About a year ago, I was living in Chicago. It was a Friday afternoon and I was in the process of finishing off a 12-pack of Corona with some friends. Just as I finished my last sip, my friend Wanda called and described a predicament of which she had become the epicenter of.
Wanda worked as a fashion designer; at the time, she was working on the set of funk-god George Clinton’s latest video. The extras they had booked for that afternoon had not shown and she needed about 10 people as soon as possible. So, I called a few additional unemployed friends and we hustled our slightly buzzing asses down to the set.
By the time we arrived, they were just about to start shooting the video. Luckily for us, a stock of Heineken had been replenished just moments before our arrival. Tasty libations were distributed evenly amongst the members of my crew and video shooting was underway.
Being an extra was a unique experience. When you see a video on television it’s hard to imagine just how much work and time is spent developing an idea to the point of the tangible finished product.
At the video shoot, there were cameras everywhere and a lot of seemingly unorganized chaos.
You have make-up and fashion people yelling, lighting guys yelling, camera guys yelling, and above all, the director yelling.
Since the video was supposed to be set in a club environment, it was very fortunate that my friends and I were all sauced up. We all had years of partying experience, so we relied heavily on that resource when it was time to play the role.
Chicks and smoke where everywhere, plus we were all pretty inebriated by that point so it wasn’t difficult to “pretend” we were partying. We crowded around George onstage as he lip-synched the words to the song and the cameras rolled.
For those of you who are not familiar with George Clinton, put down your Magic: The Gathering playing cards just long enough to ingest two pieces of information.
George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic rocked the house mainly in the mid to late 1970’s. With grooves like “Flashlight,” “Can I get Some Fries With That Shake?” and the immortal “Atomic Dog”, Clinton solidified his place in music history.
Fortunately, my friends and I possess epic amounts of funk, so we fit right into the scene. I got to sit down and have a beer with George.
Upon consumption of his beverage, George looked at me and said, “You and your boys are some funky-ass white dudes. That’s rare. Funk for eternity, baby.”
At the end of the day, I reflected and saw how these events had aligned themselves to the supreme benefit of everyone involved. When I woke up that morning, the last thing on my mind was George Clinton, let alone appearing in his music video.
Make every action for supreme good, and only supreme good will be attracted to you.
