Post# 1772-9/27/2006-13:24 ||| Charles~richard (Los Angeles, CA)
I had a lot of fun with Kyle and his folks yesterday. I went to the TV taping and met them afterward on the studio lot; then they went to get some lunch and recover from the taping.
Appearing on a TV show certainly is a high-octane experience, to the extent of being absolutely surreal. It's like stepping through Alice in Wonderland's mirror into another -- very strange, bizarre and alien -- dimension.
Even watching a TV show being taped is a high-octane experience! I left there yesterday realizing anew how phony it all really is! The audience doesn't clap and cheer and leap to their feet because they adore the host -- they do so because a hyperactive, over-caffeinated "audience fluffer" directs them to. And it's no accident that PILES of candy bars are set out for the audience in the waiting areas, and when you come inside there is candy on every chair. Watching people stuff their faces (and pockets, in some pathetic cases) was kinda funny because I knew they were getting all pumped up on a sugar high. (I'm quite proud to say I resisted the temptation!)
Attending the taping was not a particularly FUN thing. It actually was quite exhausting, and afterward I had a sore throat from all the yelling and cheering. I wouldn't drop everything to go do another one! This show was fun because of Kyle, but really, being an audience member is a lot of work and it's very hard to keep up the kind of energy level they expect from you.
Later on in the afternoon I picked them up at their hotel and brought them over to my place for the Grand Tour. I think I can say that Kyle had a lot of fun here, and he saw a few vacuum cleaners he had never seen before. I just wish I had a bigger place, with more square footage of vacuumable flooring, and with a better way to display my collection. But he did spend a couple hours looking and playing, and in a couple of instances salivating! (He seemed quite enchanted with my toy Hoover Junior that another Kyle gave me!) Then I took them to the Grove, a really nice shopping center near my place and next to the historic Farmers Market so they could do some souvenir shopping before they left.
His parents are GREAT -- very, very nice people. (His mom is a dental hygienist and his dad is a worker's comp claims adjuster for a large corporation.) I was talking to his mother in a t-shirt shop while Kyle and his dad went to go to the rest room. I got a little bit choked up when I told her what great parents I think they are to allow their son to explore this part of his personality, to really even encourage it. I told her I wondered how differently I may have turned out if my parents had been even a little more encouraging than they were, instead of it being such a completely negative thing my entire life. (Even to this day -- they do "indulge me" I suppose, but if I start talking a little too much about "sweepers" I can sense them tensing up and starting to shut down, you know.)
It really was a lot of fun having him here and I told his folks I hope they will come out again when they can really spend some time doing all the "touristy" stuff. I do love playing "Hollywood Tour Guide" for out of towners. There really is a lot of fun and exciting stuff to do and see out here!
Here, and following, are a few photos I took of them.
