DSU’s resident student media group have raised more than £1,000 for charity with a Children in Need-style telethon.
De Montfort Students’ Union (DSU)’s resident student media group have raised more than £1,000 for charity with a Children in Need-style telethon.
Demon Media broadcast spoofs and parodies of popular TV shows like ‘Would I Lie To You?’, ‘Impractical Jokers’ and more, plus a tonne of original content, for 20 hours as part of ‘The Great RAG Challenge’ to raise money for Mind and Coping with Cancer – but there’s still time to donate.
Dan Wildman, Head of Live Events at Demon Media, coordinated the event. He said: “I don’t think my state of sleep is even a thing at the moment! I stayed awake for what was somewhere in the region of 38 hours; then we had our wrap party and I slept for 12 hours straight. I have no sleep schedule right now!
“But seriously, there were 112 individual people that worked on the project and every single one of them had a massive role to play. Hands down there were more people involved than ever before.”
Lydia George, Ashton Matthews and Abi Gibson channeled their inner Britney as they performed 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' on 'Lip Sync Battle'.
Demon Media members – from across DemonFM, DemonTV and The Demon – were split into teams with production managers, producers and directors to create the different shows.
“It’s the way you would imagine an industry broadcast would be,” Dan continued. “There were a few different bits that I could choose as my favourite.
“We had shows like Tasklord, which was a rip-off of Taskmaster, and I found that really funny.
“And to just be sat there watching Impractical Jokers – where we embarrassed Dom [Whiting] – was wonderful.”
Dan said that staying awake for 38 hours straight had definitely messed up his sleeping pattern –? but it was all worth it in the end.
And Dan was particularly grateful to the team of Frontrunners, volunteers and other community members who lent their support to the marathon broadcast.
“There are so many people I’d like to thank,” he said. “A captain is nothing without their crew, so while I coordinated it, without all of the production team and the teams who worked on the shows and the team who promoted the event, the shows wouldn’t have happened.
“Thinking that we have done something that could make a difference is wonderful. This sort of event is something I would have wanted to do anyway, but knowing it has made a difference to people’s lives just makes it even better.”
TV shows weren't all that was being ripped off...Mike had his chest waxed as the live total hit the £700 mark.
DSU’s Officer Team were also on hand to get involved with the action, with President Dan Winney and VP Welfare and Community Keira Rounsley featuring on a special edition of ‘Would I Lie To You?’ and VP Media and Communications Mike Mayes hosting an early-morning ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ slot – as well as having his chest waxed.
“Every year, Demon Media blows me away with their ambition and drive to put on an amazing RAG [Raise and Give] event,” Mike explained. “This year they switched formats from previous years and put on parodies of your favourite TV shows as well as some amazing original content in a Children in Need-style livestream.
“I was really impressed with the quality of the content they put out and they’d chosen to support a pair of amazing charities, one local, one national. I enjoyed watching the shows they put out both while I was watching from home and right there in the studio.
“At least...I enjoyed my time in the studio until I found dozens of Demons chanting at me to get my chest waxed live on the stream. My chest still hasn’t recovered, but we did manage to help drive a load of extra donations through a few daft on-air challenges – turns out a lot of people were willing to pay to see me in pain.
“Despite the lingering pain in my chest, it was all for a worthy cause and that will last longer than the pain will.”
You can still donate to The Great RAG Challenge total on the fundraising page here.
You can also watch every show from the stream on DemonTV’s YouTube channel here.
Just some of the 112 Frontrunners, volunteers and community members who lent their support to the telethon.
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