Here & Hereafter

OUR REALLY BIG SHOW

It’s as if I’ve been on a long-ish drinking binge and have woken to the harsh light of “what have I gotten myself into”. We have shoot dates: June 2, 3.

We have a show title.

And here’s where we’ll be roughing it.

The veil has lifted; time to stop this verbal lollygagging and seriously wrap my head around the task at hand. Our candidates need guidance to convince their families, friends, or colleagues that their life-changing moment has arrived, they know what they’re doing and they can handle it.

I confess here and now that I have rolled my eyes at TV shows similar to The Pitch, but I’ve also remained glued to the sofa foregoing a comfort break to see the reveal. Is this instant karma?

So, to use a Southern expression, I’m as nervous as a whore in church. I’ll be thinking on my feet and hoping that I won’t sound as if I’ve overdosed on idiot pills. These are people’s lives we’re talking about. Their stories are real and they’re willing to share them, warts and all. Surprisingly, in this age of baring all just to grab that fifteen minutes, our producer and director found it quite a challenge to find people who didn’t mind opening up and revealing details about their lives. Candidates mysteriously disappeared, others, when it came down to the wire, couldn’t commit to dates.

My initial fear and worry about what I will look like on the big bad screen has shifted. Will I be able to do a good job – this is the question that haunts my sleep. And will I have the stamina for god’s sake? There was something sobering about facing the shooting schedule our director wove into the fabric of hilarious emails. Laughing all the way to basically two days of working flat out for twelve hours or more each day. We’re even having dinner on camera, horror of horrors. Will it resemble Come Dine With Me without the cooking? Will we bicker about who will stay, who will go, who wins the record contract or performs for the Queen?

Our lovely director’s latest words, “Thank you for embracing the making of the pilot with no immediate reward.” Are you kidding? I’m a writer. Reward? We don’t need no stinking reward!

Well, on second thought…