Name: Mike Cantalupo
Major: Studio television production
Year Of Graduation: December 2015
Relationship Status: Single
Hometown: Massapequa NY, (Home of Alec Baldwin, Jerry Seinfeld, and Bryan Demers)
When did you decide you wanted to go to school for TV production? Well, I actually don’t want to produce television even though that’s my major. I want to be on air on Television, but I chose this major because in the field that I’m trying to get into you kind of need to know everything, whether it be editing, producing, or anything else. That’s why I decided VMA; it was a better path than journalism for me personally.
In that case, When did you first decide you wanted to be on air? I first fell in love with entertaining people after I gave this ridicules speech while running for 11th grade class president. I started off saying ‘I’m Mike Cantalupo and I like kittens.’ I look back at it now and it was the stupidest speech that anyone could have ever given, but some how the audience full of 10th graders loved it. That’s when I first got a sense of what it was like to entertain a large audience and from there it was just like BOOM…boom.
What orgs are you involved in on campus? Usually Emerson channel and EIV, this semester just Emerson Channel and WEBN sports. For Emerson Channel I started off as a cooking correspondent, then onto a sports correspondent, and this is my second semester hosting. By the end of this semester I will have done 80 episodes so that is really exciting. I also hosted speechless which is a debate show and worked on the orientation shows.
What is your favorite Emerson Channel memory? Orientation week as a whole. Being the events correspondent for Fast-Forward, Rewind I get to interact with the freshmen. They have no idea what’s about to happen to them. I get to try and make them feel welcome and help them have a good time. I want them to know this is going to be the best four years of their life, I promise. Well…I guess I can’t promise, maybe you’ll have an even better four years, but these will be great. One thing I specifically love is when they are all in the cutler majestic and I run in and make everyone dance. I think it’s so exciting because no one knows the person next to them at the time, but everyone still gets up and joins in. I like to think that maybe from that experience at least one conversation is struck that turns into a friendship. Maybe one kid just says to the other ‘who is that crazy person and why is he doing this?” and their day is a little brighter or they have a new friend, that’s really all I want to do for people.
Favorite show you work on? Definitely good morning Emerson. I like to think about all the people I’ve worked with who started out as co-workers and became friends. They really helped me grow from an eager excited freshman that had no idea how to do anything into someone other people seem to relate to and are entertained by.
Do you know what you want to do after graduation? Yes! No. Yes…maybe. I don’t know what I will be doing after graduation but I know what I want to do. Like I said before, I just have a passion to entertain. People seem to like me and relate to me, that is a great feeling and I would like to use it in television. How? I’m still figuring that out. I don’t think that right know there is a classified ad for what I want to do. I think it might even be something that I’m going to have to pitch to networks. I guess I’ll have to try and sell myself as a television personality because I ultimately want to host a game show or life style-show, something that’s not news. I can’t do news. I’ve tried news…and I fail miserably at it. Not news.
Favorite TV show personality? Ellen. If I could be one person in the world, if my career could amount to anything, it would be Ellen DeGeneres. Not only because she is successful, but also because I want to use my success, if it ever comes to be that, in exactly the same way. She never undermines anybody and never makes anybody the butt of her joke. She is constantly trying to make people feel better and do good while also being hysterical, and that’s something I strive to do.
Are you currently doing anything in the field? Yes, I’ve been really lucky and fortunate to have the opportunities that I’ve had and they stem from Emerson. I started out as an intern on a show called New York live on NBC New York, and I got that through an Emerson alumni, Ben Aaron. From there they got me in contact with this animal shelter that needed some video help. I thought I would just be doing some edits for a YouTube channel that no one would watch but all of a sudden their spokes person left. New York Live has a weekly pet adoption segment and when that person left, Bideawee shelter needed somebody to go on New York Live twice a month to host the segment and they asked me to do it. Not only do I do that now, but I ended up adopting a dog too. They call me a regular, its weird…and fun. I also am working on a documentary for NESN with my roommate, Anthony Chasse, which is turning into a reality show. We are entered in a competition and the winners get $20,000 and hopefully a job. It’s a very strange experience but exciting.
Did you win your 11th grade election? I did. I did. Someone even sent out a mass Facebook message about my speech, I was a celebrity for about two weeks in my high school. Such an exciting moment.