly television show "Tonight Live" which airs on the Second Life Cable Network (SLCN) each Sunday night at 6pm SLT.
Paisley interviews three interesting guests in her half hour show and always features an entertainer to raise the profile of singers and musicians in Second Life. She presents what she regards as a "very Parky meets Kerry Ann Kennerly" type show. (Parkinson of course is well-known, but Kerry Ann Kennerly less so as an iconic Australian tv show hostess, probably best known for getting the rather humourless Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello up and dancing the macarena).
Guests featured so far on "Tonight Live" have included Jeffronius Batra, an Amazon web services evangelist; "heavenly pianist" Heath Elvehjem who enthralled the audience with his piece "In The Spirit"; Natalia Basiat, award-winning fashion designer; Sandy Clymer from 'Pillow Talk' who is credited with having "the most beautiful" sim in SL; SL's first musician Astrin Few and Arkady and Bella Yost who married in SL and are now set to marry IRL despite living on opposite sides of the planet!
Last Sunday's programme was the official launch of the show and featured entrepeneur and event planner Jayed Jewell; 'The Funkalicious' Dexter Ihnen, credited with being "one of the best vocalist performers in SL"; and property developer Elliot Eldrich.
(Photo above - Paisley Beebe with her guests Elliot Eldrich, Dexter Ihnen and Jada Jewell on her lovely set).
"The show will be an extension of my current live music show," says Paisley, "with light, informative and fun people from all walks of life - builders, designers, celebrities, radio announcers, dancers, corporate CEO's - anyone who has a story to tell of interest to SL'frs."
So what prompted an already busy woman into doing television? "I have an extensive knowledge of the musicians here, so that helps," answered Paisley. "Marrying my radio host experience with performing and basically being a born show off!"
"I've been in the entertainment industry all my life. I started out as a bit part player in films and tv back in the early 1980's and was encouraged by Hayes Gordon (a well-known Australian actor) to become a singer."
"People think I'm completely mad, but then I've met plenty of mad people like me here, so I'm right at home!," she laughed.
Paisley came to SL in November 2006, built for awhile, settled in and then started singing live in world in February 2007. She met Noel Finney and Wiz Nordberg who are the owners of the Australian based Second Life Cable Network at this time also.
Not content with being an actress, jazz singer, radio and television presenter, Paisley also took a leading role in decorating the studios for SLCN, which were built by Wiz, the show's director. Personally, I think her set is THE BEST I've seen and that includes real life sets. "I wanted a lounge room look, hotel vogue," pointed out Paisley, "stylish, but cosy." The studio includes a green room for guests, individual dressing rooms, a studio of course and an entertainment area for after show parties.
(Photo above - studio audiences are welcome and are encouraged to get there early as the show is filmed live).
Studio audiences have been steadily increasing from around 25 at the first show, to 45 at the second and an almost packed studio for the opening celebration show in the third week.
"There is no one else doing a weekly televised show like this," stated Paisley. "There are some other interview shows around, but they are not live and done through chat. We will be doing all of this in real time, with a live audience, so there are no retakes. We go straight through!"
SLCN is a professional video network, designed to expand SL's in-world audience, as well as delivering virtual entertainment to the real world. The network was begun by Wiz Nordberg, and is quickly growing to become a virtual entertainment conduit. Its inaugural programme broadcast live coverage of six bands, with interviews and news to in-world and real life viewers.
"Tonight Live" is filmed in front of a live Second Life audience on Sunday nights at 6pm SLT and streamed within SL and on the SLCN.TV website into real life, then podcast for later viewing. It uses "Soundreach" technology pioneered by Cattlepuppy.com to stream live voices by teleconference.
Previous shows on the station have covered an interview with "Die Hard's" Bruce Willis and "Transformers".
Shows are available for viewing on www.slcn.tv/tonight-live-paisley-beebe and www.tonightlive.blogspot.com and also include "That's Life" - a five minute "What's On?" segment, with several more shows in development.
During the course of our conversation, Paisley had said she had a staff of six people - two assistants for her singing shows and four for the television show. There is a Public Relations person and a producer and two production assistants to keep it all going.
As we toured, Sandy Clymer, Rena Mayne (who also built some of the studio furniture) and Cadyn Slade finessed poses to ensure the audience members avatar looked realistic and did not block other people's view.
It's a lot of work to keep it going," said Paisley. "You have to find your guests, research them, rehearse, make sure they can all be here, check other schedules, advertise the show and then we have staff changes sometimes because of RL commitments etc. And then after every show we have a production meeting and try to tighten it up."
"The aim is to produce a show by SL'fers, not blow ins and also expand it to the web, with an aim for it to reach an out of world audience and offer viewers the opportunity to see the good things that SL can offer - not just porn and casinos and virtual sex."
"We will feature ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, who are using SL to do things they cannot do or achieve in RL and SL celebrities and RL companies who are using SL to great advantage."
Check out "Tonight Live" yourself by being part of the studio audience on Sunday night at 6pm SLT (obviously get there early to make sure you get a seat!)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Northpoint/207/139/32
(Photo above - And when the work was done, the partying started with Dexter providing the after-show entertainment).
