Saturday, January 23, 2010

Jan. 22: The Personality Factor

I arrived at our first Pop Icon workshop yesterday an hour and a half late. The moment I went inside the room, all eyes were on me. And just as soon as I entered Mr. Ron Jacobe, our workshop facilitator, asked me to introduce myself. I was caught off guard and was a bit confused so I didn’t do anything fancy. Little did I know that it was an exercise to see which one of us would catch the attention of the audience based on how we introduce ourselves. But somehow, I was able to because of my dramatic entrance LOL.

The first workshop was basically all about personality building. As Mr. Ron discussed, a Pop Icon not only means that one should necessarily have to have the best voice but one should also have a personality to boot. A certain character that would capture the hearts of the audience so the package should also contain confidence, charisma and the right attitude.

The workshop kicked off with Mr. Ron asking all of us this question:
"Which of all the contenders is most likely to be coined as the next Pop Icon?"
A guy raised his hand and chose me, then Mr. Ron asked the whole room, who else agree. I was surprised that more than half of the contenders raised their hands in agreement. Most of the comments were because I am pretty (ahem), I have the right style (I was wearing a cute trench coat, a hat, tights, grey blouse with scarf and boots) and the right aura. That’s when Mr. Ron said that if we wanted to become the next Pop Icon we should start dressing up and acting like one.

We then moved outside for our activities. We were asked to do ramp modeling in the middle with confidence. It was fun because that activity loosened us up a little bit. Of course we were all nervous at first, and then there were a few who seemed uncomfortable doing the activity, but we all had fun. I, on the other hand, having watched so many fashion shows and having tried ramp modeling once, was able to pull it off pretty well, with me smiling at each one I pass and then removing my coat and hanging it on my shoulder as an effect. That had them all cheering and laughing. :D

In the next activity we were asked to introduce ourselves pretending that we are in front of the TV saying “Watch out coz I’m your next Pop Icon” or “I will be your next Pop Icon”. We had to do the activity twice because the first time most of us were mumbling, or stuttering as we if we were unsure of ourselves. For the first try I said:
 “Good evening y’all, I am Reia Ayunan. Are you scared? Well, I’m not... 'Coz I’m gonna be your next Pop Icon!”
During the second try I said:
“Good evening! I am Reia Ayunan. Remember this face… because this is gonna be your next Pop Icon!”
And that statement had them cheering.

Anyway, in the next activity we were asked to pretend that we are encouraging our TV audience to vote for us. This time all of us were becoming more creative and everybody seemed less nervous. For my take I said:
“Hello Saudi Arabia… Hello World! (trying to imitate Toni Gonzaga) You better start texting now and vote for me! Reia Ayunan!”

For our last activity, we were asked to pretend that we are having a concert in Araneta stadium. So the very famous “Good evening Araneta… I love you all!” line needs to be inserted. It was so funny because everybody had their own gimmicks, which is a good indication that all of us are becoming more confident. What I did was, I ran up to the front from where I was with my hands raised up shouting, pretending I am a popular artist getting the crowd excited for my concert, when I got in front I still had my arms raised up waving to the crowd screaming
“Good evening Araneta!!! Reia Ayunan in the house! You better vote for me R-E-I-A!!! I love you all!!! Woooooh”
It was pretty funny I think, because everybody cheered with me and laughed at what I did.

Apart from all of us having a great time, I think that the first workshop was a great success because towards the end of the session we were all beaming with confidence. :)

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