Charlie Berens, from “Manitowoc Minute,” visited the Journalism 347 class Oct. 15 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to talk about his life before “Manitowoc Minute” and gave some advice to the students. This discussion took place in Heide room 309 and started at 2 p.m.
Berens started the discussion off by talking about how he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and “fell” into journalism. Once his passion for journalism came about, he worked on the MTV show “Choose or Lose.”
It was no easy task working “Choose or Lose,” as he once got arrested from a Minneapolis Republican Protest he was covering. However, Berens didn’t mind being arrested.
“You might as well spend the time and effort being what you want to be,” he said.
Wanting a change of pace, Berens went out to Los Angeles, California, and worked for a production company. This is where Berens learned how to use camera equipment and editing software.
Berens got to work behind the scenes for an interview with Johnny Depp. Berens also worked as a red-carpet host in Los Angeles.
Berens headed out of California and went to Dallas, Texas, as he got a job as a news reporter. Being a news reporter became awarding when he won an Emmy for one of his news reports.
One of the students in attendance, Kim Reinders, 20, said,” It was really cool to see someone as successful as him go through different jobs as he tries to figure out what he’s good at. It was refreshing to know that it’s okay to not have it all planned out when you graduate.”
Berens ended up joining the social media world as he got a job with YouTube. The show was called “One Minute.”
While working with YouTube, Berens did stand up comedy at night. The comedy clubs are where “Manitowoc Minute” was born as this was where Berens was able to create and harness the character in the videos.
In “Manitowoc Minute”, Berens has to tell a joke about every eight seconds to keep people interested and not click away from the video.
Berens advised the students to start doing what they can right away for future career opportunities. He answered any questions they had and used his experiences to guide them in the direction they want to be career-wise.
“Don’t go chasing butterflies, build a good garden and the butterflies will come to you,” Berens told the students.
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