The Buzz - BuzzWorthy Radio

JUSTIN SHENKAROW!

After shooting more than fifty commercials, Justin started doing guest ?appearances
on television shows such as “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, “Who’s the Boss”, “Home
Improvement” and many others. ??He then landed the role of Simon on NBC’s
critically-acclaimed “Eerie Indiana”, where he shot twenty two episodes. ?Next,
Justin transformed into Matthew Brock on the Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning
show “Picket Fences”, working and learning from such gifted actors as Tom Skerritt,
Kathy Baker and Don Cheadle and exceptional producers including David E. Kelly,
Jonathan Pontell, Bob Breech and Alice West.

After garnering top awards for “Picket Fences”, Justin was admitted into Stanford
University, earning his BA in American Studies and studying Art History in Paris his
junior year.??Justin was the voice of Charlie Brown in the GetMet commercials, as
well as Little Sprout in the famous Green Giant commercials and Harold in the
breakout Nickelodeon hit, “Hey Arnold.” His voiceover portfolio also includes ABC’s
“Recess,” “Lloyd in Space,” FOX’s “Life with Louie” and “Where in the World is
Carmen Sandiego..”??Now, Justin's production company, “Shake That Fro Productions”
is directing and producing original films including “The Best Christmas Ever” which
won top prize at the New Orleans International Film Festival in December. ??Justin’s
most recent projects include the pilot “Aliens in America” for the CW Network and
the film “Tears” in which he co-stars.

Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 12 Jan 2010
Audio Format:: other

Lock told the radio. Come get you live. It is Buzzworthy radio. But you can get the latest buzz. I'm all your favorite children's buzz. Buzzworthy. Buzz. Now. I'm Allison Greet from NBC's community and AMC's madness. And you're listening to Buzzworthy radio. Welcome to our first show of 2010, everybody. This is Nivelle Jane Lee, your host of Buzzworthy Radio. It's not ballsworthy radio like Allison Breek Hall with it. I'm just telling you that up front. That is something that she thought it was called. She decided to use that in a promo for our show. I figured, why the heck not? Why not use it for our first show in 2010, huh? How about that? You know? Why not? Let's just go ahead. Thanks for everybody. I hope everybody had a great holiday on their Christmas and their New Year's was great. You know, I really, really hope you guys have a lot of fun doing that and I can't believe we're now back in reality. But we are actually joined right now by Mr. Justin. Second row. Did I say that right? Holy crap. How do I say it? Let's do it again. It's Justin Shankaro. Shankaro. That's it. Okay. There it is. You know, I was, I seriously was practicing this and I was like, okay, maybe I got this and I'm like, I, and here I am on the air now going like, I didn't get this. It's just like Cruz or Pitt. It's pretty easy. Yeah. Well, all I can say is like, well, then there's my first name that nobody can pronounce. It's like I get every other pronunciation in the book. I get nevel. I get navel. I get novel. It's, it's just so, it's so, so believe me. Well, I thought about it. I said, you know I understand. Right. Totally, man. I'm here. So how are you? Welcome. Welcome to the show, man. I'm fantastic. Thank you. Happy New Year. Happy 2010 to you too, sir. Yeah. Wow. I got to tell you, it's going by too quickly right now. It is. It is. It is. I was going to say we're getting older by the minute. We are. We are. But you know, I keep thinking like back when I was a kid and I saw back to the future too and I kept thinking that that was the future and now we're sort of in the future and I'm wondering where my hovercraft car is and my hovercraft skateboard. You know, why am I still driving on a street? I should be flying on my car. Yeah. I'm expecting to have it be like that of the Jetsons. Absolutely. Me too. I'm waiting. Where is it? And you don't have it. We're still like, we're still stuck in the suburbs kind of thing. Exactly. Well, bear to dream. Let's put it there to dream. Bear to dream. So you're out there in New York, right? I'm in my hometown of Jersey right now. You're in Jersey. Fantastic. I love my mom's from New Jersey. She grew up in Penn Socken. Get out of here. You know, that's only like 45 minutes away from where I live. Really? There it is. I'm dead serious. Yeah. Very cool. I love it out there. And she now lives in Manhattan. So I go out to New York quite often. I love the city. Yeah. Can I have like the weather though of California or the West Coast? I'd love to have it. Are you kidding me? Yeah. We're lucky. I was out in New York for the holidays and it was freezing. And I just got back here a few days ago. And I mean, it's been 74 every day. I was in shorts and a t-shirt today outside. It's gorgeous. Oh, man. I hate you. What a way to start off the show, man. This is like insult my guess, man. That's totally how it rolls here. Yeah. It's way of the land, man. I'll tell you what. I like it. I like it. I like it. That's right. I'm highly jealous, man. So let's talk about this thing that you're doing on Bravo now. This show that you're doing on here. It's in the second season. Yeah. Millionaire matchmaker. It's my episode airs January 26th at 10 p.m. It's going to be a lot of fun. It was a blast to shoot. Oh, yeah. Character. Oh, yeah. Are you able to tell us exactly what you did? I don't think I can go into full details. I mean, for that, you might have to watch the show. But, you know, I can give you a little taste. How's that? Give us a little taste. Give us a little taste. Well, so I meet Patty. She comes over to my house and she wants to find out what kind of woman I'm interested in. And, you know, I sort of give her the specs. And then she tells me she's going to introduce me to a bunch of women. So she takes me to this really hot, swanky bar in Hollywood. And introduces me to about 30 women. And I had to mingle with them. Now, let me tell you, that wasn't so bad. I mean, you know, usually you go to a bar in Hollywood. And, you know, you're lucky to be able to talk to one girl. Here, I was walking around and they were talking to me. And I was so overwhelmed. It was just, you know, it was fantastic. I wish every day was like that. So you're pretty much living the dream of a huge nerd. Like, a nerd would pretty much love exactly what you just described to us right now. I mean, that's my life. So it was very fun and entertaining for myself as well. It was overwhelming. So then I got to choose of the 30. I chose two of them to go like on a little mini-date with to decide which one I wanted to, you know, take on a real date. And then I chose one of those girls and then we went on this pretty fantastic date. It was a lot of fun. Oh, man, maybe I need to rethink my priorities and actually pack up my suitcase and move out there to the West Coast, man. I'm telling you, man. You got to come out here and do your radio. Come on, I'm in. Come on, man. You know, and, you know, we'll get you a millionaire matchmaker. You'll be the next millionaire on the show. Millions. We're highly reaching, aren't we? Yeah, why not? Why not? But it was, I had a lot of fun doing the show and, you know, I've been an actor for since I was a kid. I've grown up acting. And it was my first entree into the reality world, which is definitely very different than, you know, working on obviously a scripted television show or a film. But it was a fun experience. I was definitely, I was excited that I did it. And now I've sort of got a couple development ideas for reality shows, which I'm out pitching right now. Oh, yeah? Like what, for instance? Well, I got an interesting idea for a show called Becoming a Millionaire, which is sort of a little bit of a, you know, it's like a little offset of the show. I mean, it's just somewhere from the show, but it's got a similar title. And, you know, the American dream is for everyone to become a millionaire, right? I mean, that's what everyone brings about when they're kids. You work hard, and one day you'll make millions of dollars. But there's no, and there's a lot of reality shows that tackle issues of millionaire kind of facade, millionaire, matchmaker, you know, can I marry a millionaire, all these things. But what about a show that actually took contestants from all around the country, you know, from different backgrounds? Like one was real estate, one's an actor, one's a musician, one's a banker, and train these people on how to become a millionaire by giving them a mentor in their field. And every week they'd have like this competition where they would have to accomplish some kind of task in their field, and, you know, their mentor would help them. And he would get all these train techniques, sort of, because right now I'm getting my MBA at night, I'm getting a master's in business. And so you teach these people about strategy and business development, marketing and promotion, and, you know, the audience would call in or vote in every week to decide who they wanted to keep on. Great, wow. This is so perfect. I want to be a millionaire. Maybe I should do this. But then you realize you're going to make a public spectacle of yourself on television, and then you realize, and then you go, yeah, do I want to be embarrassed and have millions of people watch me. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, man, I'm feeling it already just by, because they're showing me preview for my episode of Millionaire Matchmaker all the time on Bravo, and also they've got it online on their website. And I guess I'm the only millionaire that they chose to speak, like in the trailer. I say, you know, she, Patty, opens it up, like, meet our millionaires. And then I say, ready to fall in love, and everyone else, there's just like a quick flash on who they are. So I've been getting text messages and emails and phone calls from people, like, out of the woodwork. People haven't talked to in years, and they're like, are you doing this episode of Millionaire Matchmaker? Or my cousin, you know, the best thing was, he sends me a text, and he's like, you're not doing a show called Millionaire Matchmaker, are you? I mean, your cousin Lindsay just called me. She said she thinks she saw you on it. You wouldn't do something ridiculous like that, would you? And I was like, yep, that's me. (laughter) Take pride in it. Don't shy away from it, man. That's right. That's right. I mean, you're okay to do it. You better own it. So it was fun. I'm glad I did it. Go big or go home. That's right. That's right. I mean, you know, we only live once. You just got to do it. Now you did. You did actually one of the shows I watched when I was a young kid. You're probably not that much older than me. Yeah. Picket fences. Yes. Picket fences. I love working on picket fences. That was a good show, man. It was. It was a great show. We were, you know, it was David Kelly's first show that he wrote by himself. He was the creator of the show, and he was just brilliant. And, you know, he went on to write Alan McPheele and Chicago Hope and The Practice and Boston Legal and he has a new show coming on the air. And it was just great. I mean, I just worked on a show before that called Erie, Indiana, which I did on TV. I do not believe how many people have told me that they remember that show. I was like, really? Yeah. It's a trip. It's a trip. We only did it for a year, but it was a really brilliant show as well, and it had a great core audience. And people just loved that show, and I love working on it. It was a blast. And so David Kelly saw me on that show, and so he brought me in to read for him for picket fences. And then, you know, I was fortunate enough to get cast to play Tom Skarritt's song, and it was just awesome. You know, I mean, I was working with Tom Skarritt, Kathy Baker, Don Cheadle, Lauren Holly. I mean, all these just brilliant, fantastic actors and great writing. It was just a dream. It was so much fun. What have you learned from doing Erie, Indiana and picket fences? Because you've done some guest spots and other shows before, like who's the boss, Russ Prince and Lily Eyre. What have you taken from those shows that you've done into what you're doing now? What did I take from being a series regular and sort of working as a young actor to working currently as an actor? Yes. Is that the question? Well, I mean, a lot. I think, you know, I definitely learned a lot of training. First of all, just working as an actor, I think is the best training you can have, because it's just, you know, no matter what kind of acting classes you're in, which I think are awesome, you know, there's nothing like being on the set and having the crew there watching you and interacting with the other actors, so being able to just interact with the actors and listen to them and respond to them, I think has made me really sort of help train me into the actor that I am today. And then, you know, as well, like, just the great relationships that I was able to build with some of the producers on the set and some of the directors and writers and other actors, I've been able to sustain those relationships now and it's great. I mean, when you're working on a show every day for four years, it becomes like a family. You know, the whole crew and the whole cast, it's like a big family, so it's a lot of fun to build that relationship. And I was young, you know, I was like 11 or 12 to 16 years old, so it's a big part of growing up. And so I learned a lot about myself and a lot of how to work with other actors and other crew. And, I mean, in fact, in a couple weeks, I'm having dinner with Kathy Baker, you know, who played my mom on the show and is a great actor, so it's a lot of movies. And, you know, we're catching up and getting grabbed in her, so it's really nice to be able to do that. Cool, that's very cool. You keep in touch with anybody else from any other shows that you've done or? Yeah, I mean, from picket nights that I keep in touch with Adam Wiley, who played my brother on the show, he works a lot, great guy. And Kathy Baker and Holly Marie Combs, every once in a while, she did charm for a bunch of years. And Lauren Holly, excuse me, I've run into Cox, this man of lore who played the Cox every now and then. So, yeah, you know, I mean, it's a good crew. And, in fact, it's funny, Adam and I, we did a show for years on Nickelodeon together called "Hey Arnold." Where I played the bully on the show, Harold. So, that was sort of how you did together. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Today's when Nickelodeon was good, actually. Exactly. Tell me, bring those shows back. I'm telling you, man. Yeah. Oh, man. I agree with you. See, now we're talking about recapturing our youth, man, and this, that depresses me. [laughter] Doesn't it? Yeah. I'm telling you, I mean, like, I just, I remember growing up with, like, Alvin and Chipmunks in the Flintstones. I mean, I friggin' loved those kids. Flintstones. The Jetsons, man. Jetsons, He-Man. I mean, those were the cartoons when I was growing up, and I think they'd blow them out of the water compared to what's on now. But, you know, what do I know? Yeah. Um, basically the same amount of stuff that I know, and that's pretty much nothing. [laughter] Throw that roll. Exactly. Yeah. That is where that rolls. Now, I actually saw this little bit of a video kind of trailer thing on Mindspace, actually, for the film called Tears. You could've learned that. Yeah. I was a little about that. That was a really, um, that was a great film that I shot a little while ago, and it's an interesting film. I actually play a dead guy who comes back to life in this guy's imagination. The main lead is a serial killer, and I'm sort of his conscience, but his bad conscience, I guess you would call it. Because I'm sort of instigating him to go on the killing spree. So, I mean, even though I'm the bad conscience, I'm sort of the comic relief because I say things that are just off the wall and, you know, throw them into bad situations where you shouldn't be involved in, but I like it because, you know, I'm the nemesis. So, that was a lot of fun to shoot. Wow. And I did an independent film recently called Fuel, which is out on the festivals, and that was another sort of naughty character. I was a guy that was trying to, I mean, I would like to say that I was trying to seduce the female lead, but she might say that I was trying to attack her. It's just a matter of a point of view. So, that was a fun character to play. And when can we expect to see this movie, tears, actually? Tears, I think it's supposed to be coming out in March. In March. Probably like it's at the sort of the independent, on the independent film theaters, like in Los Angeles, we've got the Lemley theaters. They should have more of the art films. I don't know. You guys probably, I'm sure, have something in Jersey, which is a similar kind of venue. I mean, it's not going to be at the big theaters. It's going to be at more of the art house kind of theaters. Okay. And, but it was a fun project. So, if you get a chance, go check it out. Absolutely. I'm trying to do some. So, yeah, I'll definitely check that out. Thank you. And you just did another project recently called Aliens in America. Yes, Aliens in America, which was an awesome show on the CW Network. I did the pilot episode. I played a bully. What's up with me always getting out of the bully? Why are you playing bullies? You're playing bullies. And you don't even look like a bully. You don't look like a bully. I don't act like a bully. In fact, you know, I was the kid that bullies were trying to beat up when I was a kid, you know? Yeah. I wasn't supposed to agree with that, was I? No, you definitely were not. No, I was not, but I did. You're pretty much not going to come on the show again, are you? No. Never again, for sure. This is it. You better get all you can. No, it was great. I mean, it was a fun, fun character. Actually, I played high school, which is fun. You know, they dyed my hair blonde and I was playing like 16 years old on the show, which is, I'm just happy that I can still play that. And, you know, I beat up Dan Berg, who is the lead character in the show, who is a really funny, great guy as well. And I was just, I was a twin with my other brother except we looked nothing alike. He was like this big hulking kind of guy and I was sort of this wiry, mean guy. And it's a really fun comedy and I was really stoked to be a part of the show. Hmm. Interesting. In fact, it's funny because one of the scenes that we shot, because, you know, it was just a half hour comedy, one of the scenes that we shot, we took the, when we were beating up the kid, we found him in the locker room and we took like a water gun and put it in his mouth, like, we're going to kill you, we're going to kill you. And it was all this crap, obviously, going on in the world. And CW told the producers, you are absolutely not putting that on the air, so they cut that little scene. They cut that out. Yeah. Yeah. For obvious reasons, but it was fun. Wow. It was a great show. Yeah. Exactly. Wow. See, it's definitely pushed the envelope. I mean, it's a funny concept of having a Muslim kid move into a small town and, you know, in the suburbs of America and living with this, you know, this white kind of family that has no idea about Muslims and then the Muslim kid goes to school. It was just funny. It was really well written. Oh, man. Yeah. This is a show I've never even heard of, and I claim to be a TV aficionado and I've never even heard of it, so it was, like, interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it got a season on CW. It was on for a year and, you know, it just, unfortunately, informed the ratings that I guess they wanted to be candid, but it was a great show, really well written, very funny, and happy to be a part of it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. You, let's take a look here. And congratulations on order, by the way. You have a production company called Shake that Fro-- Shake that Fro production. Yeah. Shake that. First of all, how did you come up with that name, first of all? I'll tell you. I'll tell you. I'll tell you. There is, you know, that's not a normal name. Let me tell you. But, when I was a kid and I was working on big offenses, I was also going to regular schools. So, the days I wasn't on set, I was just going to regular school, and I had this, like, be, you know, sort of, Jew Fro, and the kids at school. You had to throw? Yeah. I had a fro. Like a Danny Masterson kind of fro-er. Totally. In fact, it's funny. I was up for that '70s show, but that punk got it away from me. I'll never, I'll never live that down. Are you kidding? Really? Yeah. You were up for Danny's part, or were you up for something? Yeah. No, I was up for Danny's part. Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, he's a great guy. Really funny. But, you know, I'd probably be living in some freaking mansion in France if I had done that show. But regardless, regardless, when I was at school, I had this big fro. So, kids at school, because I have, you know, this funny last name, Shankaro, they would, call me, Shankaro shaped that fro. So, and I see it. You know, when you're like 14, 15 years old, the last, all you want to do is fit in. You don't want to be some outsider. And, you know, especially you don't want to be, you know, some weird kid with some fro. So, I just couldn't stand it. They, of course, the more someone doesn't like something, the more people are going to call you it, right? Because they just love Danny. Exactly. Right? The kids are. They're the worst. So, anyway, so, you know, I lived that down finally when I went to college. And I was thinking a couple years ago, and I was formulaing my production company. I was trying to come up with names here and there forever. And then, you know, I just thought it was so funny, the name, at retrospect, like in my 20s now, I just think it was a hilarious name. So, I was like, no one's going to have a name, shake that fro production. So, that's what I called it. There you go. And pretty much it stokes. It stokes me, man. Exactly. Yeah. See, now you owe a lot of gratitude that all of those that calls you, um, shake a rose, shake that fro. You're right. You owe that all to them. You're right. And when I start producing movies and TV shows that start making a lot of money, they're going to be calling me and asking for royalties. And you don't know anything? Oh, yeah. No. No. So, Danny, if you're listening to this right now, you pretty much got your answer. Don't ask them for any royalties because you're pretty much going to get an N-O answer right there, baby. Right. It ain't happening. It ain't happening. Yeah. The best Christmas ever, best Christmas ever, you did that, which was I was going to segue into. The best Christmas ever, wasn't really the best Christmas ever when you did this production. Oh, God. Did you see it? Did you notice it? No, I didn't see it. Yeah, at some point you got to check it out. It's a short film that I wrote and directed and started. And it's really funny. Of course, I'm a little biased. But it's really funny because, yes, I'm allowed. I wrote it with another buddy in line. And we both had these crazy stories when we first sort of were getting it on with girls. I won't go into further detail because I know this is a G-rated show. We combined our two experiences and made it into this short film. And it's just really funny. It's like a five, six minute little short film. And it was a lot of fun. And we won a couple festivals, which was great. We won the New Orleans International Film Festival, which was fun. And we did quite well with the short. It was a blast to shoot. Really fun. Nice. Nice, man. In fact, it was interesting. I was like the first thing that Terrence Southern had done. I saw her and I really liked her. So I cast her in it. And now she's working all the time. She's like a pretty big. I mean, it's not a big star, but she's definitely on our way. So let's see. She's on our way. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool, man. Very cool. Now, let's go down to the list. Get down to the main business at hand, man. Where can people find you online? You got a site out there. I know you got a website. You got a Twitter. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I would love people to check me out. Go directly to my website, which is justinshankarow.com. And check out the stuff that I've got going on over there. And they also can find me on Twitter. Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/justinshankarow. Or on Facebook, facebook.com/justinshankarow. And come add me as a friend. I'd love to be friends with all my fans out there. And people interested in knowing more about what kind of work I'm doing. I love it. It's great. Besides and besides everything we just talked about. Is there anything else we should be looking out there that you're going to be in? Or are you going to be doing that we have not mentioned yet? I want to make sure we got, you know, we laid all that ground work. I appreciate it. Well, I also have a real estate company. So if people are interested in purchasing real estate, they can also find me at my real estate company. Which is a positive cash flow network.com. So that's a little something because I've, you know, since I was a kid, I've taken all my money and invested in real estate. Which is fortunately the reason I'm not living in a box on the corner. So that's done, fortunately that's done well. And I started the company a little while ago with some partners in mind. And it's all about buying and selling cash flow real estate. So that's done really nicely. So I enjoy that. And in acting wise, I think I've given you all this stuff. I've also got a script that I've written with my writing partner which we're really excited about. It's called survival of the families. It's about a family that's trying to barely scrape together their pennies during this economic downturn. And they're hoping to come out the other end. So we're pitching that to Warner Brothers in a few weeks. And, you know, excited to be working. Just feel blessed to do it. Oh, also I didn't mention, I do a bunch of voiceovers as well. And I have a good fortune of doing some voiceover work for Avatar which was awesome. And that was really cool. And I did some voiceover work for Blind Side and New Moon. And also the upcoming film extraordinary measure with Harrison Ford and the new film Valentine's Day with every star in the world. Ashton Kutcher, I mean, everyone's in that movie. So... Nice, man. Good stuff. You're doing well, man. You're doing well. I'm trying. You know, I got to put pennies in the piggy bank. And I'm just thrilled to be working as an actor. It's great. Absolutely, man. It was great, man, that you're doing so well with yourself now. And I'm so glad you stopped by on the show in my first show of the new year, man. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. You should feel like honored that you were part of the first 2010 show that we were doing right now. I do. I do. I feel like, you know, we brought in the decade together. Yeah. I didn't really think that, but... But I'm thinking it now. Oh, thanks. We'll go with that. We'll go with that. Yeah, cool. But thank you so much for having me on. And, you know, let me know. I'd love to be on in the future and talk about any, you know, upcoming projects I've got going on and talk to your audience. And it's super fun, and you got an awesome show. So thank you again. Well, guess what? The door is always open for you to come back. We'd love to have you back on any time, my friend. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Take care now. All right, buddy. You too. Stay warm in New York or in Jersey. I got my heater on in my room right now so I'm pretty much I'm pretty much square. Good stuff. Take care. Talk to you soon. Okay bye-bye. Fun guy right there ladies and gentlemen. First show of 2010 Justin Shankarot. See I got it. I'm got that. Look at that. I was able to get his name right. After he leaves, I'm going to get the name right. After he leaves, I can't do that when he's on air right. But make sure you guys check him out on Millionaire Matchmaker, which on the lead he's going to be on in this week. And of course the English woman is now telling me I have 19 seconds left before it cuts out into dead air. Don't you love that when it's in your ear and it cuts for that all the time? It's great. It's great. I love it. Not really but you know you get used to it after a while. Not. But we are wrapping up the show here. We got some stuff coming up within the next few weeks time that I cannot tell you about because if I say it, then it's going to wind up not happening. So you got to stay tuned for that. We are definitely going to let you know exactly what our next show is going to be. But for now I'm the Eljay Sun and I'll be making sure you guys get the latest buzz with Buzzworthy Radio. See you guys next time. Take care. Can't get enough of Buzzworthy Radio. Not gone now to www.buzzworthyradio.net. 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