Get people to open up. No sugarcoating.
Sugar in the Raw is a Miami show built on one thing: honest conversation about the stuff people carry and never say out loud. One seat, about an hour, cameras rolling. We go deep and we film every minute of it.
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 goes live on YouTube first, clips run on Instagram, and Spotify and Apple come later. We shoot it in Miami on cinema cameras and Shure microphones, so it looks and sounds like a film. That is where the truth lives, and that is the whole point.
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.
The internet flattens a person into a headline.
One line, one screenshot, one bad day frozen forever. Half the time it is not even the whole story, and the person behind it never gets to answer. Their name gets shattered online and the human being disappears under it.
This is the room where they tell their side, in their own words, and say how it actually felt. Not a statement, not a comeback tour. A conversation. Reputation, made human again. Sometimes that is a public figure who got buried by a headline. Sometimes it is someone you would pass on the street who has carried more than anyone knows.
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, the sharpest minds, the biggest names, 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.
Twenty years ago in Miami, David ran with a persona everyone knew as "Sugar," working with celebrities around the city. Sugar in the Raw is where that name comes back to life. The show is the start. A full media brand built around Sugar comes next, with merch and live events on the way.
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
Shot in Miami on cinema cameras and Shure 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.
Meet Liam Chaskey.
Liam is our production manager. He runs the cameras and the room so every episode looks and sounds like a film, not a webcam. Around Miami he is known for his own spaces, Uncommon Studios and the Miami Star Room, and he brings that same eye to Sugar in the Raw.
Cinema cameras, Shure microphones, controlled light. When a guest finally says the hard thing, Liam makes sure every second of it lands.
Cameron Jehl.
Cameron is the person behind the company. He cuts every episode and every clip, shapes the content that goes out, and runs all of the social accounts. If it went out with the Sugar in the Raw name on it, it came across his desk first.
David hosts the room and Liam runs the cameras. Cameron takes what they capture and turns it into the thing you actually watch and share, then gets it in front of the right people. He is the reason the brand keeps moving between tapings.
Sports Agent Blog · The Kevin Sutton Show · Miami Beach Chamber Small Business of the Year 2012 · L'Etage Magazine
You leave lighter than you came.
Most people never get an hour to say the thing out loud. We give you the seat, the room, and someone who has been there. All you bring is the truth.
Think you belong in the seat?
The first episode drops in September. If you have something real to say and you are ready to go deeper than usual, we want to hear from you.