Whoever guessed
509 in the Journey Pool...they win.
In struggling how
to start this, I decided to go back to the only
entry that even comes close: Entry
#151 -
"Incomprehensible"
about The Comedy Store, and to my surprise that first
paragraph nails it:
"Nearly every personal
thought revolves around a self awareness of my
position in life. Whenever I have a moment to
myself, or am spacing off - I step back and look at
where I am in my career, and if I'm doing
everything I can to further it. Is this strange?
Does anyone else do this? This isn't just an
everyday thing, this is a constant throughout the
day sort've thing. And the reason that I just
realized this? The results of these thoughts is now
incomprehensible.
I simply do not
believe what's happening. I can't believe what
happened last night, I can't believe what happened
today, and I can't believe what's happening in
general. The
story I'm about to tell is truly a head shaker. For
personal reasons, I'm just gonna write every
goddamn thing I can remember last night so I don't
forget it. This will be long-winded and may not be
horribly cohesive, but I'll try my best. I do not
want to forget these feelings."
Sometimes the
situations are just so huge, you can't comprehend it
all. So writing an entry in this state, is really,
really tough...so you just jump in with both feet and
write it chronologically and see what happens. So here
we go...
Paddy and
I got there around 9 AM and decided to just
unload right there on the sidewalk before the line got
any friggin' longer. As we started to unload a guy
told us to use the loading dock around back. That
brings us to the only picture that I was able to
take the entire time. As a reporter for this site, I
apologize:
Yup,
Paddy hitting the intercom for them to let
us in. The guy came out, took all my info
and away we went. Amazingly, I found
a place to park WITH my trailer, and
didn't have to pay (or worry about the
fact I didn't have a FUGGIN lock
with me for it - brilliant
Adam).
We
rolled into the hotel and were pointed to
the ballroom and were basically the only
ones there. I started filling out
paperwork and within minutes they said:
"You're next...let's go"
Jesus. So I'm
rushing through my questionnaire, finish it off and
the towers were already onstage thanks to Paddy (and a
PA who came THIS FRIGGIN' CLOSE to knockin'
the whole tower over). I walk in (the little
"America's Got Talent" backdrop is up just like on
Idol) and the judges are like: "LETS GO,
WE GOTTA MOVE - give us 30 seconds of your
best stuff." So I'm pluggin' shit in like a wildman
and I said: "Sorry, I thought I'd have a minute
to set this all up before I rolled it up here..."
They were cool, but it was apparent on DAY 3 of
their LA auditions, they had been through this
before.
Then, what has to
be the "holy shit" moment of this whole thing...
I go to give audio to the sound guy and he
says:
"XLR?"
"No, 1/4
inch..."
"But what type
of cable is it..."
I think about
another way to say 1/4 inch to him, but could only
come up with a SLOWER pronounciation of:
"Uhm, quarter..inch" What the hell else do you call
a 1/4 inch cable?!?
He then asks
how long, and I said I had about 15-20
feet.
"That's not
enough"
?? He seemed
offended I even needed it but they made it
very clear - they could provide the PA for the
acts...so - damn, wtf?!
The reason
I bring this up is because, guess what I did
yesterday? I spent the day re-cabling the audio
through my mixer so I could actually sing through
my TVs with the Trinitrons going through the TVs. IN
the normal act, the TVs are jus tmonitors - no sound.
It took lik 4 hours just to get that all working. It
really was a last second thing, but literally - had
I not done that, no audition. None. There would
have been no sound for the TVs. That's how
close I was to blowing the whole thing.
Whew.
Last thing before
I started I asked them about "Trinitrons" and
they said, yeah - that's gonna hurt you. So
I took off "Trinitrons" and put my 4tvs sign
on there instead. They kept asking - "So what do we
call this then?" Like.. they wanted a replacement name
RIGHT THEN. The guys goes "Adam & 4tvs"...
I said that was cool and that I'd give them a
real boyband name later if need be. (More on that in
the next entry).
Somehow,
everything worked. The little pieces that run the 4tvs
all lined up - got it going in RECORD time. In my
life I've never set-up this fast. No level checks, no
mic-checks. NOTHIN'. They made it very clear that time
was CRUCIAL and I jumped right in. Now
I know they said 30 seconds, and my little bit is
over 2 minutes, but I had to believe that if I
could just make it to the breakdown where G takes off
his hat (at 45 seconds) - then I was home
free.
Luckily - they got
it. They laughed at the right places, I actually
ad-libbed the lines to fit the situation, and
I was able to get through it all with no
technical problems. There was a guy taping it
(probably for later viewing, I handed them a DVD
and as part of the factory line... out I went. We
started to roll everything else and the judges
said...
...nothing. There
was no "congrats you're on to the next round" Nothin'.
They were pleasant. They seemed positive, but there
wasn't really closure to the whole thing. They said
something along the lines of "We have your phone
number..." And, well - yeah. There ya go.
I didn't have a lot of time to think about it,
actually writing it now is the only time I have,
because I was busy getting the stuff out of the
room before the next act came in. Once I got out
of the door, a guy pulled me aside and said:
"They want to interview you." So Paddy and I put
our stuff against the wall and waited. It struck me as
odd only because they had everything else so well
choreographed, but there was no post-audition
interview area. I was slightly
confused.
After about 10
minutes I went back up to the lady I knew
from before and said: "Do you know what I do next?"
She looked as if she was searching for an answer when
I said: "They mentioned an interview" and
she goes: "OH! OK! Then stay here! The camera
crew will be right down." And that was the moment I
knew that this was not the norm for all the
auditioners. Only certain people get interveiwed. It
still didn't really hit me though...
...then the crew
came down and the director guy took over. I realized
right away what was happening: They were making the
"package" to run on the show. He had me set up a
shot with my TVs in front of the line of people to do
the interview. It was as if I was going in right
then. Said a few quick sound bites and then the
cameraman goes: "This is so funny, we gotta have him
push a tower up to the registration desk like
he's registering the band."
So they moved the
line back, and had me cut in front to "re-enact" my
registration for the show. As I got in position and
waited for my cue to start walking up it hit me. It
was the craziest moment of "self-awareness" I've ever
had. That was the moment I knew, that millions of
people were gonna see 4tvs. They were setting up
specific package shots to tell my story to the
audience, even going so far as making the gag of
having me push my towers up to the desk, like I'm
registering the band as well. To everyone who has
followed this incredible journey for nearly 7 years,
you can all exhale.
After the shot was
done, we shook hands, and that was it. Amazingly, from
the time we pulled the trailer in, to the time we
pulled it OUT, Paddy and I were there for less
than an hour. No lines, nothing. It was so lucky and
so perfect. Before I left I talked to the
lady one more time and asked when the next phase was
happening and she said: "Once we get off the
road, so call me in May".
Gulp.
That's right
folks. A MONTH. But actually, I need that month.
Because what lies ahead is going to take every bit of
ingenuity I have to pull off. To put it
simply: I now have to be able to be all 5
Trinitrons... in one day. In order to pull this show
off and keep it fresh weekly, I have to be able
to make a new show almost immediately. I can't
use ANY of the footage I already have. I can't
even PRE-MAKE new bits, because it will make no
contextual sense. At all. So whereas most contestents
during the shows long run will be fuckin' around in LA
in the week in between shows, my ass will have to be
building sets, writing it, timing it, filming it,
editing it, and then practicing it. A routine that
usually takes a month of obsession... done in a week.
I have to make every moment I'm on TV make the
audience go: "HOW the HELL did he do that in
a WEEK". I need to make half of them BELIEVE it's
not me in those TVs. LOL. And as well, I need a
whole new set-up, because these bulky ass TVs are
dying quickly - and to put it mildly, it just looks
ghetto. This is national television, and this shit
won't fly.
Whew. This is so
much to digest. Oooh, a couple points
I missed:
-During the
interview, I called Marty on my headset and
didn't say a word. I let him listen to the whole
thing. It lasted for like 2 minutes and then went
dead. Poor marty. It's so funny because - he believed
I was just about to go on, so he thought he
missed the audition. He must've been a crazy man.
LOL.
-Also during the
interview, the guy was trying to get the soundbite of
why I thought I was going to win, and I was
being all...well ME about it, and saying: "Well,
I think I have a unique act...etc". And he just
stops me and says: "No, why are you the best" Implying
to just cut to the chase. LOL. So I went into "Live
Adam" mode and said something to the
effect: "I know I'm the biggest talent,
I don't know about these guys (shrugging my
shoulders and looking at the TVs) but I know I
do..."
...of course the
TVs weren't in the shot, the whole line of people
behind me were. LOL. That's right, it will look on
TV like I just slammed everyone in the line.
Greaaaaaaaaaat. LOL. But, the director laughed and he
got what he wanted.
I realized
later that from now on, when the glasses are on - act
like "Live Adam" - an asshole. Act like the TVs are
real people, act like they're in the TVs because
I want them there. When I take the glasses off
however, I can be me and talk about the act as if
it's not make believe.
So I called
everyone I could think of and spent the better
part of the day re-describing what I just wrote.
I finally had a moment to sit for a second and
I remembered the song: "From Me". There's a line
in there, from late 2002:
"Will I
ever top the store, that can't be it...there must be
more"
I decided
to watch that video and see if there was a
way to incorporate it into a new video for
this entry. However, I was not ready for
how hard the song would hit me.
Watch
it, and listen close to the
words.
To those of you who have followed this
whole thing since the beginning, this will
probably hit all of you pretty
hard.
By the time
I got to the Comedy Store line, I lost it
man. I can FEEL that guy on the screen. The year he
had been through was devastating. He was singing to a
future friend/manager who hopefully saw a path he
didn't and he was begging not to be hurt again the way
he was with Charlotte. He had every bit of doubt in
the WORLD about himself...yet he still believed that
it just COULDN'T be it. There had to be
more...
Watching that
now, knowing that today WAS more...and that it
was even BIGGER than the BIGGEST moment that guy
had ever had at The Comedy Store - brought me to tears
instantly. You just want to grab through the screen
and say: "IT'S OK MAN!! DON'T WORRY!"
But you know you can't...and you know that he's gonna
go through even harder years, and harder moments and
sacrifice EVEN MORE until one day. One day he
will get an email (from Charlotte of all people), and
in an instant at 10 AM on a Saturday morning, he will
eclipse every moment in the 7 years 4tvs has been in
existence. Watching that depressing song today, of all
days, is one of the most emotional moments of my life.
But I did it. Today, I did it.
