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Journal video catches eye of Tru TV
Keeley parker
Local aspiring roller derby girl Keeley Parker's interview with Studio209 reporter Elizabeth Arakelian will air on "Tru TV's Funniest' at 8 p.m. Thursday. - photo by Journal file photo

Who is equal parts cute and funny? Aspiring roller derby girl Keeley Parker.

The Studio 209 crew met little miss Parker a little over three months ago during the filming of the video series segment, “Liz Gets Derby-Fied.” While we set up our equipment and recorded some practice shots to gauge the lighting, we noticed a curious young girl eyeing us as she skated by. As we continued to work she grew bolder until she finally skated right up to us and asked what we were doing. It was clear she wanted to be on camera.

After wrapping up test lighting, we decided to indulge young Parker with an on-camera interview. We figured we might get some good footage and make her day—two birds with one stone.

What we ended up getting was totally unexpected. Parker gave us one of the funniest interviews we have ever conducted, so much so that when we got back to the office and began editing we shared the video clips with most, if not all, of our collogues.

Someone suggested using Parker's interview as a teaser for the roller derby episode, and so we did just that.

To our surprise, the 43 second interview montage became more popular than the derby segment itself with close to 2,000 people clicking the play button to see Studio 209 reporter Elizabeth Arakelian interview Parker. But that surprise paled in comparison to the shock that came with an unexpected phone call from Tru TV. Someone at the company had stumbled across the interview with Parker on Reddit and they wanted to include it in an episode of "Tru TV’s Funniest."

Since creating the multimedia department at the Journal we have worked hard to garner as much exposure for our work as possible. Who would have thought that a short and funny clip of our reporter interviewing a young girl would give us national exposure?

We certainly didn’t, but that’s half the fun creating content. You never know what will catch fire.

Parker’s interview will air Thursday night at 8 p.m. on Tru TV.