Storyteller Sit-down: Beryl Shereshewsky
Edition 19 — the weird-mazing continues…
This is Beryl Shereshewsky, a producer at Great Big Story. She likes: gin gimlets, the flower displays outside of bodegas, the trend of gold and marble and center-framed wide shots. She dislikes: overstuffed garbage cans, shoelaces that aren’t even and the fact that she can’t be honest about how much she actually does like the Lincoln ads with Matthew McConaughey.
Favorite ‘on location’ experience:
BS: In Costa Rica we filmed at a venom lab and ever the curious producer, I asked to hold one of the poisonous snakes. My co-producer snapped a photo of what I believe is a pure expression of the fear and joy I felt.
^The moment that inspired a new Slack reaction!
Favorite piece produced and why:
BS: I loved producing and filming my piece on the Smithsonian Collections.
Being behind the scenes at the Smithsonian was super cool, going into the vault in the gem and mineral collection and holding a faberge egg was special; seeing an ostrich in a drawer, standing in a room that housed literally millions of insect specimens….the whole experience was otherworldly.
Additionally, spending time with all those scientists who dedicate their lives to understanding the world we live in was humbling and inspiring, so I was really happy to produce a piece I was proud of and that they loved just as much.
What an intriguing production !
A strange, nightmarish, or weird-mazing tale from the road:
BS: The day went like this: I went out with [colleague] Phil Robibero to film a story about a man who lived in the middle of nowhere. We forgot to pack lunch (mistake number one), but our subject offered us food. We ate a bowl of croutons and sliced bologna, which he fed us off a hunting knife (troubling…but I moved on, as who doesn’t like being fed off a hunting knife, right?)
Later that evening our subject’s friend, Machine Gun Mike (as he introduced himself to me), came by to listen to our subject play. He told me I could call him Machine Gun Mike…just calling him ‘Mike’ it seemed was not on the table.
When it was time to go, a huge storm had rolled in. A storm so bad we were warned of trucks tipping over and falling on us on the highway. Of course, as it would happen, the highway was literally 70% semi’s, which we had to pass with stifled screams. It was a three hour white-knuckled drive back to our hotel in Salt Lake City.
A good story after the fact, but each moment at the time was just slightly disturbing.
We need a followup profile of Machine Gun Mike. Please and thank you.
A shoutout to a Great Big Story follower on social media:
BS: On nearly every Facebook post Vivian Reynolds responds with a “thank you” sticker. This is my response to say “thank you” back.
A good-hearted follower since the beginning!
Thing you enjoy most about being a storyteller for Great Big Story:
BS: You end up in places you should never be. You end up having beers with a guy and his puppet in a steel town in the UK or listening to an 80-year-old woman wail on the guitar in a smoky jazz club in Atlanta. You end up eating fresh oysters out of the sea on a remote island in North Carolina or rummaging through boxes in the garage of the creator of Clarissa Explains it All. You find yourself hobnobbing with a duchess at her castle, dragging gear through a billionaire’s house (just a few doors down from Bill Gates, by the way), having a binturong eat berries out your of your hand while it perches on your shoulder and learning to say the name of the longest town in Europe (it’s 58 letters and I can)…the list goes on. That’s the best thing about working here.
Never a dull moment. Just steer clear of those semi’s on the windy highway from here on out. Ok?
