so last thursday, i settled on the final cut with my editors at the magazine. that saturday, my friend amy wilson called me to tell me she already had a copy of the magazine, which led to a citywide search for the mag on sunday, with every newsstand worker telling me "tomorrow morning! we have it tomorrow morning!"
then monday, before my girlfriend could even find a copy of it, i got an email from the magazine telling me that either paula zahn or anderson cooper wanted to interview me on cnn. ("you'd be crazy to do this," my girlfriend said. "you'd be crazy not to," said everyone else.) i accepted their invitation and we set up a time for taping the following day.
tuesday morning, the invitations multiplied, coming from dan abrams on the abrams report as well as keith olbermann, both on msnbc; rita cosby; cbs's early show for a segment on 'the dark side of craigslist'; and the mother of all hosts, geraldo rivera. yikes. this was terrifying. a friend of a friend who works in pr for an arts organization heard the list and said "i'm a little scared for you." i got exactly opposite advice on the same philosophy from different people. my pr friend said, "you'll never regret not going on geraldo. you might regret actually doing it." my friend michael, on the other hand, advised, "don't be fifty years old and wondering, 'what if i had gone on geraldo?'!"
i went home that night and watched some segments online (i don't have cable). the decision was simple.
he's on fox. no thanks, geraldo.
i also declined the invitation from rita cosby, fox alum whose claim to fame is an exclusive with jermaine and tito during michael's child molestation trial. i accepted the rest of the invitations on wednesday morning. paula zahn, who was to interview me that night, put me on hold while they assembled supplementary materials...and then lost interest. i never heard from olbermann or the cbs early show. i guess the short attention span of television viewers afflicts the producers as well? (sorry, couldn't resist.)
before taping for the abrams report, i talked to jamie, a producer, and told her i didn't even have cable so i wasn't familiar with the show. 'oh that's okay,' she reassured me. 'we usually have two lawyers on, screaming at each other about something.' thursday morning they sent a car for me and brought me to a midtown studio, where the beautiful yoko made me up to look like a slightly more monochrome version of myself. what was so strange about taping it was how normal and unfrightening it seemed. i sat in a booth, looked at a camera, listened to an earbud and spoke into a microphone as if having a cell phone conversation. i wasn't on a set and i wasn't looking at my host, so it was not that intimidating.
read a transcript.the other night i watched the tape, which was truly a bizarre experience. who was this confident, un-terrified guy? whose was that unfamiliar voice? (similarly, when i look at my name in the magazine, on their pages, in their font, it's as though it's someone else's name. it's only when i see my face and my words that i can believe it again.) on tv i look like just another guest on the show. it's strange for a public-radio snob like me to be slotted into all the quick cuts and flashy graphics.
thank god, i tape an interview with steve inskeep for morning edition tomorrow. they are not sending a car. back to reality!
