"You stoked for
tomorrow!?", Keith asked expecting the same ferver
in return.
"Meh..."
I was admittedly
burnt out. The struggle of producing the Living Room
Live bits was wearing on me, and I was meeting with my
supervisor from NY the next day and this email lead to
it:
I'll be in
LA for Grammy week, so we need to grab breakfast or
lunch--got some other ideas I think you will like :
) (and that's all I can say about
that)
I had written a
long letter explaining some problems I had with
"Living Room Live" and ways I wanted to help make
it better, and I assumed they were going to give
me more on air-time with the bit for next time...just
couldn't tell. It was clear they were gonna make some
sort of offer, but something told me to not be too
excited about it. I mean, I'd take it - it's a
paycheck, but again at this point I was burnt
out. Sick of banging my head against the wall,
producing ridiculously ambitious webisodes only
to have them forget to play the promo in the morning.
But, I was still curious. I was hoping that it would
get me excited for the last few episodes as having the
proverbial light at the end of the tunnel always
helps...
...doesn't help
too much when the light is so blinding you have to
fall to your knees and shove your eye sockets into the
gravel. Ahh, but I am a bit ahead of myself. And don't
even think of skipping ahead. Enjoy the story, this
shit only happens once.
So I confuse the
hotel restaurant we're meeting at, and then am
completely lost trying to find the right one (Beverly
Wilshire). Luckily Charlotte knows Beverly Hills like
the back of her hand and helped out on my phone that
was dying. Barely make it, rush to get there and sit
down. Normal pleasantries, she was putting out an Anna
Nicole fire on her blackberry and then she brought out
my email about Living Room Live. Was about to go into
that and then decided, nah she'll tell me this other
news first. As nonchalantly as I would decide
totell you about something Cebe chewed up or how my
leaf blower gets poop of the driveway really good.
I'll paraphrase, but it was literally this
matter-of-fact.
So I was
meeting with Vinny Favale who is the VP of
late night, Letterman and Fergusen, and I asked him
if he had seen The Egos on Living Room Live. He
hadn't, so I emailed him the page. He called back
that afternoon(which is unheard of for someone so
busy) and said: "This guy is incredible. We
gotta put him on after Fergusen, and I have a
name for the show: Up & Adam, let's meet with
Steve (Friedman) over lunch and discuss it". They
did and they want you to do whatever you can think
of in those 30 minutes. Just go crazy. Mwah Mwah,
mwah mwah mwah mwah, mwah mwah? Mwah mwah mwah mwah
mwah. MWah? Mwah - mwah...mwha. Mwha mwha mwha.
Mwha mwha mwha mwha.
It's interesting
having a conversation with a Charlie Brown teacher.
You never actually see them in the cartoon so it was
quite an honor to actually watch someone while you
hear the horn blowing. I was able to comprehend quite
a bit from her mannerisms, and just like Charlie was
able to respond at the appropriate times even though I
heard nothing.
:-)
I had the
wherewithal to ask her to repeat a few things and she
reiterated it for me. It would start in the major
cities first, and then on the strength of that it
would be sold to the other affiliates. Basically, they
were gonna drop this on me in NY when I came out,
and Steve figured if they told me now, I would already
have 1,000 ideas by NY so when I met with Vinny
I would have stuff to share with him. Now, if
I told you that I was incredibly calm would
you believe me? Hard not to be I guess when you
physically can't HEAR anything anymore to get you
excited, but I wanted to act like someone who
deserved this, not someone who just won the lottery.
And in this setting, I really was comfortable. I
will admit that I was starting to tear up at parts and
had to stop thinking about it to not lose it. That's
the thing with chronicling your life like a book -
your heart is always aware of how much you put
into this "journey" at every given time. So
every event gets shaped into a 670x90 rectangle
picture next to 7 years of struggle on the spot. My
brain however was out the window. I did manage to
ask one question.
"So, after I
meet with Vinny, who... who are we pitching this
to?"
"Vinny. He's
the VP of late night. It's his idea. Up &
Adam."
And then she
wanted to talk about Living Room Live. It's like
handing someone a winning lottery ticket, and then
going over the phone bill. Incredibly though,
I was very calm, we talked about all the points
I had brought up. It was all positive and
honestly, would've been more than enough to write home
about had she not just said they want to give me my
own late night talk show. Seriously folks, with the
calmness of a doctor telling a patient he had cancer
she dropped that puppy. When I showed any sort of
disbelief she would just say "Adam, your Godfather is
Steve Friedman, you're going to be a star."
Matter-of-factly. She isn't using that term lightly.
She isn't saying it "LA". This woman is from NY. They
all saw what I did with the webisode, which was
literally 10 times more than they even dreamed, and
they're giving me the exact same opportunity... on my
own national television show. Going up against Carson
Daly.
The 90 minute
"brunch" ended and as I was waiting for the valet
to bring my car up, out jumps a very grumpy looking
Larry King. And I nonchalantly said under my
breath (he was across the street): "Oh, don't be so
sad Larry, this is a good day"... like it was normal.
Of course it was. I'm living in this celeb-reality
right now and it feels like I'm flipping channels on
my TV. A TV I'm gonna be on now.
Well I jumped
in my car and of course called my father. So
that's what the tears were waiting for. All the
imagining of what it would feel like to tell him this
news couldn't prepare me for how it felt. An exhale of
7 years of holding your breath... I'll never forget
how different this reaction was. I've grown
accustomed to "You're shitting me" over the past few
months and a few other times in 7 years. It's that
reaction of "wow, but I expected it". This was
"you are lying to me." He really needed me to say it
twice. And honestly, I'll never get that reaction
again as long as I live. Because after this?
Nothing will suprise me. This is the huge one. If down
the road other pitches work, or I'm involved in other
projects, if I get different time slots - it'll go
back to the excited: "You're shitting me." Nope,
this will most likely be the only time I can call my
pops with news so ridiculous that he actually believes
I'm joking.
Unfortunately the
second person I called, Charlotte, turned into
such a long call that I wasn't able to call my
mom or anyone back east because it got too late. I'll
save that for tomorrow, but needless to say that
Charlotte freaked out as well. And that just
set this in stone. Of course she knew who Vinny Favale
was and we had an incredible brainstorming session
about the sit-com, the late night show... we are a
helluva team on this level.
Anyway, I am
going to pass out from exhaustion. This will of course
be locked for a looooooong time. Presumably when
everything is announced publically. And also, it's
time to prepare for the end of The Journey. Something
tells me that 5 nights a week on a late-night CBS talk
show means the demise of this project...
...but how amazing
is it that I've kept it up this long? What. A.
Story.
Adam
PS -
That wooden "Late Show" thing in
the
video
is something Marty Moose made for me for
my 23rd birthday when I was doing "The
Late Show" on CD101. Looking at that
the day that I not only get my own
television talk show, but on Letterman's
network no less, and the fact that my show
will probably be promoted on Letterman,
and I'll probably be ON Letterman at some
point this year... in my wildest dreams I
did believe this was possible, but
I do mean wildest.
