Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind

Hello friends. It is not only my pleasure but I (Chris Graham) have been told (by Deya) it is mandatory that I write this blog for your entertainment purposes. And seeing as how much I enjoy eating and the occasional cuddle, I find myself typing this entry. It should be said that all the events in this episode are based on true events in as far as I can remember them.

Very rarely does a day go by slowly working in live television. There is always a deadline to be met and the clock very quickly becomes an enemy. I have had the great fortune to meet some incredible people in my thus far short career. From the simple, to the super famous, they all have something to say and it’s my job to make sure they say it in as short a time as possible.

Last night proved to stand out among far too many of the rest.

A couple weeks ago while I was on the road at a tournament I got a phone call from the executive producer of the Golf Channel’s Original Programming department if I could be the Stage Director for the live finale show of Fore Inventor’s Only. It’s basically a reality/game show where the winning invention stands to make a lot of money.

“Chris, it’s Jay, can you do me a huge favor??”
“Depends, what can I do you for?”
“We decided to add a live studio audience so I need someone to run the floor and I heard you have done it before.”
“Well I am supposed to work on Golf Central that night.”
“I’ll take care of it.”

At this point I knew he was going to have to throw some authority around to find someone to cover me on Golf Central so without delay, I agreed.

Last night I showed up and was looking forward to the task ahead for several reasons, but the main one being it was going to be a great opportunity to do something out of the ordinary. Plus I was going to hang out with George Lopez all day because they got him to co-host the show.

So, I arrive at the studio and we had to run thru a rehearsal at 2:30pm, with just the contestants, then the audience was brought in 7:30pm so we could pre-tape the first 2 segments of the show and then we were live at 10pm for the final 4 segments.

As I walk onto the set to make sure all the inventions are in the right place I hear the very recognizable voice of George Lopez entering the studio behind me. Now fortunately I have met enough famous people that very rarely do I get star struck. So I did not have to deal with being a bumbling idiot or anything. I mean really, he puts his pants on one leg at time right? Except….. his pants cost a lot more than mine…… and once his pants are on he makes about 4316% more than me per hour.

So, after our rehearsal it was time for our crew and contestant dinner. There was a special VIP catered section in the part of the building where the ‘Suits’ have their offices. Then there was another catered section, for the rest of us.

I apparently made an impression with George during our rehearsal because he invited me to come with them for the VIP dinner. Which was a lot of fun. George told me a lot of really funny jokes that I can certainly not repeat in this forum but trust me they were funny. But I would say the most impressive aspect of George’s comedy is how amazingly quick witted he is. For example once we actually started to tape the show we got thru the entire 1^st segment and we went way longer than we were supposed to so we had to redo it. So I walked up on stage to tell George and Rich (the other co-host) that we were going to retape it and George looks at me and says,

“I just burned a lot of good material. If I use the same jokes they aren’t going to laugh as hard.”

In a flash of immense wisdom I proceed to shrug my shoulders. George then proceeds to come up with all new material for the retape on the spot. I was incredibly impressed.

In the end, it was a great show, the audience was full of energy and while my favorite did not win the show, I was happy with the outcome.

And George invited me to go golfing with him the next time he was in Orlando. It didn’t take me long to agree.