The culture shock hitting me like a ton of bricks as I awoke from sleeping off my jet lag. I had landed in New York the evening prior after enduring a 20 hour flight from India, and I was now sat facing a menu, wondering what on earth to order for breakfast. Though some food wasn't much different, there were still many more choices that I was unsure of. I decided to go with a vegetable omelette, as close as I possibly could get to my favourite breakfast meal back home, besan cheela. Although a little more bland, grated veggies seemed nutritious and appealing enough to sooth my current state of hunger.
After I had placed my order over the phone with room service, I looked down at my phone to do a last once over for my plans today. I had a meeting with the guys from a show that was becoming extremely popular over in India, to discuss them working with our company from the comfort of their own country.
Once the food had arrived and I had tucked in, I made arrangements for a cab to come and pick me up from my hotel. I had to leave within the next half hour so by the time I had finished my meal it would have to be a frantic race to get changed as swiftly as possible.
After finishing my omelette and placing the empty plate aside, I rushed to the bathroom where I had hung my jacket and pants neatly the night before. After all, who would want to take a business proposition from someone that didn't even know how too keep wrinkles out of their clothes?
Upon arriving to my location at the Tru TV headquarters, I was escorted to the right room and was greeted by the four faces that I had slight familiarity with had seeing them on TV a few times, amongst other people that worked for them.
"It's lovely to finally meet you all." I said, exchanging hand shakes and smiles with the group one by one, as they all introduced themselves. I was here to pitch them the companies ideas, hoping in return that they would agree to working with us, now that they were really becoming a great business venture to work with with their current popularity. "So my name is Ahira Prasad, and I'm here from Culture Machine Media, we're a company that bases ourselves on creating entertainment for the "internet generation", so to speak. Knowing of your success, here and in India, and your past of making online content, we came up with the idea of possibly combining the two of those, but including some of the popular comedians from our country."
"Ah, so like a combination of cultures?" Murr asked.
"Yes. Of course, however, there was a second option. Almost the same, but instead of working together, you would challenge your opponent from the other country."
"Challenge them in what way?" Sal asked, seeming to be intrigued by the suggestion.
"That would be up to you. Skits, improv, stand up, the idea would be to keep it in your range of what you do usually, not pushing the boat out to where you're not doing something that you as a comedy troupe didn't want to do. Keep it in your comfort zone, but try your best to out do your opponent through comedy."
"Ah, I see where this is going. So where would be doing this?" The guy who looked a little less than groomed, Brian I think his name was.
"Ideally we wouldn't want to fly you out for a pilot, especially with not knowing how the public would react to such a show, so our thoughts were to perhaps make this a channel on YouTube. That way it can be viewed by anyone in the world."
"I'm really digging this idea." Joe smiled towards me, that was until he noticed a slight look of confusion on my face. "Digging is a good thing, I assure you." He chucked lightly, clearly remembering there was a cultural difference.
"Oh right, great then" I laughed back.
"So when would you want to start?" Murr quizzed.
"Well, this was more of a plan B idea, so I'll have to check back in with the office and make arrangements, but it would definitely be some time this week if you're all available?"
The guys all nodded, smiled or agreed. I typed in some notes onto my laptop, before I looked back up at the guys.
"So how are you finding New York?" Murr asked once more, definitely seeming like the most approachable of the group.
"I've only seen my hotel room so far." I laughed lightly, before his eyes widened in response.
"How about you join us for dinner later?" Joe chimed in, face looking hopeful that I would say yes.
"Yes, sure, that sounds very good. Thank you" I smiled.
"I'll be sure to send you the details of where we're going, it'll be around 7?" Joe asked.
"7 is good." I smiled back. "Well thank you guys for your time today, I'll send some notes back to the office and then we'll go from there." I shut my laptop, before getting up and shaking the four men's hands once more.
"And we will see you later." Murr said, pulling me into a hug, as I made my way out of the door. Two of the group seeming much more open, whilst the other half seemed a lot more introvert. I was hoping a chance to meet them on a non business opportunity would give us the time to get to know each other a lot more.
Getting back to the hotel, I checked through my notes that I had written throughout the meeting. I had completely gone off the book. The idea that I had pitched, was not one of the ideas that they had sent me out here to pitch. However, on the plane over I had viewed some of their YouTube videos myself, and had noticed that their humor wasn't going to fit in with what I had been ordered to do. These guys were funny, and a lot of it included adult content. That wouldn't be a great mix for the show that the company wanted me to help create, and the guys would more than likely not be acting like themselves - the sole reason as to why they were so successful in the first place.
Creating an email, nervous at the response, I explained the predicament that I had found myself in and included my suggestion. The response was not a great one at all, something that I had expected, no matter how much I thought the idea was great.
-
Arriving at the restaurant, I was again greeted by the four men I had had the pleasure of working with earlier, yet this greeting seeming a lot more relaxed, most likely to do with the glasses of alcohol sitting on the table before them. I sat myself in the empty between Sal and Joe, before looking up, locking eyes with the deep brown eyes sat opposite me.
"So did you get to venture any more of New York?" Brian asked, taking a sip of his wine whilst enduring the same eye contact. The soft look in his eyes making him seem a lot more friendly than earlier.
"I did not, sadly business trips aren't all that fun with this company." I sighed, wanting to see New York more than anything, the stories that I had heard about this city sounding nothing less than incredible. "Which reminds me, we're going to have to arrange another meeting. My pitch did not go down well."
"That was your pitch?" Joe asked.
"Yeah, I came here to pitch a show, yet on the way I decided that you weren't going to fit the criteria, nor enjoy it. I want to keep the whole tenderloin troupe aspect, I definitely don't want to change that."
"Why would that pitch not go down well? I loved it." Sal piped up, seeming almost irked by the idea having been shut down before it had even started.
"Who's to say it has to?" Brian added.
"They're not going to accept it, they sternly let me know that it was a bad idea." I replied.
"It doesn't have to be under their name." Brian responded. "I think it could be a great opportunity. So why don't we just create it ourselves?"
