The room, the host, and the question.
Sugar in the Raw is a Miami interview show. One guest sits for about an hour on three cameras and answers the same question every guest answers: what makes you sad? Episode one, with Dr. Glenn Toby, goes live October 15.
What "in the raw" means.
David sits down with one person for about an hour and gets them to open up. Celebrities he has known for years and everyday people with a real story, side by side, in the same seat. That is the whole idea. Put a famous name next to someone nobody has heard of and you see the same thing: everyone is human, and everyone has made mistakes.
Raw means no script and no surface talk. We do not cut away when it gets heavy. It is shot in Miami on cinema cameras and broadcast microphones, so it looks and sounds like a film, and it goes up on YouTube with clips on Instagram. Our own studio in Wynwood is being finished now. Episode one is already in the can: Dr. Glenn Toby, three cameras, live on October 15.
Every guest answers the same question. "What makes you sad?" It sounds simple. It is not. It cuts straight past the resume and gets to the emotion underneath the story. When someone answers it honestly, the whole conversation changes. That question is the spine of this show.
An hour to say it out loud.
Most people never get an hour to say the thing out loud. Online you get a headline, a screenshot, one bad day frozen. This is the room where you tell it yourself, in your own words, and say how it actually felt. Sometimes that puts a reputation back together. More often it is just a person, finally saying it.
What makes you sad?
It is a hard question. That is the point. This show is about the emotion underneath the story.
David "Sugar" Sugarman
David started with a GED and clawed his way onto Wall Street in 1995. He worked at major firms, including Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Then he left it all behind and rebuilt from nothing in Miami.
He knows the bottom, because he has lived there. The saddest day of his life was the day his dog died in a house fire. He gave up. Around that same stretch he was sent to prison over child support. He lost the things that held him together, and he had to find his way back one honest day at a time.
That is why he can sit across from anyone and get them to open up. He is not asking you to go somewhere he has not already been. He has done the hard part himself, so he knows how to pull it out of you with respect and no judgment.
That mix is the whole edge. A Wall Street pedigree means he can hold his own with anyone in the room and never flinch. The comeback means he has also been on the floor, so he knows what it costs to be honest. People feel that. They know he has earned the question, and that is why they answer it.
Cameron Jehl.
Cameron Jehl produces Sugar in the Raw. He reads every application, runs the screening call, books and confirms the guests, and cuts every episode and every clip that goes out. He also runs the marketing and the social accounts between tapings.
If it carries the Sugar in the Raw name, it came across his desk first. He is the person you will be dealing with.
A room built for the truth.
You are safe in the seat
No gotcha, no edit that makes you look small. David has been on the floor himself, so he pulls the story out with respect and zero judgment.
It looks and sounds like a film
Three cameras in Miami, cinema glass and broadcast microphones. Your worst day and your best line land like they belong on a screen.
One question changes everything
"What makes you sad?" cuts past the resume in one move. Answer it honestly and the hour turns into something you carry for good.
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You leave lighter than you came.
You get the seat, the room, and someone who has already been where you are. All you bring is the truth.
Think you belong in the seat?
Episode one with Dr. Glenn Toby goes live October 15. Apply in two minutes. If it is a fit, the next step is a twenty minute call with Cameron Jehl, our producer.