Nov 152007
In September, I was assigned to interview Randy Gener for Instinct magazine because he won two prestigious awards this year for his tireless work in the world theatre community. It was a phone interview and I bought a digital voice recorder for the occasion. Who knew that when the two devices were on simultaneously, the conversation would record only as pulses and whirrs, masking any human voices and nullifying the interview?
In a panic, I emailed Jonathan Riggs and told him what had happened – a 2 hour interview without a word to show for it besides my notes! Jonathan suggested I call him back and explain the “oops”, but, ya know, the pride got in the way. I wanted to look all professional and make a good impression (by the way, Randy is just about the nicest guy ever! And so dedicated to the theatre!), so I sent Randy an email asking for points of clarification based on my notes (which was true). And Randy sent me back more information than I could have used in two feature-length articles.
The upshot is the article reads well and makes Randy look like the superstar he is. There’s one “oops” (Randy and his partner call “Whole Foods” “Whole Paycheck”, but the typesetter left it as “Paycheck”, killing the joke), but it doesn’t matter too much. I like doing this. I hope I keep getting assignments.
Discuss...
