“I love Joburg, I have been there before and you guys know how to party. You have a great party scene that goes into the wee hours of the morning. I really had a great time there,” said US actress and TV host Jackie Wood upon hearing that this writer was calling her from South Africa.
Wood now hosts a show on E! Entertainment called Party On! in which she takes us around the world on a search for intriguing party scenes.
Since she has been to Joburg and loved the city’s party scene, it was only natural to ask if Jozi would be featured on Party On! as a party destination.
“Definitely. If there is a season two I would definitely want to come there. When I visited about a year or so ago, I had so much fun,” Wood said.
If you were to judge the star by what you know of Wood as an actress, you would probably never figure her for a host on a travel show about parties.
“My contract was over with The Bold and the Beautiful and I decided I wanted some time for me. I really wanted to travel and see the world. My agent called me a week after leaving The Bold and the Beautiful, telling me the people from E! Entertainment wanted to see me for a show called Party On! which was almost like Wild On and I was hooked,” she explained.
“I loved Wild On. I grew up watching Brooke Burke and now I was getting to be on a show just as big as hers. I could not say ‘no’,” she said.
Very few of us get to travel the globe through our work, and of those few who do, a very small percentage do it just to party and then still get to call it “work”. Wood is one of the select few.
“What is amazing is that I have always wanted to go to the places we ended up going to so that was a plus for me. When I took a break I planned to visit Croatia and when it became a destination on the show, it was really cool.
“I learnt so much about myself and about the places we visited. I made so many friends along the way and that’s the main thing for me; collecting memories,” she said.
Few people know that Wood is a club DJ and this skill came in handy while she was globetrotting.
“I go by the name DJ Jac Mac and have been DJing for several years now. I even played a bit when I was in South Africa.
“I started it as a way to pay my rent, but it became something I was passionate about.
“On the show there are episodes that you will see me on the decks doing my thing with the local DJs. It was fun,” she said ecstatically.
Known for her role as Steffy Forrester in the hit US soapie, The Bold and the Beautiful, Jackie revealed that she has become used to being called by both her real name and her character’s name, too.
“I get both and it all comes down to the demographics. The people who watch Bold will always call me ‘Steffy’, while those who check Party On! will call me Jackie.
“I also have a number of people who really liked my work in Final Destination so they call me ‘Olivia’. I keep turning my head all the time and I don’t mind at all,” she said.
• Party On! airs every Tuesday at 7pm on E! Entertainment (DStv channel 124).