He hosted Rap City on Black Entertainment Television for 6 years and then he did Mad Sports for four more years. But now Joe Clare – the TV host, comedian, and sometimes rapper is out on his own. He is working on his own television show and he is shooting the first episode right here in Belize. 7News went behind the scenes.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Today former BET star Joe Clare was touring the Museum of Belize and walking on Regent Street – but he wasn’t here as a tourist. Clare is working on the pilot episode of his new show.
Joe Clare, Filming Travel Show in Belize
“We’re doing a new show, my company, and I work with Nigel Miguel. We’re doing a new show, a travel show, and it is really aimed at African Americans, blacks in the States. And what I wanted to do was highlight places we should go and things we should see. And most of the times us in America, we think if I go to Belize I am going to go find resorts; stay at the resort and I might go out once or twice. Me? I want to feel the people, I want to know what the culture is, I want to know what the history is, I want to know what is really going on today - what are you listening to, how do you party, what is the political climate like. All of those things so Nigel said okay perfect, I know exactly what to do. Come to Belize and so here we are.”
Clare will be shooting for seven days and Film Commissioner Nigel Miguel hopes the show will be picked up by BET.
Nigel Miguel, Film Commissioner
“He’s actually filming a lifestyle travel show featuring Belize’s culture, food, song, dance, people, locations – what people would do when they come to Belize through Joe Clare’s eyes.”
Keith Swift,
What are the prospects of the show getting picked up?
Nigel Miguel,
“Well Joe has a deal with BET which was recently bought out by Viacom. BET now has about six channels that they direct to different markets, largely African American markets but BET, BET-J, and also VH1-Soul – those three networks cover about 20 million households and that’s what this show is being shot for. But there is also a component which I found out today and he is looking to do this on his webcast show as well. So this is something that all the footage that we are doing here, portions of that will start to appear on the net as soon as we get into post production.”
Keith Swift,
On what network are you hoping to get the show on?
Joe Clare,
“I don’t care. I mean I would love to see it on the Travel Network, the Travel Network is a little broader than just BET. I want to be the black guy that white people say, ‘okay let’s see what is going on the world – let’s check with Joe.’”
Joe Clare plans to tour the entire country and will be here for a week. The post production will also be done in Belize.
