You and I spent hours working together on our Jack-Man superhero video series (23 webisodes) on YouTube.
Additionally, I spent even more time on my children’s program Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest (27 webisodes). Those were shows I created that I truly cared about.
But over Labor Day Weekend, I decided, on a whim, to make a fake WWE audition tape… just for fun, while our family was at Nonna and Papa’s house. I therefore invented and became the wrestling character, Naughty Nick.
After I made that first video with my phone on selfie mode, I decided to make 4 more webisodes. Papa helped out with the 4th and 5th, serving as the villain.
I suppose my motivation in making this series is ultimately to add to my Rolodex of sketch series on my YouTube channel. I believe it’s important to showcase my abilities as an actor, director, and writer.
The Naughty Nick series is admittedly a farce of the media’s perception of masculinity, with a throwback to 1980’s professional wrestling.
Naughty Nick presents his own fictional YouTube audience with his fantasy version of reality; though to him it’s actually real. In his world, no one can ever be more masculine or American than he is; nor can anyone ever defeat him. These are things of value in the character’s life.
With nearly 700 videos uploaded on my YouTube Channel and 540 subscribers, I am building The Nick Shell Network. I want serious stuff and I want silly stuff. I want something for everyone.
My hope is that one day, I can catch the right person’s attention with my amateur, yet ideally popular, videos.
Now that you’ve seen the first 5 Naughty Nick videos, you now want to be a part of the series. So I suppose we’ll make that happen in the near future; like maybe this weekend!
Last Thursday on the radio I heard that Kelly Ripa is currently holding a contest in which the winner will get to co-host “LIVE with Kelly” for a day. So I didn’t delay in applying.
Over the weekend, I shot my “60 seconds or less” audition video and submitted it to the website, along with my “100 words or less” bio:
“I am Nick Shell, a 35 year-old seasoned daddy blogger (FamilyFriendlyDaddyBlog.com) and vlogger (YouTube Channel: Nick Shell) from Nashville, Tennessee. It has been my dream for a decade now to be a TV host. After you see my video submission, I believe you will feel my energy and passion for communicating and interacting with people. My background is in theater and teaching Elementary school students. On my YouTube channel, my Kindergartner son and I do a superhero series, Jack-Man, where he is the hero and I play the villain. I also do a children’s program called Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest.”
The surely thousands of submissions will be narrowed down to the top 40, and eventually down to the sole winner.
This is my motivation in applying: It has been my dream to be up in front of an audience, for a living.
Granted, I feel that until about a year ago, I wasn’t ready.
It took until about age 34 for me to become emotionally intelligent enough and to have the life experience to be relevant to a universal audience, and therefore to gain the confidence in my abilities, to consider myself qualified for something like this.
But even if I don’t make it to the top 40 for this contest, I will at least know that I did everything in my power to be seriously considered. It’s good practice, if nothing else.
Last night my wife and I were watching one of my favorite documentaries, The Comedians of Comedy, on Netflix. Towards the end, Patton Oswald talks about how every performer has their “obsession years,” in which they just immerse themselves into their craft, as they figure out what works and what doesn’t.
When it comes to being in front of a camera, especially as a YouTuber, I feel that I am definitely in my obsession years.
Let it be known to the free world, I fully intend to grow beyond my YouTube audience. I believe I was made for the stage.
Last Friday I took off of work since your daycare was closed. While most of my day was spent changing your diapers, feeding you, and playing with you, we did get out of the house when we not only dropped off your brother Jack at school, but later went back to eat lunch with him there at the school cafeteria.
You had a wet diaper as we arrived at his school about 15 minutes early. I didn’t care enough to find the proper place to change you, as I didn’t want to tote your car seat and my book bag (with your diapers) with me, so I just changed you right there on the bench I was sitting on; which was sort of hidden by the staircase above me.
Afterwards, I stood you up in my lap to face the oncoming students, teachers, and room moms. Of course they all made a point to smile back at you and tell me how beautiful you are.
A few minutes later, we saw your brother Jack leading the line. While carrying you, the car seat, and the book bag, I attempted to follow him in to help him get his lunch.
Mommy usually makes his lunch, but on Fridays, he buys the school lunch, because he can get vegetarian pizza that day. Unfortunately, they had just ran out of pizza and gave him a pork sandwich instead by the time I caught up to him.
Miraculously, his class’s room mom appeared and helped us negotiate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead; even though you had already paid for the pork sandwich.
We ended up sitting with the room mom and her daughter. She commented that she had seen me sort of struggling there with you as I had to find a place to change your diaper.
As we left after lunch, other moms and teachers bragged on me for simply showing up; even if my attempt was a bit awkward and unskilled.
That’s when I began to process to convenient double standard of the good dad:
I simply get praise and credit for just doing my job. Whereas for moms, they are simply expected to do those things.
Granted, the trade-off is that dads and husbands have been historically portrayed as idiots on commercials and sitcoms.
Maybe the ultimately irony is that less is expected of us dads because of the way we’ve been negatively portrayed in media, so that when we are caught “being a good dad”, it makes it seem that much more special, which it totally isn’t.
The marketing team behind the upcoming movie Pup Star reached out to us, inviting you and me to see the movie this past Saturday morning, before its official release tomorrow on August 30th.
As much as you and I go to see movies together, we obviously jumped at the chance to drive to Opry Mills to see Pup Star during its limited theatrical release.
We had such a great time seeing the movie together! Pup Star is a family friendly road movie which features the adventures of a talking Yorkie who must reunite with her human family while also making it to the finals of a TV competition; like American Idol or The Voice, for dogs.
Your favorite character was Dog Marley. At church yesterday, you and your classmates were instructed to make something out of clay that you had never made before. What did you make?
Dog Marley.
This movie is part of the “Air Bud Universe”, which you are quite familiar with; having seen movie of these movies on Netflix before, like Air Bud: Spikes Back, Spooky Buddies, and Russell Madness.
Pup Star takes place in Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, Newark, and…
Nashville!
It was so cool seeing our city featured in the movie; having just passed the “Batman building” 30 minutes prior on the drive to the theatre.
After the movie ended, we were given some Pup Star-related souvenirs including a bag of doggie treats- the kind featured in the movie.
That evening, while Mommy was working on dinner, you and I took your baby sister Holly on a walk around our neighborhood, offering the doggie treats to neighbors walking their dogs.
I have a feeling we’ll be watching Pup Star again at some point. Hopefully, we’ll be invited back to see more Air Bud Entertainment movies as well.
I am testing out a theory on emotional intelligence; and thanks to a video I just released on my YouTube channel this week, I have now made it possible for the free world to attempt to insult me, offend me, hurt my feelings, or negatively affect my emotions by being rude to me; via comments on the YouTube video.
My theory is that it’s officially impossible for the simple reason that I do not allow anyone to hurt my feelings. I do not give anyone permission or power over my emotions, since I am aware that it’s my decision to make, not theirs.
I quickly agree that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is not true for everyone. After all, we live in an “outrage culture” in which people so easily get publicly offended; with a little help from social media.
However, I believe that I am on the complete opposite of the “easily offended” spectrum. Over the past 5 years of my life especially, I have taught myself the important life lesson that formally, I was allowing myself to be a victim, instead of proactively choosing to be a victor.
It’s not that I think I’m perfect. The complete opposite is true: I couldn’t be any more aware of my own shortcomings and faults. In fact, I daily invite the free world to give me constructive criticism so I can make my list of imperfections even longer; whether it’s in the virtual world or the real world.
If I can learn a way to be a better human being, I want to know. I love constructive criticism! I thrive on it.
The only way I can prove that it is impossible to insult me, offend me, hurt my feelings, or negatively affect my emotions by being “rude” to me is to make myself a human social experiment, in real time.
If I am insulted, I will admit that my theory was bogus and end the challenge.
However, I will be quite surprised anyone is able to insult me and it actually hurt my feelings. For anyone who does take me up on my offer, chances are, they will mainly be people online who I don’t even know. Just faceless, nameless Internet trolls and hecklers. As a blogger of eleven years, I’m used to that.
I think their “insults” would ultimately come across as obligatory, juvenile, and unoriginal; and that even if they did a good job, they would simply incriminate themselves as people who are insecure about themselves.
Granted, a person who would consider threatening me would not be participating in the challenge I am presenting. If it takes a threat to insult me, then my theory is proven true; as this is about me being immune to emotional attacks, not physical ones.
It’s fundamentally important to me in my everyday life that I do not allow myself to become easily provoked or quick to anger; from another driver pulling out in front of me only to drive under the speed limit, to a coworker who appears to deliberately try to embarrass me in front of others on a daily basis.
So I hereby invite the world to imply I am not good enough, not smart enough, not right enough, not funny enough, not interesting enough, not thin enough, not heavy enough, not strong enough, not intelligent enough, not good-looking enough, not well-balanced enough, or not normal enough.
I invite the universe to judge me and find me unworthy of their own standard. I predict I won’t be offended. I am fundamentally opposed to allowing other people to offend me. I am not a victim. I am a victor.
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