Welcome to Three Shots with Beijing Cream, where local personalities get drunk with us for some reason. Produced and directed by Gabriel Clermont and Anthony Tao.
Our guest this week is the loquacious and smoky-eyed Nestor Santana, a longtime expat with the expat’s trove of stories — many of them we can’t tell here. It doesn’t mean we can’t ask about them though.
Nestor is the Asia manager for an ad and marketing company and has lived in Beijing for eight years. You’ll have to catch him at one of the city’s bars, of which he is a habitué, for fuller scoops.
Three Shots With Nestor Santana was filmed at Cu Ju (28 Xiguan Hutong), run by another longtime expat, the estimable Badr of Beijing Daze. Go for the rums. Seriously, do it. The collection is to be marveled.
Edited by Gabriel Clermont (@gabrieltrane), with additional filming by Stone Yu. Special thanks to Badr of Cu Ju.
Previously: Three Shots With… Sophie Cooke
It’s a shame to see such a great concept poorly executed. I’ve never heard of this guy, and as the viewer I’m given little reason to care. This guy now just looks silly to all the girls he has or hasn’t banged, and the interviewers appear even more juvenile. I understand that this guy is probably a friend and is a Really Cool Dude, but it’s not coming across.
To me, the appeal of this concept is the introduction of alcohol into what is usually a dry (no pun intended) format. I’d be more interested if:
a) get subjects who have more to talk about than how many Chinese women they’ve laid (let’s face it: not a big deal and kind of disgusting)
b) Three Shots becomes Six Shots and the drunkenness becomes a more significant factor. Real drunk people on camera is always gold. see: Drunk History
c) instead of personal questions, get the subject to give their opinions on Beijing happenings and more divisive topics that readers are interested in and can relate to, making the booze less of a gimmick and more of an actual tool to get the subject to open up and say some real shit
d) tighten up the editing. the cut-ins of filibustering politicians is a good idea, but the timing lags and kills the joke
e) add some background music for godsakes
M2C
I’ve lived in Beijing for 8 years and have no idea who this douche is.
Jake the Muss! Didn’t you read Beijing Cream’s description? I am a local personality. Last I checked local means Chinese which also means infinite. I’m not surprised we’ve never met: you are obviously too poorly connected to borrow the needed money to hang out in the only bar I go to, which is Centro at the Kerry center. By the way, your profile icon seems to hint at your association with a flock of lost birds, probably H7N9 ridden.
Good idea for a show, but you chimps at BJC need to learn how to edit. Interesting people worth interviewing will watch your last episode on Don Juan and say to themselves, “No fucking way am I doing this!” Also, don’t interview your friends unless you talk about something relevant. It alienates all of us regular viewers who aren’t as dialed in on the Beijing scene. One thing you could do for your upcoming summer episodes is have the interviewee take his shirt off. Or maybe while he’s sitting at the bar he could urinate on himself. I don’t know, really. Just trying to contribute and think outside of the box.
I’m kinda proud of ‘ol Nest for not revealing the names of all the countless women he’s banged. But one thing he should do is work on his storytelling skills. I was bored from start to finish, and I bet there’s more than one girl who could say the same.
As for the other episodes, I thought the first two were okay. It’s clear whose cock Ding sucks, and Morgan seems like he doesn’t take himself too seriously which is a trait many expats could learn from.
As for the visiting “writers,” they were both uneventful but then again so is slam poetry. Maybe it’s not their fault, which is something your viewers are going to have to consider because the editing on these videos is bullshit. And so are the questions, for the most part.
Tell your subjects to meet you at a bar at midnight rather than 7:30 and see what kind of magic you capture. I’d tune again under those circumstances.
Oh Wow, i was going to say how funny this story was as a very ‘local joke’. Surprised how serious people want to make themselves sound like while just feeling intimidated by “the original beijing playboy”. As a person grown up here and knowing the biggest and smallest fish swims around, a sense of light heartedness while we do our ego driven thing here in Beijing is refreshing. Please park the pseudo-intellectual stuff , and admit we are just human. But well done Beijing Cream, no controversy would be too bad. Also, trying to run over someone with a car is not a crime!!!!
Lol what a tool. I love this interview series. A spitting image of Mike Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WzyxybYEGM