I
don't think I'll be able to comprehend the
meeting I just had unless
I write this all out. I am
completely shellshocked. The Journey Gods
took what we all knew was gonna be a great
day, and decided to spice it up a little
and as I said before, writing it out
is the only way I'm gonna be able to
comprehend it. As always, from the
top:
So I get the
wake-up call at 6 like I asked and just picked up
the phone and hung it up. 30 seconds later another
ring, this time sounds different, and I answer
it... THAT was my wake-up call. Ends up I hung up
on a producer from CBS. Brilliant Adam. I stumble
into the bathroom only to get slammed in the face with
water (I swear the water pressure in New York is
firehose pressure) an dI, am, AWAKE.
I get to CBS they
walk me right into the green room and I recognize
Eric (the winner) from the net. My contact and I go
over the script and I asked if there was any way
I could meet the person responsible for bringing
me on and he let me know that probably wasn't
happening. He's a pretty high up executive
(Vice-President of CBS) and he usually doesn't meet
with guests. Oh well, I asked if he could make
sure to pass along my thanks and he said he
would.
Looking over the
script I started thinking of ways I could change it to
surprise some people. Just the thought of it made my
heart jump. 3 million people watching my live national
television debut and I'm gonna try and ad-lib? Yes
actually I am. For that exact reason.
Everyone who went
over stuff with me commented on my "Radio voice" and
once they knew I had done that they were all
like: "Oh, you're a pro..." and stopped helping
me. LOL. I played along but part of me was like:
"Woah, woah, woah - can we run through that?" But
again, I'm reading a teleprompter, after 4tvs this is
EASSSSSY.
I brought the
camera into the studio and put it on the floor for a
really cool angle of everything...and I proceeded
to leisurely stroll through the whole thing. I had my
hands in my pockets and felt like I had done it a
million times. I was almost bored with it. As
I type this can't believe how fucking calm
I was. It was so natural, so normal as I say
in the title, it was a "Day at the Office..." Watching
the feed afterwards it really came off like
I worked there. Eric did a great job, and Julie
thanked me at the end of the bit.
Of course
this is where most of you turned off the TV.
However, a really cool thing happened after
Eric's song... the hosts ran over and talked
to both of us and were genuinely happy
and excited to talk. Easily 10 minutes (a
lifetime during TV) we just leisurely talked
about everything, while the show was wrapping
up. The stage manager noticed everyone over
there and yelled: "Let's just close it
here..." and they did the whole final bit
with us and it was just awesome.
Then as
I'm leaving the studio, guess who is walking
up the steps to meet me: Steve Friedman. The
Vice-President of CBS who oversees The Early
Show and CBS Morning News and who
singlehandedly brought me out to the show
because he loved my act. Couldn't believe it.
He was so cordial and so nice - we talked for
a good while after the show, maybe 20
minutes? Just awesome. Everyone made both
Eric and I feel so incredibly welcome.
Eric
and I went back into the green room
to watch the Central Time Zone feed and
I was able to at least record it for
this entry's
video.
I have it tivo'd at home, but
obviously won't be back until mid-october
to grab it. Eric and his wife invited me
to lunch which was cool and we talked
about what we were planning to do with
everything from this point on.
Eric's workin on a
video, and hell with his fanbase on the internet -
he's home free. I helped him with some ideas for his
video and I'm gonna send him a program that'll help
him out. It was really nice to enjoy the feeling
I was having with someone I knew was feeling
the exact same thing. Oh and his wife snapped a nice
shot of us in Central Park with my
camera...
And I wasn't
just bullshitting on-the-air when I said he was a
great guy - very genuine. It's unfortunate however
that he wears his hat backwards, but what can you do.
:-) Here's hopin' we both take this moment and
blow-up.
So I called
Charlotte once I knew it had aired and she had a
brilliant idea - let's submit a "kids" entry for the
next segment. Oh, in case you missed it, the announced
they were doing a kids version of living room live for
kids under 18 and what better way to explot that
than...to have a bunch of 8 year olds doing "Adam
& The Egos". LOL. The thought of it is just the
funniest thing ever. Sit with that for a
second...
...now completely
erase that idea from your mind and prepare for an even
better one from Charlotte: me hosting the next
living room live segment. Not sure if you noticed, but
noone on the early show really "does" living room
live. It's a bit passed around to everyone and they
randomly introduce winners or contestants. Assuming
they're looking for a way to help me - what a great
tie in! Having a winner in the original contest
hosting the second one. I came off extremely
professional with the one moment I had - and once
you add in all the "Egos" characters and being
able to play off them live on TV... there's something
there. Charlotte knocked it out of the park. She is IN
her element right now. I was picking up a dub of the
segment at the CBS offices later on in the day so
I called my contact to see if we could talk and
she could.
Gulp.
So I'm in her
office, just talking about everything. Someone
actually walked by and asked what was goin' on and she
said: "Oh we're just trying to figure out what
to do with Adam's career" which I thought was
pretty cool, so I figured I'd just throw it out
there. She sat for a second, said "hmmm" and grabbed a
piece of paper and wrote the vice-president's email
and hers, and said "pitch it to us".
Gulp,
again.
Here we go. Here,
we, go. This is literally too much to comprehend. I'm
watching it happen as a spectator I swear to you.
It's why I was so comfortable when I was on the
air - I am in this mode where almost nothing phases me
because it feels so pre-determined. Of course
I get called to introduce the winner even though
I lost, of course the producer wants me to pitch
my idea to her and the vice-president, and of course
they will run with it and I will be back here in
November hosting the segment with the most creativity
a morning show has ever seen. Of course. How could any
of us ever have thought differently?
And of course the
most difficult woman in the world just called me to
have coffee. The fact that that just happened during
me writing this entry all but assures we will soon be
married with children. Poor girl, doesn't she realize
the power of The Journey Gods!?!?