Jesse Camp

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Jesse Camp in Jesse & the 8th Street Kidz

Jesse Camp (born Josiah A. Camp III, November 4, 1979) was the winner of the first Wanna Be a VJ contest on MTV. He won over Dave Holmes for a Veejay job on the popular music video show Total Request Live (TRL) and the short-lived Lunch with Jesse which was cancelled in 2000.

1 Image
2 Controversy
3 Career
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Image

Jesse attended the prestigious Loomis Chaffee prep school in Connecticut. He had an offbeat, scratchy voice and wore intentionally distressed clothing. He would often walk around campus with a large silver rectangular boom box and make funny announcements at all school meetings. Due to his gangly frame, many viewers speculated that he fit the image of one who frequently abuses drugs. Perhaps he was attempting to remind people of rock stars such as Keith Richards and Iggy Pop.

[edit] Controversy

During the course of Wanna Be a VJ, he led many viewers to believe that he was currently homeless, in order to garner sympathy. Later on, news of his prep school past exposed him as a privileged fraud. {[1]}

The Village Voice reported that an internet source, known only by the handle "UglyPig", claimed to have cast over 3,000 votes in the contest, exploiting a security flaw in the system.

[edit] Career

Camp held his position as an occasional TRL host for one year. Upon leaving he attempted to parlay his MTV fame into a music career, announcing the debut album of his band Jesse & the 8th Street Kidz on the Hollywood Records label. The album sold poorly, and Camp's band was soon dropped from the label. In late 2006, he was reportedly working at a Los Angeles-area pet supply store.

[edit] Trivia

He once described his hometown of Granby, Connecticut as the worst place on Earth.

He was a panelist on the hit Nickelodeon TV Show Figure It Out. During his episode on the show he was "Slimed" twice, once for saying the word "pass" and the other time because he was one of the panelists who "needed a time out"