Carpoolers

This could be my big break.

I’m going to be on TV. Local TV, but it’s a television appearance, none the less.

Okay, and so it’s only a shot of me in the back seat of a car.  It’s still TV dag-gone-it, and I’m claiming stardom.

I work 35 miles from home, therefore I am in a carpool with two other people, Kaye and Chris.

A woman who is married to one of the news anchors for our local news http://www.nbc29.com/Global/category.asp?C=82950&nav=menu496_1  works in the same department with Kaye. She said her husband is doing a story on carpooling from the Shenandoah Valley to Charlottesville and asked if our carpool group would agree to be interviewed. And we did.

Now on with my stardom.

This past Tuesday morning was the interview and filming of my first TV appearance.

It was Chris’ day to drive. The camera man sat in the front with him with three massive size cameras. I guess he wanted to make sure he got enough shots of me. (J Whatever. I’m a goof.) Kaye and I sat in the back. Before the actual day of the interview we all three joked on who was going to talk and be interviewed.  I said I wanted to do it. Kaye said she wanted to.  Chris said we didn’t have experience in this type of thing and to leave it to the expert.  Kaye and I told him that the camera man would take one look and would naturally want to put us on TV.  He asked if we had forgotten who he is, and that he was going to put us in our place.

So Tuesday morning we are riding to work with this camera man in the front seat with 14 cameras, 9 microphones, 8 battery packs, 5 duffel bags and 3 tri-pods.  He and Chris began discussing how the carpool originated. Kaye and I were listening. We gave each other the raised eyebrow and knew Chris was stealing the show.  She and I began to talk over Chris, knowing the camera man would hear us and want to tape us too. And so he does.  He whips that humongous camera around and points it right at my face. 

And I froze.

He holds the camera towards me for what seemed like 30 minutes, or more. I gave him the deer in the head light look. And froze.  And froze again. And then froze some more.  I thought, Cindy would you say something you idiot. You are making a total fool of yourself.  But I couldn’t speak. I wanted to say something but all I could see what that endless black hole pointed straight at me, and that thousands of people would be watching me.  Watching me say nothing.

I had stage fright in the truest form.

Kaye saw the shock on my face and was kind enough to start talking so he would turn the camera towards her.  Poor woman didn’t do much better than I did. It is something about that 20 inch black circle pointed straight at you that makes everything but your self-conscious freeze up.

<span style="FONT-SIZE:10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial”>So of course he turns the camera back to Chris (the expert, the natural) and Chris steals the show while Kaye and I are left in the backseat feeling the embarrassment.

The next day Chris made sure he used the fact that we made idiots of ourselves to his benefit.  He didn’t laugh with us. He laughed at us.  And laughed hard.  We kept telling him to shut up. He laughed louder and harder.  He reminded us (again) that fame ran in his family, that he was a natural in front of the camera and we should have known better to try to go up against him.  He told us that we needed to leave the stardom to the natural celebrity.

“Yeah Yeah”, was our response.  We knew what he was referring to.

He was referring to his cousin.  His cousin is Tim Peper. 

Tim Peper plays on a show on ABC.  It airs on Tuesday nights, at 8:30.

His cousin is Dougie on the show “Carpoolers”.

Needless to say, the natural showed his genetic talent and did as he said he would. He put Kaye and me in our place.

Oh, and if you want to see Chris in all his glory and natural talent the interview airs  on Nov 15th.  Kaye and I are the dummies in the backseat.