TV Appearance
Today was the big day . . . live on television on the program Twin Cities Live. I thought I would share with you my thoughts on the experience.
I was supposed to show up at two o'clock at the Hubbard Broadcasting Studios / Channel 5. My mother drove me, and since we didn't know where the studios were exactly, we arrive half an hour early. We found a Dunn Brothers' coffee shop nearby and waited there. I decided only to have a water, and I tried to chain-smoke out the nervousness I was feeling at the time. I was pretty nervous all day long really, and because of that I was a little short with my mother at several times during the day (sorry mom). We we arrived in the Channel 5 building, we were given passes and then escorted down a maze of corridors until we were shown into the Green Room—the room you wait in until you go on the show. The walls were painted a gray-green as far as I could tell (it was a little dark). There was a table with refreshments, and a TV the broadcasted the Channel 5 feed. I met the other people who were going on the show that day . . . an exercise dancer and the teacher of the year. I also saw former baseball great Harmon Killebrew, but he waited in another room separate from the rest of us.
When I first got into the room, a behind the scenes guy (a producer? Sorry, I can't remember) went over some talking points. A little later I was miked-up, and about ten minutes before the show I was taken into a room with John and Rebekah, and we chatted briefly and discussed the segment. Then I was escorted back to the Green Room where I waited to go on.
I could feel my nerves get bad as I was waiting (waiting for a speech is similarly stressful), but I tried to relax as well as I could by breathing deeply. Finally, someone came into the room and told me I was on. The show was in a commercial break, and so I had to quickly get on stage and into my chair. They asked me to do a mike check by counting to ten, and I said, "Ten." I was so nervous I totally was messing up the mike check, and then I tried to cover by counting to ten starting from the number one this time. Then a woman came up to me and powdered up my forehead, as apparently I was too reflective on camera. The hosts John and Rebekah weren't on stage when all of this was happening, because in the previous segment they were doing aerobic dancing in different clothes. So, they were off the set changing clothes as quickly as possible while the commercial was going. There were literally about two second left before the commercial break would come to an end when they got into their chairs. But, they didn't miss a beat. I was thoroughly impressed. Then the interview started. I was scheduled for four minutes on the air, but it lasted eight. Also, we didn't go through the talking points that were prepared at all; we all pretty much winged it live on television. But the questions they asked me on the air were much more interesting than the prepared talking points, and I thought the interview was much better than it could have been because of that. I felt quite at ease talking to John and Rebekah, and I didn't really feel nervous at all once the interview started. And I could tell they were genuinely interested in the conversation.
Overall, I thought the whole thing was an excellent experience. Thank you John, Rebekah, and Twin Cities Live for putting me on the air in my first TV interview. I thought they did an excellent job.
I was supposed to show up at two o'clock at the Hubbard Broadcasting Studios / Channel 5. My mother drove me, and since we didn't know where the studios were exactly, we arrive half an hour early. We found a Dunn Brothers' coffee shop nearby and waited there. I decided only to have a water, and I tried to chain-smoke out the nervousness I was feeling at the time. I was pretty nervous all day long really, and because of that I was a little short with my mother at several times during the day (sorry mom). We we arrived in the Channel 5 building, we were given passes and then escorted down a maze of corridors until we were shown into the Green Room—the room you wait in until you go on the show. The walls were painted a gray-green as far as I could tell (it was a little dark). There was a table with refreshments, and a TV the broadcasted the Channel 5 feed. I met the other people who were going on the show that day . . . an exercise dancer and the teacher of the year. I also saw former baseball great Harmon Killebrew, but he waited in another room separate from the rest of us.
When I first got into the room, a behind the scenes guy (a producer? Sorry, I can't remember) went over some talking points. A little later I was miked-up, and about ten minutes before the show I was taken into a room with John and Rebekah, and we chatted briefly and discussed the segment. Then I was escorted back to the Green Room where I waited to go on.
I could feel my nerves get bad as I was waiting (waiting for a speech is similarly stressful), but I tried to relax as well as I could by breathing deeply. Finally, someone came into the room and told me I was on. The show was in a commercial break, and so I had to quickly get on stage and into my chair. They asked me to do a mike check by counting to ten, and I said, "Ten." I was so nervous I totally was messing up the mike check, and then I tried to cover by counting to ten starting from the number one this time. Then a woman came up to me and powdered up my forehead, as apparently I was too reflective on camera. The hosts John and Rebekah weren't on stage when all of this was happening, because in the previous segment they were doing aerobic dancing in different clothes. So, they were off the set changing clothes as quickly as possible while the commercial was going. There were literally about two second left before the commercial break would come to an end when they got into their chairs. But, they didn't miss a beat. I was thoroughly impressed. Then the interview started. I was scheduled for four minutes on the air, but it lasted eight. Also, we didn't go through the talking points that were prepared at all; we all pretty much winged it live on television. But the questions they asked me on the air were much more interesting than the prepared talking points, and I thought the interview was much better than it could have been because of that. I felt quite at ease talking to John and Rebekah, and I didn't really feel nervous at all once the interview started. And I could tell they were genuinely interested in the conversation.
Overall, I thought the whole thing was an excellent experience. Thank you John, Rebekah, and Twin Cities Live for putting me on the air in my first TV interview. I thought they did an excellent job.
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