News on Nikki...

Push Play

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:45:45 -0700

In April & the very beginning of May, I did a show called Push Play, which was a collection of rock operas put on by Los Angeles Rock Opera Company (LAROC), at the Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA. It was super fun!! It was my first foray into ‘rock singing’ and went quite well! The four pieces that were presented in the show were:
• 15 Minutes of shAme - An abridged version of LAROC’s original work by Mark Governor based on the Scarlet Letter, in which I played a puritan & a temptress
• Perseus at the Oki Dog - A resetting of the Greek myth (Perseus) in the 1980’s underground Los Angeles punk rock scene with music by LA punk bands from the decade, in which I played a punk rocker & Athena
• More Alive Than Dead - Selections from an original work by Lisbeth Scott following six characters in New York City whose struggles with modern life intertwine, in which I played a doctor & Alexa, a lesbian artist
• A Quick One While He’s Away - A 10 minute rock operetta by The Who, described by Peter Townsend as “the father of Tommy,” in which I played the young girl who may or may not have dallied while her man was gone. ;-)

So many different characters in one performance... And it was great! After the show closed, we recorded studio tracks of many of the songs from the piece and are waiting on the rights to be able to release most of them, but the exciting news is... the track of A Quick One While He’s Away was just released on iTunes!! It’s the full piece, a 10 minute rock operetta, performed by yours truly & many other talented performers (including Joe Donohoe, my caroling business partner, Erin Zaruba-Loucks, one of our Tinseltones, Danny Shorago, of the Fuxedos, James Lynch, Celia Chavez, Cesili Williams, and the rockin’ Push Play band), for only $0.99, what a deal! (Hint, hint, please buy it!) :-) Here’s the link to BUY THE SONG ON iTUNES.
We also shot a music video of that piece & are waiting on a few more authorizations before it can be released. I’m sure you’re all anxiously awaiting it (I know I am!), so I’ll definitely post again when it’s been released, with info on how you all can get your hands on it. In the mean time, here are some pictures from the whole event: Push Play Pictures.

The Real Love

Thu, 8 Sep 2011 21:09:18 -0700

www.TheRealLoveMusic.com/live

In August I did a show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium (where they used to have the Emmy’s), called The Real Love. It was certainly the most unique show I’ve ever done. It was put on in celebration of Supreme Master Television’s 5th anniversary, so the entire show was also filmed to air on the network & stream live online. It featured an AMAZING cast, including Adam Pascal (Tony Nominee for Rent), Cady Huffman (Tony Winner for The Producers), Daisy Eagan (Tony Winner for Secret Garden), Robert Torti (Tony Nominee for Starlight Express), Joanna Ampil (Award winning West End performer), Shirley Jones (Oscar Winner & Partridge Family mom), Dick Van Patten (Eight is Enough), and MANY more! The music was composed by 5 different composers, Al Kasha (2-time Oscar Winner), Bill Conti (Oscar & 5-time Emmy Winner), David Shire (Oscar & 2-time Grammy Winner), Don Pippin (Tony & Emmy Winner), & Doug Katsaros (Emmy Nominee & “By Mennen” jingle writer). And I was also in it! ;-) To begin the show we sang a choral number which featured Betty Buckly (Tony Winner for Cats), Trent Kowalik & Kiril Kulish (Tony Winners for Billy Elliot), Shirley Jones (we’ve already discussed her), Faith Rivera (Emmy Winner), Filippa Giordano (Italian Pop/Classical Star), Lynne Wintersteller (Broadway soprano) and Tom Schmid (Broadway tenor). Emceeing the event was Cloris Leachman (Oscar & 9-time Emmy Winner), Ed Begley, Jr. (6-time Emmy Nominee), Grant Aleksander (4-time Emmy Nominee), Kristin Bauer (True Blood), Elaine Hendrix (Actress- look her up, you’ll know who she is), and Hayley Marie Norman (Actress & Deal or No Deal case girl). As you can see, a truly star-studded event. Now that I’m done name dropping, a bit about the show... It was loosely based on the life of Supreme Master Ching Hai (of Supreme Master Television), who is a Vietnamese spiritual teacher, poet, artist, humanitarian, and die-hard vegan. All the lyrics for the songs were poetry she’s written. They included “If it Wasn’t for Sprouts in Life,” “The Peace Seeker,” “You and the Kingdom,” and many more. In the show I played a Vietnamese student, a German nurse, a wedding guest, a disco dancer, and two different women from India. Can’t you see me as all those things? Pictures of the show are posted HERE, and I’ll post the link to watch the show online when that becomes available. Um, I don’t quite know what else to say about it at this point, so I’ll stop.

Small update: Here’s a Youtube video of a commercial for the show with clips from the show included. It will give you a small idea of what the show (and the whole event) was like.

A Catch-Up Session

Thu, 8 Sep 2011 19:06:50 -0700

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been over a year since updating. How embarrassing. Well, a lot has certainly happened in the last year, lol. I’ll hit on the major things here & do individual entries for some of the biggest stuff, if I feel so inclined. ;-)
• Most recently I did a new musical at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium (where they used to hold the Emmy’s apparently), called The Real Love. It certainly warrants it’s own entry.
• Before that, in July, I did the Barbie show that Mattel puts on for the annual Barbie collectors’ convention. This year’s convention was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Yes, I did play a singing & dancing Barbie. ;-) The photo above is of me as “Night Lightning Stacey,” Barbie’s friend from London (who I also played in the show).
• In June (in addition to celebrating my birthday!) I traveled to New York for more shoe modeling, and auditioned for the reality singing competition show, The Sing-Off (hosted by Nick Lachey), with the female choir I’m in, the LA-LAs. I joined a female choir, the LA-LAs! It’s a fantastic & talented group of girls who meet once/week to sing. (www.facebook.com/thelalaschoir)
• In May I went to Holland (which was gorgeous), & did studio recordings & a music video of a rock opera I was in called Push Play. It was actually a collection of 4 different rock operas, all presented as a sampling platter by Los Angeles Rock Opera Company (LAROC). Separate entry coming.
• Before the rock opera, in addition to more shoe modeling, I shot a Miller Lite commercial. I played one of the Miller Liteguards, saving men from making unmanly beer choices. A very important job.
• The end of 2010 was very busy with the Tinseltones. We had another GREAT season! Some highlights included singing regularly on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, a press conference with LA’s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, a gig for Kathryn Ireland (Million Dollar Decorator), the mayor’s tree lighting in downtown Burbank, corporate parties for Lionsgate Films, In-N-Out, Live Nation, and many more!
• Before the caroling season got into full swing, I signed with a new manager, David Kohl, and did a Halloween stunt show, Stuntacular. It’s a benefit show that happens annually to raise money for the Make-A-Wish foundation. Each year loads of stunt people get together & volunteer their time, energy, talents, and resources to put on a truly spectacular live-action Halloween stunt show for the community. I played Supergirl in the show (even got to fly in and out!), and had an absolute BLAST!! Plus we raised TONS of money for Make-A-Wish. It was pretty awesome. I even made some wonderful friends through the show who welcomed me to their high falls practices, where I learned how to do a 40’ high fall!
• Prior to Stuntacular I took some voice over classes, shot a couple grad student films, did more shoe modeling, went to a a couple friends’ weddings, and generally kept myself pretty busy. As I tend to do.
So that’s the year in review. Thank you for sticking with me. Hope to see you again much more regularly throughout this next year.

Eagleheart Booking

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:57:09 -0700

Current exciting news is that I just booked & filmed a day on a new tv show! It’s called Eagleheart, and will air on the Cartoon Network during Adult Swim. It stars Chris Elliott (who I did my little scene with, photographed above), Michael Gladis (Paul Kinsey on Mad Men, also photographed above), Maria Thayer (from Strangers with Candy), etc. The cast and crew were all really great & it looks to be a pretty funny show! As far as I know it will begin airing sometime in August & I’m in the 2nd episode. I play a beauty queen who delivers an invitation. I only have a couple lines, but at least I have a couple lines! Ha ha. I’ll update more when I know more about the air date...

A Whole New Year

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 23:05:52 -0800

Happy New Year everyone! I had a wonderful, busy holiday season, full of Christmas Caroling, family, friends, and a couple delightful student film projects! Now, I’m super pumped, refreshed, and ready to go in this New Year called 2010. To start the New Year off right, I just signed with a new theatrical (for film & television) agent, Imperium 7 Talent Agency. I’m thrilled to have them representing me & look forward to kicking some ass with them!

I also appeared in the January issue of Maxim magazine (photo above), smooching Olivia Munn - the gorgeous cover girl of the month - in the G4 spoof “Lesbionic Woman” on an episode of Attack of the Show we did a while back. I was completely unaware I was in the magazine until a friend texted, “I think you’re in Maxim this month,” ha ha! Kind of a funny surprise, and not exactly how I imagined my first national magazine appearance would be, kissing a woman, and being referred to as “my spray-tan lady,” but what can you do? Lol

I was also very excited to see my Capital One Rapunzel commercial finally airing in Dec and Jan! We filmed it back in May of last year & it hadn’t aired yet, so I was beginning to get a little antsy. But, it finally aired several times during all the college bowl games, as Capital One sponsored a whole bowl week. Family & friends all over the country saw it on ESPN, ABC, and even the Weather Channel! Fingers crossed for it to continue airing and airing...

That’s pretty much the news so far in 2010. It’s already been busy & hopefully will continue to book up with lucrative, rewarding, fun, endeavors!