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o in to The Bean these days and you’ll see campaign signs and cards near the counter. They have nothing to do with the often-caustic election season just passed. Rather, this campaign is about Alizé Proisy’s effort to win votes in order to become host of a new Travel Channel program called, “Paradise Hunter”.

Alizé Proisy, who is trying to become host of a new TV program called “Paradise Hunter”. Oriental is the backdrop for a number of scenes in her audition video. Right now, she’s looking for voters to cast ballots for her on-line.

Alizé says she wants the job because she loves to travel and tell stories about places. These days she reports and anchors newscasts for Channel 12 in New Bern and is in Oriental often because this is where her boyfriend, The Bean owner Eric Kindle, lives. Eric says he sees the gig as a “great opportunity” for her.

For the past several months, Alizé has been putting together an audition video that includes a number of sites in Oriental. The 68 second video opens with her above Whittaker Creek, standing on a spreader of a sailboat’s mast. (In subsequent scenes she’s in a fighter jet cockpit, riding through floodwaters, crawling along a drainpipe and cutting watermelons with Fay Bond in Oriental.) The video ends with Alizé at the Oriental Town Beach, heading in to the Neuse to go kitesurfing.

The audition video is not enough, though. Prospective hosts first have to go through a winnowing process by way of on-line voting. The initial pool of 1000 candidates has been whittled down to 40 and Alizé recently made that cut. This current round of voting pares down the list of candidates even more. Which is why the Bean’s become a de-facto campaign headquarters for Alizé and why she’s asking folks in Oriental and visitors and readers here at TownDock for their votes.

A very homegrown campaign effort at the front counter of The Bean. (The WiFi is free, but taking a moment to vote for Alize on line would be appreciated.)

“Paradise Hunter” started out as an on-line feature and is evolving in to a TV show that will focus each month on a new “paradise” location. The host will report on the varying cultures, accommodations and other things that tourists might find in those places. Eric Kindle says that in addition to getting the job, the host also gets a home in one of those places. (We’re pretty sure he was kidding when he said that those who vote for Alizé would get visiting rights….)

Alizé Proisy at Oriental’s Town Dock last week.

A Q&A With Alizé Proisy:

Alizé — her name is pronounced Ah-lee-zay — Proisy is 27 and has been working as a TV news reporter for 4 years, first in Montana and for the past two years in New Bern.

Traveling far and wide is something she’s already familiar with. She says she was named after the tradewinds “that bring sailors from one sea paradise to another.” Until she was a teenager, Alizé lived in France, then moved back to the US, her mother’s homeland. She speaks French and English.

What is it about the Paradise Hunter that you most want to do?
Ever since I was a little kid I’ve loved telling stories and taking pictures. That’s why I got into the news business. I get to combine both of those passions. But I also love traveling the world. Growing up in both France and America I got to experience different cultures. I also have family with roots in Africa and Tibet. Therefore I’ve traveled to those places and have made pit stops in Spain, Greece, Switzerland, England, several Tahitian islands, and the Caribbean along the way. I kind of got addicted to seeing new places and blending in with the people who live there. Going on a hunt to find paradise all while telling stories and capturing it on film? AWESOME DREAM JOB!

You’ve grown up in both France and the US. Is there some place (or places) you’ve lived that you’ve thought of as paradise? Absolutely. I think paradise can be found anywhere! First of all Oriental. Wow! It is beautiful. I love sitting on the front porch of The Bean watching the boats sail in and out and listening to the stories of the sailors and the locals who have found paradise here and have made it their home. Next, Bar Harbor, Maine. I’ve been going to that island every summer forever. Being home to Acadia National Park, beauty is around every corner, but there I found my paradise on this big rock atop Beehive Mountain. I can sit there for hours just admiring the view. That’s where I go when I send out my postcards.

I got my first TV job in Montana. There I found paradise skiing fast through the powder near Glacier National Park. In Bora Bora I found paradise feeding the Manta Rays and snorkeling the reefs. One day I brought a box of Ritz Crackers. I broke them in the water and had thousands of gorgeous tropical fish surrounding me for a bite.In Paris paradise is walking around in the tiny streets where tourists don’t venture with a cone of Berthillon pear sorbet. Getting lost is the best part. And finally, climbing to the peak of the alps of Switzerland, the view from there is paradise too!

Can you tell me a bit about what the Paradise Hunter show would be?
Paradise Hunter would be a half hour long weekly adventure to paradises all over the world. In the year long series, 12 different locations would be highlighted.

Your audition video is well done and comparatively speaking, shows a good deal of production. Would you have a role to play in how the Paradise Hunter shows are done?
Thank you. I hope I would get to have some input on how the shows are done, but I’m not quite sure. The producers might leave it up to the pros.

If you got the job, would you be on the go all year or would you come home to New Bern/Oriental in between?
If I am lucky enough to get the job, you won’t be getting rid of me completely. They will be filming the show off and on for up to 6 months during the year. I would never be gone longer than a month, and I would come back home to Oriental/New Bern in between shoots.

The deadline for voting in this round is December 15. Voters may cast one ballot a day per computer. (Voters may cast ballots for the same candidate the next day.)

Posted Tuesday December 7, 2010 by Melinda Penkava