All
night I dreamed of "Moving to NY"
titles. I was planning out the
final videos in LA to the tune of "Say
Goodbye to Hollywood" by Billy Joel. I
was picturing videos in NY this
winter of me freezing my ass off and
everyone laughing at me... and when
given the choice? There was still no
reason to kill myself in a
shoebox in Manhattan when it can all be
done in LA.
Confused
yet? Heh, from the top...
8:30
AM
Now
the alarm went off at 8:30, but we all
know I was up at 5. Then the infamous
file cabinet compactor outside the window
(long story) took over 'round 6:30 - and
I was in and out of winks for a
couple restless hours.
8:47
AM
I
don't usually film myself in the shower,
but this was a special day so it seemed
completely appropriate. And in honor of
how far 4tvs had come, I indeed sang
a few bars of "Washin' up the
Genitals..."
9:22
AM
Ridiculously
early, I know - but Chad was late the
day before for a meeting and trust me, it
was all I could do to not be camping
outside the offices after waiting 6 days.
Subway was packed this early.
Ugh.
9:41
AM
Well
shit I didn't think I'd be an HOUR
early. I mean that was even too
early to sit in the lobby without looking
like an idiot (I save that for the
internet - lol) so I waited on the
sidewalk until 10 after 10 and walked
in.
10:29
AM
Amazingly,
I didn't wait 1 minute after 10:30 in
the lobby. However the minutes leading up
to 10:30 were excruciating as you can
expect. I take that back, by this
point I was just exhausted from
anxiety. They flew by.
Finally I was
called in and walked into...the vice president's
office. Wow. Had no idea. So here's what you've read
all this bullshit for - and by bullshit I mean
the morning, not all 7 years (although you could argue
that point):
They are actually
offering me more than my pitch. My idea was just the
45 seconds to 1 minute on The Early Show introducing
the acts and then the winner, at most working out
something with one TV on-set. They apparently think
that's too limiting. What they want to do is give me
my own 10 minute show on the internet, and interwork
it within the segment on The Early Show. So what
you'll see come November on TV will be The Early Show
doing a 45 second to 1 minute bit on my segment
"Living Room Live with Adam" (or whatever we end
up calling it), introducing the acts like they did
before and then introducing my show and showing a
quick bit of it. They'll do this everytime they do the
Living Room Live segment for the following 3 months
and then fly me out to help announce the winner (and
maybe a few times before depending on what we come up
with).
So right off the
bat, my face, my name, the Egos Characters, the fact
that I'm now working with CBS will be announced,
pimped, highlighted, spotlighted, to 3 million people,
3 times a week for 3 straight months on national
television. That in itself was all my original pitch
was ever hoping to do: get me out there to a national
audience on a weekly basis. This was apparently a
given to them as they went several steps
more...
I will have access
to hair and make-up people, a studio on the
CBS lot to film the full show and complete
creative control on the whole thing. They want me to
do absolutely anything that I can conjure up.
Each week will introduce new competitors and talk
about the previous week's winner. I really already
have the format of it thought up involving all of the
Egos hand-picking the competitors and fighting amongst
themselves on who's better. As I've said before, after
4tvs? This is a breeeeeeeeze.
Halfway into the
meeting, I still had no idea where the hell
I was going to be living and said as much. They
all looked suprised as they assumed LA...but then saw
no reason why it couldn't be done in NY as well.
Moment of truth huh? Big one for me of course...but
really a no-brainer. Everyone in the meeting looked at
me like: "Why would you move here?" (NY tends to
do that to ya after awhile), and I had to agree.
If everything can be done from the CBS studios
next to my HOUSE, what the fuck am I even
thinking about here. I'm stayng in LA. Although money
has yet to be discussed there's no way it would make a
real difference here. This is only (at this moment) a
3-4 month thing. It's not a time to move.
What it is a time
to do - is celebrate. I am in the game. I am
the kid who at 19 who was given the opportunity to
just "be me" on WTVN...and made the most creative show
Columbus has ever heard. The difference here is the
role of Bill White (my program director then) is being
played by the Vice President of CBS. Big pond.
BIG pond. But so was WTVN to a teenager.
I had no fear, went in and just fuckin' rocked it
back in '95. I will do the same now. I will make a
product so original, funny, inticing and inventive
that it will eek it's way more and more into the
segment on TV and will stand out the way everyone
reading KNEW those characters could 5 years ago. How
lucky am I that I get to do the whole thing?
I mean, acting, writing, editing...with a
national television crew to help me out - I just
can't believe it. I'm gonna be working in the building
that "The Price is Right" is filmed in.
I mentioned to them that I tried to get on
earlier in the year and was stuck in the audience. The
VP says: "We can change that..." - LOL.
And in the
strangest, most surreal way - I'm really happy for the
people in that meeting. They really have no idea what
they're about to get. They have no idea just how much
I can do and how well I can do it. They
don't know that I've been struggling since 1996 to
have a forum like this to create and perform with the
same freedom I had at WTVN (before Darryl) and
that giving it to me on a national spotlight is going
to break open a huge pandora's box. The Journey from
this day forward is completely changed.
(Cue
announcement that the VP is moving to ABC and the new
one is cancelling Living Room
Live)
LOL. Oh come on.
You knew I had to think of some intricate way the
journey has of destroying my dreams. :-)
Thank you's are in
order for just about everyone I've ever known but I
have and will continue make those personally. But
another public thank you has to go out to Mr.
Penny from the boards who emailed me about Living Room
Live and his girlfriend Suzannah who saw the
commercial and told him about it. We can sit here and
be all romantic about how things work out, or how my
"letting go" last year was the reason any of this
happened...but the truth of the matter is had no one
told me about this, I NEVER would've seen it.
I think I mentioned it back at the end of
April when it looked like "Let's Bomb Iran" and
"America's Got Talent" were going to be the big
breaks:
The point
is, yeah - I deserve a break. I sacrificed a bunch,
and worked my butt off... but I could just as
easily been here another 6 years without anything.
Kerry wins in '04? Simon Cowell doesn't make an
"American Idol" for variety acts? The "Spiraling
Journey" continues. I say this, not to undermine
all I've done, but to make you guys realize that
there are artists / performers who are just as
talented, work just as hard - that DONT GET THAT
BREAK. There is an extraoridnarily high amount of
luck that doesn't exist in ANY other
industry...'cept maybe professional gambling.
That's the truth. It isn't fair. This isn't the
American Dream, it's the American
Lottery.
This month,
I picked the right numbers.
Remembering that
is humbling. What I do with that break however is
allllllllllllllllllllllllll on me. The luck part of
this is gone.
