I have a new best friend.
Perhaps I’ll even meet her one day.
Sounds a bit strange, I know. But after conducting a phone interview with Playboy’s Miss July 2011, Jessa Hinton, I indeed feel as if I have a Playmate as a pal.
I was offered the chance to talk with Jessa to do a story for PubClub.com, and I quickly jumped at the chance (who wouldn’t, right!?). Jessa had just finished reporting on the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight as part of her job for ESPN’s Top Rank Boxing, and she also does several other things, among them interviewing poker players for Victory Poker, launching a swimwear line for Afflication clothing and volunteering at a women’s shelter.
I had requested 15-20 minutes, for that seemed sufficient time to talk about all her activities. The only drag was that instead of conducting it in person – as I prefer to do for all first-time interviews – it would have to be done over the phone because she was in Las Vegas and I in L.A.
Jessa was set to call on a Tuesday evening at 5 p.m., and I had been through this with interview subjects (primarily athletes) several times before; you wait around half the night in the hope they might call. You can’t go anywhere and are even afraid to go to the bathroom because that’s when the phone is most likely to ring.
Yet I could tell from the start this was to be something different, perhaps even special.
For starters, the phone rang at almost exactly 5 o’clock. Not only that, but a 702 number popped up on the display. I expected it to be the publicist who would introduce herself, then say “well here’s Jessa” and hand the phone to her client.
Instead, I was greeted with a bouncy “hi, this is Jessa!” Wait a minute, I thought. Did she call me from her own phone and do I now have Miss July’s number!?
As I was trying to shake this off, Jess said, “I’m sorry if I have to pause to sneeze because I have a bit of a cold.”
That’s a pretty candid comment for someone I’ve never met to start an interview, and as things continued, the conversation became less of an interview and more of a friendly chit-chat, almost as if we were longtime friends catching up with one another after a while.
Jessa didn’t give stock answers to questions, but rather talked as if we were discussing things in a pub.
She said she was curled up on her couch with her hair in a ponytail, not at some VIP booth in a Vegas club.
She said she loves singing Journey on karaoke nights.
This is my favorite quote, about her being knowledgeable enough about sports to interview her subjects: “I have to know my shit. With Playboy, it’s the first thing people rag on. Just because I’m pretty and have big boobs doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
With talk like that, Jessa proved she’s no paper doll. Her bio stated she’s originally a California girl and she showed that by mentioning in passing that she loves In ‘N Out Burger. This is as an identifiable trait of a true Californian as a suntan.
Our interview then suddenly came to a halt as I spent several minutes trying to give her the location of a “secret” In ‘N Out spot in Vegas (4705 S. Maryland Parkway, Jessa).
Much of the rest of our conversation went just like that, a friendly exchange of new pals rather than a bland “me ask and you answer” interview. It was as if I were talking to my good friend The Blonde rather than a girl who may well be the 2012 Playmate of the Year.
Her voice even sounded like The Blonde and she loved The Blonde’s big catchphrase: “I have the fun of a blonde but the brains of brunette.” I know for a fact if the two ever met, they would hit it off as quickly as USC scored touchdowns on UCLA in the 2011 cross-town rivals’ football game.
Jessa said she may be moving full time to Los Angeles and mentioned the area of the city in which I live as one of her potential destinations. So she started asking me about it. Jessa is so easy going, so quick to establish a comfort zone with people that it’s hard not to think of her as being an instant best friend.
Then again, it could have also just been my pleasing personality that brought out the best in her! (Insert laugh track here.)
Instead of talking for 15-20 minutes, we chatted for 45. And I have the feeling we could have easily continued for another half an hour.
Perhaps the next time we chat, it will be in person, two new best friends having face-to-face laughs. With The Blonde there too, of course.
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