What Not to Do During a Television Interview

Mom and I just taped our first television interview about our novel on Monday. There are several things we did right. First and foremost, we practiced over and over again the questions we were given and knew our answers cold. We also practiced in front of a mirror, painful but helpful. I seriously don't know how people do live television. Without this practice and knowing our questions beforehand, I would have puked for sure (see #4 below).

Still, there were several things we learned:

1. Don't Use Someone Else's Beauty Products

My mom has very coarse, dry hair while I have my Dad's thin, oily hair. So it should have dawned on me not to use her shampoo for dry hair the day before a television interview. It didn't. The next morning, I touched my hair and wondered why it felt so oily. I started to panic. I started styling, but the more I touched my hair, the greasier it felt. Mom's attempt at teasing, which could easily be listed as Mistake #1 all by itself, only made matters worse. I finally rewashed my hair with the "God awful soap the hotel gives you" as Mom said. We made it to the interview on time, and now I know to bring my own products. Stick with what you know works for you.

2. Don't Assume you Know Anything about Television Production

I did my research. I watched the show many times and noticed when the host was interviewing two people, the guest on the outer edge of the couch got the widescreen shots. Never would I want to be on the receiving end of a widescreen shot. So, I devised a plan to sit on the inside, and jokingly (well, not completely) told Mom I would run to the couch and tackle her if she attempted to get my coveted spot. She gracefully motioned me forward. I got my spot. However, little did I realize from the beautifully edited shots I viewed in the mornings, this spot was problematic. First, I had to ping-pong my head from the host to my mom when I wasn't speaking. Whiplash and awkward only beging to describe the sensation. Then, I realized I could see the camera man as he was frantically doing the "wrap it up signal" while Mom was facing away from him and blissfully unaware. So much for trying to be prepared.

3. Resist Green Room Goodies
(otherwise known as "Eat and Drink Something Before you Go to the Set")

The production staff was so nice. They led us to our green room and told us to please have some coffee, soda or pastries while we waited. We were starving. We didn't want to eat anything before in case our nerves decided to reject it. Still, Mom decided some pastry would calm the fear that her stomach would growl mid-taping. She bit into a nice chocolate pastry, and I immediately pointed out the remnants in her teeth. She fixed it. We went to makeup and then came back to wait. Now we were thirsty. Don't want to do an interview with dry mouth, right? Have you ever tried to drink from a water bottle without disturbing your professional makeup or dribbling on your pristine and carefully-chosen outfit? It's not easy.

4. Don't Text your Husband After with a Joke

Right after the taping, I wanted to text my husband to let him know how it went. I knew he was nervous for me, plus I owed him the courtesy after leaving him with our three kids for three days. I thought a humorous text immediately followed by a "JK" text would be fun. I should never underestimate how slow I text. Lord knows my daughter wouldn't. I texted him, "Mom and I did great after the producers cleaned up my puke." I couldn't even get in the "JK" before I received, "Come on. Oh no!" Then, just to make me feel worse, I lost my signal for a couple of minutes before I could finally let him off the hook. My kids better NEVER pull a trick like that on me.

In the end, have fun and trust yourself. And, if you feel you can't go it alone, definitely take your mom like I did.

We will have a link to our interview up soon, but in the meantime, go to http://www.thebalancingact.com/ and check out the show. Danielle Knox was our host, and she was lovely.

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Tune in tomorrow for a new feature.

Every Friday we will feature the "Favorite Thing I Read This Week and Why." It could be anything from a magazine article to a novel or even something a child wrote. Check back tomorrow!