Reality TV zeroes in on dream jobs

By Patrick Kampert
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 30, 2006

 

The idea that began in Brian Kurth's mind as he was stuck in traffic on the Kennedy Expressway five years ago is now a TV show. Back on July 17, the Q section featured Ray Chao, an assistant Cook County state's attorney, testing out his dream job of working in television in a deal arranged by a company called Vocation Vacations, founded by ex-Chicagoan Kurth.

You can get a fresh look at Vocations' work at 7 p.m. Thursdays on the Travel Channel, under the Discovery TV umbrella. That's the home for the first season (and 13 episodes) of the hourlong "This Job's a Trip," which debuted April 23.

"It's a little more adventuresome" than some of the typical Vocation Vacations jobs, Kurth said of the new TV show produced by Brave Street Productions--which happens to be the place where Chao checked out what it's like to work behind the scenes in TV production.

"Vocation Vacations and Brave Street are putting the `real' in reality television," Kurth said. "So much of reality TV is scripted."

"This Job's a Trip" features duos of ordinary people trying out such occupations as firefighter, whitewater rafting outfitter, cattle rancher and TV newscaster. The emphasis, Kurth added, is on camaraderie and collaboration, not competition.

"No one's getting fired," he joked.

As for Chao, he says he explored a move to New York to break into television but has decided to stay put for now. He's expanding his standup work, however, and is developing a sketch comedy show and a drama as a producer.

"I definitely feel that my exposure to the producing side of television in Vocation Vacations has really piqued my interest in producing some things," he said. "I'm focusing on that."
 

pkampert@tribune.com