Team Cool Kids - pre-red carpet

While I’m in New York making a Team Cool Kids video (with my comedy partner in crime, Lindsay Harbert) for the Samsung “Four Seasons Of Hope” Charity Gala (expect the video online within the next 24 hours), E3 is happening back at home in Los Angeles.  Man, I’ve never wanted to be in two places at once more than this week.

I got to meet and see some famous celeb types tonight (Jennifer Lopez and Marc Antony, Matthew McConaughey, Boomer Esiason, Dan Marino, and BILL Frickin CLINTON!?!) and witness a truly amazing event that is doing amazing things for education and medical needs for children.  It was pretty remarkable what a group of stand-out individuals, a lot of hope, and some money can do to help our youth. Go charity, go!

Samsung Four Seasons Of Hope Gala - The Set-Up

As I’m editing our footage from the star-studded night and trying to catch-up with all the E3 news from my LA cohorts, I found this gem online and it made me miss my nerd friends back in LA who are walking the convention floor, playing games, and enjoying the sensationally over-the-top after parties.  Go have fun, you assholes.  I’m helping kids.

I haven’t seen much press on Portal 2 from E3 yet, which surprises me.  Portal is one of my favorite games and this sequel looks radgasmic.

So you’re given an opportunity to interview Eli Manning – the quarterback of the NY Giants; one of the biggest athletes in the National Football League and Superbowl MVP/winner.   What do you do with that time?  Make a comedy bit, of course!  Here is our video that we made with Eli, who was an awesome sport and was totally down for the bit.  He was extremely nice, personable and down-to-earth.  Thanks Eli!

Also, a BIG thanks to Samsung and the Four Seasons Of Hope organization for bringing Team Cool Kids out to NY for the event!  It was a BLAST!  Below is the video we made describing the event and what the organizations are doing for our education system.  Pretty cool stuff…

Samsung Mobile Explorers Victory!

Well, it’s been almost 3 weeks since I have returned from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the Samsung Mobile Explorers Competition.  I miss it.  I miss the people, the city of Vancouver, and the excitement of the competition.  The question I have been getting the most from friends and family is, “So, how was it?”.  My responses have varied between, “Awesome”, “Unbelievable”, “Exhausting” and “How was what?”.

There really is no way to describe the feeling of witnessing history.  I would say that I experienced two sides to the Olympic Games, both very different and memorable for different reasons.  First of all, being in the center of all the action was an intense experience – one that I will remember always.  Every night seemed to be a bigger and better party than the night previous.  Whether it was stumbling in line for the Zip Line across Robson St., devouring massive amounts of food and drink at Korean BBQ and The Kobe House, weaving in and out of the crazy crowds on Granville Street during the nightly street parties, or slipping through the VIP access to the Olympics LIVE venue to see Deadmau5 tear up the turntables.  Vancouver managed to exceed my expectations on all levels and left me dying to get back in the near future.

The other side of the Olympic Games was one that I didn’t anticipate experiencing.  The side of the city that bonded together not only as a community but as a country.  We talked to hundreds of native Canadian residents from around the nation on the street over the course of our stay and every single one of them was enjoying “the spirit” of the games.  I’ve heard talk of “the spirit” and even thought I had seen it on TV during Olympics past.  But nothing prepared me for getting caught up in “the spirit” of an Olympic Games during my stay.  I thought I would be an outsider, looking in on a big party I couldn’t join.  The reality was, I was embraced as an outsider and by the end of my trip felt as much a part of the Canadian pride as Canadians themselves.

Hosting the Olympic Games in Vancouver, winning their first gold medal during a games hosted on home-turf, and the elite honor of winning the most gold medals in any winter olympic games in history bonded Canadians together.  I was a part of history just by being there.  It was quite an experience.  I have been telling people it was like watching a country bond together in the same respects the US bonded together post 9-11.  Everyone wanted to show you how much pride they had in any way they could.  It was humbling.  So now when people ask me, “So, how was it?” I can confidently say “The most amazing experience I’ve been a part of in a very long time”.  And with that, I’m off to enjoy spending my $24,000.  See you at the 2012 games in London!

It has been a couple of days since my last update so I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch you all up to our happenings.  First of all, the video above is our Challenge #3 entry.  The video won the third challenge popular vote with an astounding 47%!  Unfortunately, the way Samsung has been judging has the public vote as a small percentage of the overall challenge vote.  Other judges from Samsung also weigh in and help choose a winner.  So for challenge #3, while the public thought our video was the best (and it clearly was), Samsung did not.  Team Cool Kids shall NEVER give up! It just means we’ll have to work that much harder next time!  However, the video that DID win was hilarious and well executed by Freddie & David (whom we love).

Samsung Mobile Explorers Challenge #3 Results

I’m currently working on the video entry for Challenge #4 and it is taking considerably longer than I anticipated due to unforseen computer crashes, software failures, and transcoding glitches.  These are all criteria that we just can’t take into consideration when we plan our videos out ahead of time and guage time allocation.  However, when all is said and done, this video should be damn good and feature far more production value than any of the other entries.  The challenge theme was “Freestyle” so we could do anything we wanted. And we did a lot. Just wait until tomorrow morning at 9am when the videos are posted and the voting begins.

If you haven’t seen it yet, Lindsay and myself have also been blogging and droppin photos over on our facebook (check it here) everyday.  There have been so many amazing moments while we’ve been here that it’s hard to remember them all.  In recent days, we experienced REAL korean BBQ with Samsung’s CMO/EVP David Steel; a field trip to the Salish Longhouse in Squamish; Hannah Teter’s silver medal finish in the Ladies Halfpipe finals up at Cypress; holding Hannah’s actual silver medal in my hands; the band “Stars” performance at the Orpheum; and pretty much walking every niche of this gorgeous city.  This trip has been amazing.

View of the sunset along the Sea to Sky highway

Yes, it has been stressful. Yes, I’m exhausted. Yes, I miss home.  But the overall experience and memories I know I’ll have for the rest of my life will be worth it.  Just walking through the streets of downtown Vancouver last night showed me just how much energy and pride Canadians have for their country and the 10s of thousands of visitors that are currently visiting.  It was by far the most people I’ve ever seen in one place at one time.  It was electric.

Ok, my renders are wrapping up so it’s back to the grind. I miss you all and will try to keep you posted on what else happens over the last stretch of this adventure.  Team Cool Kids is so close to taking this thing. None of us can give up now. We have to see this through so let’s just nut-up and win this frakkin’ competition together!  In the meantime, enjoy this secret video I made about our driver up here, Duffy. She’s a goddess.

Here is Challenge #2′s video.  The challenge, “Your Samsung Love Song” involved making a song that both captured the olympic energy and dealt with Samsung. We feel we were pretty much the only team to nail it (though David & Freddie KILL us with laughter everytime! They’re our besties).  We utilize the number one tool for communication, the mouth, to create every note in this video. PLEASE VOTE for Team Cool kids by heading on over to the Samsung USA facebook page, clicking the “Mobile Explorers” tab and entering the Samsung theater.  We need the votes for SURE on this one kids!