If you’d told me, six months ago, that I’d get a chance to hang around shooting Mark Summers hosting a UNC vs Duke Double Dare Challenge — where a good number of participants were too young to have ever watched the original show on Nickelodeon — I probably would have just smirked at you, because like that would even happen in the Triangle.

But you know what? It did. It was an event put together by the Duke University Union in conjunction with Carolina’s student activities board, and thanks to a friend of a coworker, I had the opportunity to bum around the Duke IM Gym both before and during the event, with my camera in tow.

It’s not my usual kind of work, but neither are the burlesque shows I’ve had such fun shooting, and I believe that you need to take risks, and push boundaries, to get better. Shooting this event was all based on the same principles as shooting, say, a punk show — it’s fast-paced, the light is weird, and occasionally people break eggs on top of their heads. (Well, okay, that doesn’t happen at punk shows,but it should. Don’t tell Glenn I said that, though, when you do it, punk bands. He’d be mad at me.) Some trick I grabbed on the fly Saturday might save my butt later on shooting a show. You never know.

And frankly, I might have another job that smells strongly of baby oil and tacos all afternoon, but probably not. So there was that, too, and that was awesome. Weird. But awesome.