Mara and Lauren become Australian tv stars

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But we were on tv. And Lauren sat next to a famous Australian comedian and didn't even know!

So last week we were at the mall in Bondi Junction when we were approached by a woman who asked us if we would like to be on a show where young adults discuss issues important to them. We said sure! Why? Cause it's funny. Anyways, we almost missed it as we had been wandering through the King's Cross neighborhood in Sydney and decided to use a drink ticket. We lost track of time and had to book it to the Australian Broadcasting Company. As a side note, if you live with your parents for several months and cease drinking socially for an extended amount of time, one drink alone can make you fairly tipsy! Anyways, the way the show works is that there is a host who interviews a few preselected people and then they get fillers to sit in and chime in with comments if they have them. The topic for this episode was "Sex and Religion;" the preselected people included an 18-year old Christian who has decided to stay a virgin till marriage, a young Christian couple who are also saving themselves, a gay Pentecostal who had gone through 3 gay-to-straight classes before accepting himself, a Catholic gay man who alluded to the fact that he is celibate because he believes it's wrong (but wouldn't really confirm or deny) and a man who has been dating his girlfriend for 7 years (!) without sex, oh and a young married couple who also waited. There was also a token Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu but basically it became a show about really Christian people who think sex before marriage is really evil. It was VERY strange. I was sitting in the front row so I think I show up a lot on the tape, but Lauren is for sure on camera a lot since she was sitting next to the comedian Chris Taylor who provided a heathen voice. Apparently he's really big here and we had no idea!

The filler people were invited to comment but I didn't because I have terrible stage fright. Honestly though, I wish I had made a comment because the discussion was so intense. Since they were interviewing a lot of young religious people the main message that was being conveyed was that basically your options are that you absolutely abstain from any kind of physicality before marriage or that you are a total slut. For a show that is supposed to present the opinions of average Australian young people, I felt it was totally off. But I guess that's what makes for interesting television. There were a few moderate voices but the discussion was dominated by people talking about sacrifice and suffering in the name of love. I just wanted to shout out "Everybody needs to chill out!"

Anyways, I didn't mean to ramble about it but it was a truly fascinating experience. And just really funny, cause we were on tv! You can watch the video online probably in November after it airs here. After the taping Luaren and I snuck into the crew after-party (it was their last show of the season) and got to speak to some of the people interviewed. We also STUFFED our faces with the free food that was there because we are shameless and cheap. They kept telling us we had to go, and then we were basically (nicely) escorted out of the building. Ha.

This is the website for the show if you want to see what it's like: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hackhalfhour/default.htm