Ethan Erickson – Party On

Q. What are some of the current projects that you have been working on?

A. I started as an actor years ago and realized that I have way too much energy for a business that had a lot of downtown. So, I started filling up my downtime with other businesses including voiceovers. Then I decided I would do a couple of commercials here or there and then I decided I would try to get in to the realm of hosting, it seemed rather interesting. That was about a year ago, so there is kind of four different things with what I do. I think at this point I don’t call myself an actor, I’m just someone who is for hire in the entertainment business. That’s really what it is, after working in the voiceover business for six years now it’s really taken off. I work quite a bit, multiple times in a week, sometimes in a day doing that. I don’t do a lot of commercials just because I haven’t traditionally, that still kind of pops up here and there. The shows taping (for “Get This Party Started”) has really taken off, it’s a little bit more interesting lately for me to kind of go off with my own words rather than walk up and hit the mark and take the words that were written by someone much more talented and try to deliver them. It’s been interesting, kind of fire at will with my stuff.

Q. What can you tell us is the premise for the show “Get This Party Started”?

A. Essentially, Kristin Cavallari and I travel around the country and we throw surprise parties with the help of friends and family of the surprisee. It’s an extremely deserving person and it kind of makes it nice. Usually they’ve done some charity work or there are some sort of event in their life that make throwing them this big and eccentric party a nice thing.

Q. What made you want to be a part of this show and want to be a co-host?

A. I said about a year, or maybe more than a year ago, I thought hosting might be interesting. My ex-girlfriend was saying that I should really get into hosting. I guess she was saying that because I speak way too much. I finally thought I should check into it and there are certain things you try and it just doesn’t seem to work, then there are certain things you try and there is a natural way things flow. Doors kind of open up and everything happened like that and I actually kind of enjoy it. Whether it is in the studio and you’re looking at the camera reading a teleprompter or whether you’re on location like this, it’s a real different vibe than acting. It’s so much more structured and you’re really trying to not put the word well or now in front of someone’s sentence. You don’t want to disparage the hard work they put together in writing. It’s nice to just be able to sometimes have a great conversation, a real dialogue, a moment to moment dialogue that’s not pre-scripted. Kristin seemed really cool too and when I met her I had never watched her show and still haven’t. But, she seemed really cool and we did some laps around the building when we were reading for the project and talked a little bit about it.

Q. Is there a lot of chemistry between the two of you as hosts?

A. Yes, we work together well. Chemistry to people means different things, Kristin is quite the many years my junior and she has turned into a little sister, I’m protective of her. The chemistry that exists between the two of us is one of two professionals having a good time together. We seem to have a really good time doing it, we’re just having fun being corny, a lot of times we’re just being dorky.

Q. As host, what are some of your responsibilities with the show? Do you and Kristin share lead or do you alternate?

A. It’s different from one show to the next and for this particular show we kind of had to do a combination, because there has been quite a bit of publicity on the show. The later episodes we’ve kind of had to keep private, I suspect that has quite a bit more to do with Kristin than with me. Because both of our pictures have kind of been everywhere, we didn’t want to take the possibility of ruining the surprise. So, in the early episodes yeah we had the family dealing with the surprisee under the belief that there was something else going on. The last couple episodes we’ve been a little bit more behind the scenes, working with friends and family. Getting them to be involved more in the interaction, sometimes bringing in people that aren’t friends and family under the guise of the storyline being like a report or something. I’ve spent the last three months outside of Hollywood, which I can’t get enough of. Dealing with normal people from Acron, Ohio from Fayetteville, North Carolina to San Francisco and Arizona. Just some really nice people and really nice cities.

Q. Do you have a most memorable moment from working on the show?

A. Well, I can’t get into specifics, but I can say that the first episode has gotten a lot of publicity on the website, and that family was just great. It was a family that was displaced from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. They are just a beautiful example of what counts, the father had built up a business for many, many years. Everything, the home, the business, was washed away. All of their belongings, the car, I just had a really great connection with the father and he said to me, “What you think counts is what really counts, that’s the love and that’s the family.” It was nice to see that and I think that we were all reminded of that after 9/11, suddenly after 9/11 we were on the phone more with our friends and family and I found that is what really counted.

Q. Do you have a latest obsession? Are you into any particular book, sport, music group or activity?

A. The last couple of years I have really been into kite surfing. It is a sport that has probably been around commercially for about seven years. It’s a sport that combines wakeboarding with wind surfing. Well, instead of a boat pulling along, much like wind surfing you use the wind. Instead of a big huge board you’re riding along like wind surfing you have a small board that looks like a wake board. Instead of a big sail in front of you, you’re holding essentially a bar that is connected up to a kite. It’s an extremely large kite and you’re using the wind to kind of pull you along. Imagine an excessively large kite that looks more like a parachute and it pulls you in the air, sometimes fifty or twenty feet. You can do tricks and then it kind of just drops you back down to the water. It’s been really fun and great exercise and that’s kind of been my obsession for the last couple of years.

Q. Now that it is 2006, what are you most looking forward to this year?

A. I have a new girl in my life and I know that seems like whatever to a lot of people, but she is a very special person so I am looking forward to that. I am looking forward to spending more time with her. One of the things that I am going to be adamant about this year is not working as much. Most people in this business want to work and work and work and can’t get enough, that’s just not me. I worked twice as much in 2005 as I did in 2004 and it was a great year but one of my goals for 2006 is to continue to work what I think is smart. Work fewer hours and allow myself to go on a vacation, I’m going to be going to Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar, I’m excited about that. I’m going to be taking my mom on a little vacation, stuff like that.

Q. What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?

A. It’s really touching to have people that are really supportive of your career. I wish I could divert some of the attention that gets paid to some of the people in the entertainment industry and give some of that positive attention and energy to people like doctors and teachers. For me it is really nice, in everyone’s career there are ups and downs and I don’t care if it is John Travolta who suddenly comes back out of no where. Or, if it is someone’s on their way up like the lead singer of Creed, everyone kind of has a bumpy road in their own world. It’s nice to know that there is people out there that actually care and I guess a big thanks.