Dream job offered at MTV

BY VICKI ANDERSON

Just in case you were wondering, MTV presenter Jay Reeve isn't leaving his job, the Pick Me MTV campaign to find a new VJ is his way of getting an assistant, of sorts.

"It's an idea we've been thinking about for some time. The idea was to get myself a little bitch, so to speak," Reeve laughs.

"They are going to be carried around on the pig's back. The salary they'll be getting and the role that they have has a lot of room for scope and their first gig is hopping onto a plane and testing their liver with sangrias in Spain."

Wannabe presenters should upload a clip to pickmetv.co.nz that shows why you should be selected as the next MTV presenter. Entries should be no longer than two minutes and can be recorded on a phone or camera.

The site opened last week and a quick glance at the would-be contenders reveals a myriad of toothpaste smiles and look-at-how-quirky-I-am attempts via Twitter with many posting such things as "my front door was removed today" to what they had for breakfast and their favourite clothing choices.

So far, so underwhelmed. MTV aren't looking for someone who wants to be a star.

"A lot of people go 'I'm a star, I'm a star'. You're not the talent, you're just the vehicle for the actual talent to be portrayed upon," Reeve explains.

"I struggle with the fact that New Zealand has celebrities anyway. If you've done a couple of cameos on Shortland Street you're on the A list and then it dribbles down from there.

"With this job there are no boundaries or age restrictions. It helps if you're 18, New Zealand and MTV are founded on a binge-drinking culture. We are a social company and a social team, you will be socialising five or six nights a week."

Do MTV want, shall we say, someone photogenic?

"Look at me, I'm your typical steak eating, beer drinking, rugby-watching farmer's son. We don't want a cookie cutter, we don't want a blank canvas.

"We don't want someone who's a size zero or a guy that goes to the gym for three hours and lives on protein shakes. We want a real person."

It is billed as the dream job and the perks appear to be numerous. The winner will travel on assignment to Madrid, Spain, to cover the MTV European Music Awards alongside Reeve, who will be showing him or her the ropes.

It's all about mixing and mingling with the stars and attending the hottest parties.

Reeve struggles to find any negatives.

"If I had to pinpoint anything about this job I'd say that sometimes you miss out on doing really cool shit because you're doing other cool shit."

The day-to-day role would be encapsulated, he says, by saying "they would be living the dream".

"I've managed to glean my OE off the back of MTV's credit card. New York, LA, Los Vegas for a weekend I can't remember, Germany.

"I've driven a BMW down the autobahn after we told BMW that we were the All Blacks and there to shoot a promo video. Austria, London, we go to Australia quite a lot and all over New Zealand.

"The MTV brand is an access-all-areas card. Wherever you are in the world it will get you into places that money and love can't get you into. Wherever MTV goes, cool stuff will generally follow, alongside trouble and some form of illegal activity, which is to be encouraged."

MTV as an organisation received a lifetime ban from the Sydney Hilton after the Australian Video Music Awards last year.

"The brilliant thing about that was it was led from the top of MTV. Bill Roedy [chairman and chief executive of MTV Networks International] was standing in the bar going toe to toe with Wyclef Jean all night and well into the next afternoon.

"We had two full floors booked out and every room had at least $2500 on the mini bar bill, not including damages. We were trying to throw beds out of the windows, the works."

Candidates will be put to a public vote via pickmemtv.co.nz with MTV New Zealand fans helping to determine the Top50 candidates. Through a series of challenges, MTV will whittle it down to the Top5. From these final five candidates, a winner will be chosen.

"Be yourself and have a go. We don't want someone with a communications degree or 10 years in the media. Congratulations if you have those things but we don't really care.

"If you are what we are looking for then you will be the right person for this job. We're looking for someone passionate, who can work as part of the team, someone who knows their role in the greater scheme of things.

That would be as Reeve's bitch, right?

"They could be a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker. We don't want someone who wants to be a star."

Go to pickmemtv.co.nz. Voting starts Monday, September 13. Top 50 chosen and voting closes on Friday, October 1. The winner is announced on Thursday, November 4. Pick Me MTV screens on Thursday, October 7, on Sky Channel 014.

- © Fairfax NZ News