Name: S. Molly Dominick
Hometown: Palatine, Illinois
Major: Broadcast Journalism and Interactive Media Minor
Year: Sophmore/Junior
Extracurriculars: Host of Off the Wire (UMTV’s Comedy Show), Special Segment Reporter for NewsVision, incoming President of the National Broadcasting Society, Multi-Media Editor for Miami Hurricane, First year fellow academic assistant, Graphic Designer.
Internship: Billy on the Street
What was your dream job as a child?
“I guess I have several. Primarily, my dream job as a child was to be a carpenter. I pictured my life living in a one room apartment with my saw and different wood projects and sell them as a freelance carpenter. Then I quickly realized maybe carpentry isn’t where my skills lie. Then I wanted to be a singer, and then I realized I’m not that good of a singer, but I still like preforming. And that’s where I am today.”
What is your dream job now?
“Not sure quite yet – there’s a number of things I would love to do. I feel like I have to try and look like I’m official or something like ‘I have big dreams,’ but in reality I just want to be a singing hobo. Oh yeah, I would love to be a singing hobo. I love the appeal of the streets, singing for passersby. I love the idea of singers like Tom Waits where their voices sound like they’re gargling glass and yet somehow people still listen to their music. So I don’t even have to be good, I could just sit there, and you know, sing to the people.”
What brought you into broadcasting and UMTV?
“I joined UMTV because I knew that with my broadcast journalism major that would be the best way to get experience. I was told ‘if you’re going to do broadcast journalism, UMTV is the number one thing you should be doing because this is hands on experience and it would be way more valuable than anything you get in the classroom.’ So I immediately joined and, it was absolutely true, everything I have learned has been from UMTV, and I knew things going into my classes in advance.”
Do you ever find comedy difficult?
“Yes, yes I do. It happens a lot more effortlessly when you’re not trying. I think some of my favorite sketches that have been written have been things that just kind of happened and we decided to write it down. Like when I first became host of Off the Wire, my friend and I thought it was funny I wanted to be a singing hobo as a career choice and so this sketch happened, with lots of improv of me being a singing hobo near a dumpster, and I think it might be my favorite sketch we’ve done all season, and it was the first one. One of my other favorite sketches that I’ve ever been able to be a part of was with my friend Danny New, also a broadcast journalism major and previous host and former executive producer of Off the Wire. We were trying to do homework one day and were just messing around, and then all of the sudden we weren’t doing homework anymore and we were acting in roles— him as a business man named Jameson Newpont and me as a strange, squeaky voiced assistant named Flipsey and, the stuff we just made up improvsing in my room without even trying, wrote it down into a sketch and we preformed it and it was one of my favorite sketches. Then fast forward to now that I’m host, I have an obligation to write a monologue and have it be funny for every single episode. I just can’t wing it as much anymore. When you try to be funny, it suddenly becomes extremely hard to be funny. It is very difficult.”
Who is your favorite comedic figure?
“Conan O’Brian… well I don’t like him as much anymore because he didn’t accept me into his internship program, but it probably has something to do with the fact that, in my cover letter, I referred to the show as ‘Ginger Manhunk TV’ [Uproarious laughter]. So I’m pretty sure they threw my application straight into the trash. But yeah, he’s really funny, I enjoy his self-deprecating ways, and he’s not afraid to break the fourth wall and admit he’s on a comedy show. I like that he doesn’t put on airs. And he’s a ginger.”
What is your secret to time management?
“Well, it is true I don’t have very much extra free time and that’s why it’s very important that, as cheesy as it is, that I love what I do, because if I’m already doing something I enjoy, I don’t need to differentiate between work time and fun time, it’s all just time. So I’m always busy, but I’m always enjoying it.”
What class have you felt like has had the biggest impact on you as a person?
“My first semester here I took a random class in the philosophy department. I’m still not sure why I really took it, it’s not relevant to anything I’m doing, but I took it and the professor was just this really nice guy, but it just occurred to me that he was really lonely. He would use examples in class and talk about how he’s still a bachelor, and you saw him infusing his own personal loneliness into the coursework sometimes. It just reinforced that I don’t want to be a philosophy major.”
What’s been your most embarrassing moment at UM?
“So many of those, but I would say when this wonderful reporter that I know, came to me and was like ‘Hello, I think I should interview you for HerCampus because you’re such an interesting person,’ and here I am picking granola off of my shirt.
I have another one, and, this is quite bad. So this requires some backstory, I am a reporter on NewsVision and I do my segment “Molly’s Minute” at the end of the show, so for the whole rest of the show I have to sit somewhere and not get in other people’s way. So I found this little spot on the floor that’s in this perfect corner where none of the cameras pick my up. Except when there was one special, special episode of NewVision, it was our election special, where they had people standing doing a special presentation in a spot they don’t normally do, and I was sitting right behind them on the floor. So for most of it, I was covered by them and you couldn’t see me behind the people. But then the camera changed, and suddenly you could see my hunched on the floor, clutching my script. The stage manager realizes I can be seen on camera and is telling me to shoo, so on the official recording on the UMTV site for NewsVision you can see me crawling out of the frame on the floor, and it is forever preserved. They might submit that episode for awards also, the episode that has me crawling away on the floor.”
Do you have any nicknames?
“I’ll just list every name I have: Samantha, Molly, Speedy McGee, Cheryl, Bubby, Bubsy, Bugs, Smolly, Smiley, Steinway Piano, the best piano you can get for under a thousand dollars, and S. Molly.”
Any explanation you want to give for those?
“No… Just kidding. Well I was never called Speedy until college, because I forgot to change my Facebook name since I created it many years ago, and I was always Speedy McGee on it. But then people identified me through my posts on the incoming freshman page as Speedy McGee and now people at college call me Speedy. It started out just on the comedy show, but now it’s spreading and I’m slowly becoming Speedy to everyone I know and hold dear.”
Is there anything else you want to say?
“Check out Off the Wire, late night comedy show every other Thursday at 9p.m. in Studio C at the School of Communication. It has been one of the best experiences I’ve have on this campus quite honestly and truly. One of the coolest experiences I’ve had is getting the opportunity to interview the cast on Everybody Wants Some!!, [link below] including Blake Jenner and Tyler Hoechlin and they were really nice and sang a song and it was awesome.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFtbgr8xo-M
Image Credit: Hunter Crenian