For Jesse Rasmussen, communications junior, life has been hectic.
At the age of 23, Rasmussen has managed to receive a two-year acting certifi cate, hold down three jobs, juggle school, outside projects and a social life.
Jesse’s most recent project was in December 2009 when he helped a friend cast for the MTV show “Made,” at Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg.
Jesse and his friend, Mandy Walker, who works for MTV in New York City, asked the students questions about themselves and what they wanted to be made into.
“It was an unofficial thing for a friend,” Rasmussen said.
Last January, Rasmussen interned for “The Ben Davis and Kelly K. Show,” on 99.7 WDJX-FM, which airs during the week from 5:30 to 10 a.m.
“I just took the internship for fun,” he said.
While working on the show, he became known as “Intern Forest.” He edited videos, did voiceover work for the show, dressed up as a chicken and made halfnaked snow angels.
Rasmussen is still on the show from time to time, filling in for Ben or Kelly when they’re on vacation.
Rasmussen said interning for the show led him to become a board operator for Main Line Broadcasting, the owner of 99.7 WDJX and other stations. He said he works on the weekends and is responsible for transmitting broadcasts onto the airways.
Rasmussen’s radio career, however, isn’t what he pictured himself doing.
“Never in a million years would I have thought I would work in radio,” he said.
Beside radio, Rasmussen said he also received an acting degree at The New York Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts in New York City, where he studied television and film acting and voiceover work.
“[Att ending NYCDA] was the smartest decision I ever made,” Rasmussen said.
He said he was supposed to att end Ball State, but, at the last minute, he said he decided he didn’t like it there. He then auditioned for NYCDA, thinking he wasn’t going to get accepted, but he got a phone call from NYCDA telling him that he had got accepted. He called it a “weird twist of fate.”
While att ending NYCDA, Rasmussen performed stand-up comedy at a local club called Caroline’s on Broadway.
“[Stand-up] gave me the audience interaction that TV, fi lm, and voiceover didn’t,” he said.
Rasmussen also said stand-up gave him an adrenaline rush, like jumping out of an airplane, which he has done.
Rasmussen said he likes comedy, which he got into at New Albany High School, because he enjoyed making people laugh.
“You can’t be unhappy while laughing,” he said.
Jesse said he also believes comedy is his contribution.
“Everyone feels they need to contribute something to the world and if I can make people laugh, that’s important,” Rasmussen said.
Besides working, he said he does a lot of outside projects and jobs that help further his career. He recently started doing podcasts once a week for a Web site called moviefanhouse.com, which was started by two IUS students.
He said his job is to give his opinion on movies. He also worked on another project for a show called “Undercover Boss,” that will premier after the Super Bowl, where he worked 14 to 15 hour days following the camera guy with extra batteries, film and whatever else he needed.
When he isn’t at school, WDJX or working on another project, he said he works for his parents at Rasmussen Chiropractic in the insurance department.
In his free time, he said he enjoys reading comic books and that has led to him dressing up as a comic book superhero for Halloween.
He has been the Green Lantern, The Joker and The Flash. He said he makes and assembles the costumes himself. He said he feels that pre-bought costumes are “lazy.”
Rasmussen also said he has to find time for his girlfriend, Lindsey Koetter, of six years.
Koetter said it is difficult to find time with each other and she is “very supportive” of him.
“He’s the type of person that has to do what he loves,” Koett er said.
By AMANDA FRENCH
Staff Writer
aafrench@imail.iu.edu