The Media Interview

The plastic surgeon who operated on Kanye West’s mother the day before she died, walked off CNN’s “Larry King Live” during an interview tonight.

Larry King opened the hour by saying that it wasn’t clear if Dr. Jan Adams would appear as promised. King said that West’s family had formally asked Adams not to go on the show, but that he was still conferring with his lawyers. King then proceeded to interview several entertainment reporters who had been lined up for later in the show.

Then came word that Dr. Adams would in fact appear, so King broke for a commercial. When they returned, Dr. Adams was seated across from King and it looked like everything was fine, until he proceeded to explain why he wasn’t going to do the interview. Dr. Adams then removed his mike, shook King’s hand, and walked off the set, leaving Kin to hastily go to another commercial:

Interviewed later on Anderson Cooper 360, King discussed what it was like having a guest walk off his show:

..I used to say ‘nothing has ever happened before that hasn’t happened before’, in other words I’ve had everything happen to me in fifty years - except THAT! I’ve had fires in the studio, I’ve had people fight… but I have NEVER had a guest rip off the mike and walk - and remain friendly; he stayed til the end, he was there at the end of the show; he was very friendly to me - he was - he took out - he said he was taking my producer to dinner because she had gone through so much over this.

Author Carolyn Hughley is doing her first TV interview in the morning and she’s having a bit of trouble sleeping…

I crawled back out of bed and headed to the bathroom to take two sleep aids, thinking they might help. I no sooner swallowed that last pill when I suddenly began worrying that I’d sleep too soundly and not hear the alarm. Then I worried maybe the alarm wouldn’t go off, or I’d forget the things I wanted to say.

To find out how the rest of the night went and what happened at the interview, check out this blog posting from Carolyn, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Worry.”

On his blog Speak to Lead, Lou Hampton tells this great story in an article about overcoming tiredness during media interviews:

A former colleague was in the green room at the Today Show when another guest, a popular actor know for his action films, came in, sat down, and dozed. When it was time, he went into the studio, sat down and while being miked appeared to doze some more. About 20 seconds before the show was coming back from commercials, he stood up, shook both fists and let out a war cry, sat down and gave a high-energy interview. As soon as the show went to break, he slouched down and looked exhausted. He knew how to BE ON when it counted.

Ran across a tip that might help some people reduce anxiety heading into an interview:

make it a point to shake hands with every single person you meet along the way. If you are doing a face to face interview ask if it is possible to shake hands with your host of interviewer before you go live on the air. You will be amazed at the difference this small ritual will make

Speech coach Patti Wood likens going into an interview with entering a new and possibly unsafe environment, so our primal instincts kick in and we look for ways to feel reassured, like shaking hands.

Of course, aside from possibly relieving your stress, shaking hands can increase the connection you make with the people you’re greeting and that’s important to the impression you want to leave.

At the same time, you don’t want to look like a politician on the campaign trail, so I don’t know about shaking the hand of every person at a media outlet - and kissing babies is certainly out.

When I travel for a media interview, I’m always paranoid that I’m not going to wake up in time and miss the show. So, I go a little overboard on alarms: I request a wake-up call, I set the alarm clock by the bedside and set the alarm clock on my cell phone. After not sleeping at all that night, I was pummeled with a cacophony of heart-stopping sounds … not good for a girl who recently stopped taking blood pressure medications.

from the blog of writer Amy Hagberg

Saw a live TV interview today in which the guest caught a bad case of the swivels. Seated on a swivel chair behind a news desk, the guest’s very effective hand gestures and body language resulted in making the chair twist back and forth just enough to make me seasick.

One of the dangers of being saddled with a swivel chair is that in your effort not to move, you can wind up looking stiff and uncomfortable. Try to get a different chair or ask if there’s a way keep it from moving using a locking mechanism. If all else fails, try stabilizing yourself with one leg on the floor and the other on the leg of the chair, then confine your movements to your arms and head where possible.

Anyone suffered through this experience? How did you cope with the swivels?

File this story from author Amy Hagberg under “things you can’t prepare for on a media tour”.

As I walked out the door of the hotel to my rental car, I was surprised to find an unexpected blanket of newly fallen snow. I wasn’t really prepared for that (no self-respecting Minnesotan uses gloves unless it is below zero) but there was a snowbrush in the Explorer so I was good to go.

I quickly stepped up into the truck (it’s a big step for a little girl like me), turned the key, cranked the defrost and looked around on the dashboard for the seat-heater button like I have in my car. I wasn’t very familiar with all of the buttons I found, so rather than stumbling around aimlessly, I hit the button for the dome light to illuminate my search.

To my horror, I found out the hard way that it wasn’t the button for the dome light I’d hit, it was the button for the sun roof. In what seemed like slow motion, I watched helplessly as the roof-top window opened and mounds of wet, sticky, newly-fallen snow dumped into the car. It was a surreal moment … it was almost like I was paralyzed as I realized what was happening. By the time I figured it out, it was too late to do anything other than shout, “NOOOOO!”…

Now I could have gone completely off the deep end … after all I was stressed, tired, hadn’t had my morning latte and was supposed to be at the studio in 45 minutes. Instead, I sat in the cold wetness and laughed out loud.

Not only did Amy manage to get changed and to the studio on time - she even grabbed that latte on the way. And she says the interview went very well.

BTW, Amy has a lot of postings about her adventures doing publicity for her books.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: there is only one thing worse than missing an interview, and that’s missing an interview and having the non-interview posted on a blog for everyone to hear. Listen to 17 minutes of on-hold music while the interviewer waits for his guest (who never picked up); then the interviewer starts reading out his questions…

Don’t miss a scheduled interview or, if you really have to, contact the interviewer and cancel ahead of time.

Saw two women being interviewed on CNN the other day about a CD they produced to help people get to sleep. The interview was wrapping up and we hadn’t heard or seen anything about a website for the product. At the last second, as the women were saying good-bye, one of them tries to blurt out the address of the site… I never did make out what she said.

Always talk to the producers/hosts before a live interview and be sure they have your website address in writing (give them your card, don’t just tell them the address) - ask if they’ll put it on screen or mention it (saavy media people will put the address on their own website and have the audience go there to get the link). If they forget (perhaps that was the case here with CNN), it’s up to you to mention it in the interview…. not in the dying seconds when no one can hear you.

BTW, it sounds like an interesting product - the music has been chosen and mastered in such a way as to match the 60-80 beats per minute which sleep research says is optimal, and highs and lows of volume have been reduced so there are no jarring moments. Oh, and the website is www.bedtimebeats.com.