Mark Terry, TV Star

April 1, 2010

Yesterday I spent much of the day on the road. I was invited to do an interview for a cable TV show, Cult Pop, that goes out to a dozen or so communities in the downriver areas. (Downriver basically means south-of-Detroit around here). Jim Hall, who is the host and producer, and Jerry Jesion who is the director, are great guys and pretty they ARE the show. Numbers are a little hard to come by, apparently, but they have a viewership of 8,000 to 10,000 people or so (I commented to my wife that it's probably a little bit like "Wayne's World" without, you know, the moronic behavior).

Although the show to some extent covers local events, the real focus is to interview authors, and if you check out the website you can see they've interviewed quite a few. This is the second time I've been on the show.

Anyway, here's is a little rundown of the glam life of the author being invited to a TV show (and I'll add that I've probably done 5 or 6 TV interviews for various book promotion things, usually either cable-access shows or in one case Indiana PBS, although I don't know if that ever ran).

8:00ish. Hit the road to Woodhaven, which is about 65 miles from where I live. It took me about 90 minutes, give or take, without too many stops-and-starts due to driving through Detroit rush hour.

9:40--arrived at Jerry's house. The show used to be filmed in a studio at Comcast, but that was when Jim was employed by them. He's not freelance, so they've moved the studio to Jerry's house, who has all the equipment anyway. I would add that, having been in a couple TV studios, the house was a lot nicer. Studios tend to be empty rooms with green screens or black felt backdrops, cement floors and bare walls.

We chatted for a bit, then clipped on the mic, did a sound test, then jumped. I never can tell how long these interviews last. I hear it was about 14 minutes, but the time flew by. Part of that is, I think, that I try to concentrate and be focused during these things, and part of it is that Jim's a great guy and I like chatting with him.

So, maybe 10:30 or so we were done taping. We stood and or sat around talking while Jerry packed up his cameras. Originally Jerry and I were going to go out for lunch, but it was pretty early; Jim's wife was in the hospital so he needed to leave; and I needed to drive back home in time to pick up my oldest son at school and to rescue the dog before he ate his way through the drywall in the entryway.

So, 11:00ish, I got in the car, drove another 90 minutes or so back home, stopped and picked up a quick lunch, got home, walked the dog, went to pick up my son, went for a run, then checked email and did miscellaneous busywork because I was too tired and distracted to do anything that required much concentration.

I'm so glam.

Oh, and for anyone interested, I have a print interview with Jeff Ayers on the ITW's The Big Thrill today.