His wire-rim glasses were more understated and his hair was decidedly thinning. But, as he entered the room and took his place behind the podium wearing a form-fitting black turtleneck, slim black pants and chunky boots, he was eerily familiar.
Lecturing on Saturday, March 2nd for the first installment of the 2004 Lecture Series, Judd Winick was new to the Princeton campus, but was hardly a new face for the students. Eight years after his stint as a cast member for "The Real World III: San Francisco," Winick was older — now 32 —and, as a result of his experience on the show, a great deal wiser.
Open for questions about his "Real World" experience, his life or even his career as a cartoonist, Winick was specifically here to read from his book entitled "Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned." The book is a 150+ page graphic novel Winick wrote as a tribute to his friend and castmate, Pedro Zamora, who succumbed to an AIDS-related illness on November 11, 1994, a mere four months after he had finished filming the show.
Following Pedro's death, Winick went on a lecture tour to continue the work that Pedro had done in spreading his message of sex education, AIDS prevention and overall self-love. "This wasn't a moral dilemma or a religious debate," Winick writes in his book about the straightforward platform both he and Zamora presented, largely to teenagers. "It's a health issue."
But to understand where Winick is now and how his time on "The Real World" and his relationship with Zamora inspired him to become a social activist, one must rewind a bit back in time.
It all began with a letter, Winick recalls. Having just graduated from the University of Michigan with the promise of national syndication for his comic strip, Winick was shocked when the development deal was cancelled and he was forced to move back in with his parents.
Sitting in front of the television one August day in 1993, Winick saw an ad for a "Real World" casting call. Deciding to give it a shot, Winick sat down and wrote, "Dear MTV, I'm a cartoonist. I'm stuck on Long Island. Please help."
He made it through the six levels of auditions and, in January 1994, was finally given a spot on the show.
Winick did not go into the situation completely naïve. In its third season, "The Real World" offered a strange new brand of insta-fame and Winick had heard the tales of others who had been in the first two casts. It didn't seem like a bad deal to him, though. "You give up your privacy to MTV in exchange for living in a beautiful home rent-free for six months," he recalls thinking.
And, fame in the aftermath of the show had its good side too. "Maybe I'd get a talk show or something," he figured.
When asked by MTV producers if he would be comfortable living with an HIV-infected roommate, Judd remembers the liberal part of himself spitting out some diplomatic answer about understanding that the cast would be diverse and being open to new experiences. He was nowhere near as comfortable as he claimed.
"All I'm thinking is — 'Jesus H. Christ. I'm going to be living with someone who has AIDS. This is not what I planned on,' " he says about his initial reaction. " 'Why couldn't I just live with last year's cast? That cranky Irishman or the obnoxious surfer guy or girl who wired her mouth shut to lose weight? [This] was not what I expected I would have to deal with.' "
Though he considered himself an educated, socially-aware liberal, Winick was personally confronted with AIDS as a reality for the very first time when he moved into the house on 953 Lumbar Street on February 12th. It just happened to be his birthday. It was decided that he would share a bedroom with Zamora. Winick could have never known that this new roommate would be one of the best gifts he would ever receive.
Upon first discovering that Zamora had AIDS, Winick tried to quash his feelings of discomfort. "Of course I'm fine," he thought to himself. "I'm Liberal Boy. I subscribe to both Rolling Stone and Spin, I've seen 'Phildelphia' [and] the very special episodes of 'ThirtySomething.' I'm okay. " It took time before he could admit that he wasn't.
Zamora was patient with him, however. Winick thinks himself lucky for "sharing a room with an AIDS educator who had spoken to thousands all over the country." Educating his roommate was simply part of his larger mission.
Winick remembers the rest of his time in the "Real World" house being utterly exhausting. "It's like therapy without the help," he says. Though the strain of living one's life on camera and the stress of dissecting every little thing that happened in the house was burdensome, Winick says, "At the same time, it was amazing. We lived in this pressure-cooker existence where reality became that much more real by the fact that it was being documented."
If the experience was one of heightened reality for him, the generation glued to their televisions watching the story unfold felt much of the same. Beaming into houses across the nation (and the world), these "seven strangers picked to live in a house" became familiar faces for MTV viewers. Pedro, very possibly, was the realest of all and a shock was sent through the nation when he died a few short months after moving out of the house on Lumbar Street.
Zamora may no longer be here, but he has hardly been forgotten. President Clinton gave a radio address the day of Zamora's death saying, "Pedro has become a member of every family. Now no one can say that they don't know someone with AIDS."
"The whole world was mourning," remembers Winick. "We felt that."
Pedro had spread his message across the country prior to his experience on "The Real World," but, as a result of the show, he reached scores more people than he would otherwise have been able to in the limited time he was given for his short life.
Winick has tried to carry on that mission. He lectured in 80 schools over a period of a year and a half following Zamora's death, but Zamora and his life weren't subjects Winick could initially address through his comics.
"I liked picking on the Republicans here and there," he said and also noted that he's dealt with everything from dyslexia to anorexia to the genocide of Native Americans. Homosexuality is also something Winick hadn't even hesitated to address. In his comic "Green Lantern," the teenage assistant is a gay character and in today's edition of "X-Men," yet another character has just been outed.
Yet this one subject — Zamora and his life and death —seemed untouchable.
It took some time and distance for Winick to decide to sit down and write about his friend. "For as long as I remember, I wanted to be a syndicated cartoon guy," says Winick when he thinks about his idol Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury." "Then I met Pedro and that all just seemed so trivial."
It was through Zamora that Winick "truly found [his] way as a storyteller." So he sat down, pen in hand, and wrote about his friend and, combining truth, humor and a message, he hopes he has done justice to the life of Pedro Zamora.
That life had been immortalized on "The Real World." But is "The Real World" really real?
One must remember: They were not characters on a show, they were people. There were no plotlines or scripts, there was only life. But can capturing a life on film, editing it down and then setting it to pop music ever really be true to a person?
"Absolutely," says Winick with a stern look on his face, after thinking about the way Pedro Zamora was frozen forever in our memories through the magic of television. Then he smiles.
"Except he was a lot funnier."
Read More
Princeton Zoning Board of Adjustment approves renovations to Tower and Charter Clubs
Sena Chang and Isaac BernsteinOn March 27, the Municipality of Princeton’s Zoning Board of Adjustment approved construction developments for Tower Club and Charter Club. Renovations for both clubs are aimed towards improving accessibility.
On March 27, the Municipality of Princeton’s Zoning Board of Adjustment approved construction developments for Tower Club and Charter Club. Renovations for both clubs are aimed towards improving accessibility.
Students support local businesses with new platform Zage
Jack AllenAfter hearing about the struggles faced by a number of these restaurants after students left campus in mid-March, Dilbagi created Zage, an online platform that allows community members to send money to local businesses now to redeem as credits on their purchases in the future.
This fall, go beyond the 'Bubble'
Dora ZhaoEven though classes are picking up, weekends are the perfect time for students to escape the Orange Bubble. While going out to eat on Nassau is enjoyable, there is so much to see beyond Princeton. For those looking for a day trip or a chance to explore the area outside of Princeton, here is a list of ideas to do this fall.