Weekend Spy - Job Spec: Vanessa Russo

Each week we'll be asking people from all parts of the media industry - from channel controllers to catering staff, directors to digital technicians - to tell us about themselves and their job.

This week it’s the turn of Vanessa Russo, who on Friday night had the exciting and unrelenting task of looking after the great and the good who were taking part in Red Nose Day and Comic Relief on BBC One.

Name
Vanessa Russo

Job Title
Artist liaison, Comic Relief

Age
Young enough to work the late nights and still enjoy it!!

Lives
Bromley, Kent

In the role since
I’ve been at Comic Relief for five years and in this role for about three and a half.

Responsibilities
Working with the various celebrities who agree to get involved with Comic Relief. Some we approach to get involved with specific bits of the campaign we think they’d be brilliant for, some have ideas of their own and we work with them to develop/facilitate so they can raise the most money possible.

Best thing about your job
The variety – one minute you can be sitting in the office talking to agents, the next at a photo-shoot with Jack Black; on set of our video with Girls Aloud and the Sugababes; in a theatre with Russell Brand dressed in women’s underwear or in Trafalgar Square listening to Nelson Mandela speak! And of course the passion and commitment of people you work with – particularly those who work at the projects we fund, working day in, day out to change the lives of the people they work with.

Worst thing about your job
Because our artists do everything for free we’re at the mercy of their schedules, so there’s lot of standing around in the rain in far flung locations waiting to grab our moment!

First thing you do in the morning when you get in
Read emails, check online news, work out the most urgent things to do, say hello to everyone in my team (not necessarily in that order!)

Any downsides to working in the media?
Possibly the fact that we need to deliver artists to so many people - it’s a very hard juggling act and some demands can be unrealistic…we need to be strategic with our artist asks so they don’t feel swamped – it’s all about long term relationships after all!

First media job
Firefly Communications – a PR agency. I was there for five years. I started as a trainee officer and left as head of Firefly Interactive.

Biggest achievement to date
Being a tiny cog in the huge wheel of Make Poverty History, which has changed the world we live in and brought the absolutely shocking issue of global poverty to the front of consciousness.

Anything you wish you'd done differently
Well I do believe that everything happens for a reason, so not really (though I still haven’t worked with David Bowie, so something’s not quite right!)

You don’t have to name-names, but who has been the most difficult “artist” to liaise with so-far, and why?
I don’t want to sound all luvvy, but to be honest we don’t really get difficult artists – there’s an incredible amount of love for Comic Relief and even the most reluctant or uber cool artists find themselves doing things they would never normally agree to (the power of the red nose!!) We also try to take as many artists to see the work that we fund first hand if at all possible (both UK and Africa). They see what a difference the money donated by the public makes and it all becomes a much more simple process! Pre Comic Relief, I did work at festivals for a while and some of the behaviour and riders were pretty outrageous!

And the best?
Am always amazed with what artists will agree to and the good humour they do it in. David Walliams swimming the Channel, Ray Stubbs being a ‘human conker’ with a big sack of manure, with the other ‘conker’ Jack Dee standing on top of a plinth at BBC TV Centre for the entire Red Nose Day night in the freezing cold and pouring rain, are just a few that spring to mind…

What’s your favourite moment from Comic Relief over the years?
My first ever favourite moment was the first Comic Relief single - Cliff Richard and the Young Ones – we used to re-enact it in my school playground. Otherwise a tough call between working backstage at Live8 where I had to look after Brad Pitt amongst others and being on the boat when David Walliams swam the Channel…sorry David, I think you might lose this one!

What’s the first thing you’ll do when the Comic Relief night has ended?
I’ll be absolutely exhausted as we don’t fully finish until the early hours of the morning, but I’ll be ending the night in time honoured tradition by dancing stupidly to our official single (Sugababes and Girls Aloud – Walk This Way) with the rest of Comic Relief and then sleeping for three days straight!

Who do you want to win Celebrity Fame Academy?
I really shouldn’t have favourites, but Colin Murray is brilliant!!

Dream job/company/lifestyle
If not here, then working for the Jim Henson workshop or at Brixton Academy, looking after artists who are playing there.

Best media jolly/event you've ever attended
We don’t really get very many glamorous invites unfortunately (all invites welcome!), but I do get to go to some pretty amazing gigs.

Topical question: Virgin Media or Sky?
There’s more to life than watching TV – apart from the Red Nose Night of TV of course!!

Though Red Nose Day has now come and gone, you can still give to Comic Relief by calling the donation line on 08457 910 910 or going online at www.rednoseday.com