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I was working as a staff writer at Rolling Stone. I had a friend who worked at MTV, and she called me and said, They're looking for VJs for this new channel. Do you want to try out? I had zero TV experience, but I thought, Well, what the hay.

Jancee Dunn

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Jancee Dunn
Born: 1966
Born: January 1
Journalist
Trying
Writer
Channel
Called
Staff
Looking
Rolling
Working
Zero
Experience
Stone
Thought
Stones
Wells
Worked
Well
Friend
Hay

More quotes by Jancee Dunn

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When I hear the Spice Girls, yeah, all that '90s stuff, like Limp Bizkit. Dandy Warhols! Whenever I hear them, it takes me right back, because they were friends of the channel, too.
Jancee Dunn
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I would get adult acne when it was somebody really famous I had to interview, so sometimes I would have to look straight at the camera because I couldn't look sideways or profile, because it would show.
Jancee Dunn
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A few of the artists knew my name, because I have an unusual name, from Rolling Stone.
Jancee Dunn
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Coldplay was unknown, and we played them over and over and over again, and they were really loyal to us. They went on M2 way after they had broken and become famous, because they remembered us.
Jancee Dunn
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I had this producer who became a friend, named Lou [Stellato]. Maybe it was a budget thing, but he never wanted to do any retakes. The more I would have a mental breakdown on the air.
Jancee Dunn
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I'm trying to think of who was really unpleasant or just not in the mood for talking. We had on Thurston Moore and he was just not feeling it that day, so it was difficult. Your difficult interview is out there for the world.
Jancee Dunn
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If I felt like not saying what was on the cue card, I would. We rarely did retakes.
Jancee Dunn
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It hit me that being hip was a full-time job, and I was only a part-timer. I couldn't hide forever that I liked county fairs, particularly the goat booth at the 4-H tent, or that I once spent a week with my grandmother at her house in the giant retirement community of Sun City, Arizona, and it was one of the most carefree times of my life.
Jancee Dunn
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Before M2, I really felt self-conscious about some of my choices, and I was slotted into a category. At Rolling Stone, I was the alternative chick, and that was just the way it was. That did break me open a little bit, and that was maybe its legacy. And it's a nice one.
Jancee Dunn
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What most people find festive-a weekend at a beach shack with friends, a boat trip down a river, a crackling bonfire on a summer night-I see as a bleak nightmare to be grimly endured. I would sooner put lit cigarettes in my eyes than share a vacation house with a crowd.
Jancee Dunn
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I started getting fan notes from people saying, Oh, keep up the mess-ups, and I'm thinking, I'm not doing it deliberately. This is just who I am. But people thought it was funny. I guess if you're watching and you see that I could do it, maybe it gives hope that anybody can do it.
Jancee Dunn
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[On a high school visit by Destiny's Child:] Then they appeared, golden Glamazons resplendent in hot pants the size of a dryer sheet and gold stiletto boots. The kids in the front row, clearly on funkiness overload, had the walleyed look of the Today's Catch section of the supermarket.
Jancee Dunn
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When they've shut down, you get more nervous. They react to that, and it's just this hideous shame spiral. Although sometimes that can be some good train-wreck TV. That's another reason it's definitely difficult - when you are just not connecting, and it's there for the world to see.
Jancee Dunn
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When you disclose something really personal in hopes that the person will then disclose something personal, too? It's all there on camera, your techniques that everyone can see through.
Jancee Dunn
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When someone shuts down on you... There were a couple of times of somebody that was just unpleasant, and you can't get them to loosen up. It's this horrible spiral when it's on camera, because you're trying to get them to like you, to trust you, to give you decent answers.
Jancee Dunn
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We had a wonderful department that scouted out new music. It was beneficial to Rolling Stone, because I would come back and say, You have to hear this, you have to hear that, and I found a lot of bands to feature, emerging bands. It [ended up being] symbiotic.
Jancee Dunn
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I was 35. I was the oldest female VJ at Viacom ever. I left them, which at least preserved my dignity, because I'm sure they would eventually have kicked me to the curb. I mean, who there is over 35 now? I can't even imagine. On air? I was glad I lasted that long.
Jancee Dunn
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I grew up in New Jersey in the '80s. That means one thing: Big hair. ... I had big hair, my boyfriends had big hair, we all had big hair. Our prom looked like the poodle division of the Westminster dog show.
Jancee Dunn
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I got a unicorn horn on my head once. I said, Can you really see that on camera? My producer said, You can see it from space. I would have to angle my head a certain way so that I didn't look misshapen on camera.
Jancee Dunn