how ellen and i really communicate
if you listen to the show (and if you’re reading this, surely you listen to the show) you have a certain idea of how ellen and i communicate, because you hear it on the air. but that can be deceiving.
ellen and i work in a world where every 3 minutes there is something different to do, and it has to be done more or less on time and accurately or it sounds bad. if it sounds bad, we get annoyed. (if it sounds bad often enough, the big bad wolf comes huffing and puffing.) so there really isn’t alot of time to talk about things outside the execution of the show, yet somehow we manage.
the conversation ususally begins with a question (some time around 5:06 a.m.). if there’s time, the response will come before traffic and weather at 5:09. Undoubtedly the response generates another comment or question. depending on the morning, that might come zinging back across our luxurious mushroom-shaped desk while maj is talking or it may have to wait for brett’s best guess at what’s gonna fall from the sky that day. no time for a response again until after josh. see, josh brings m&m’s into the room and if we try to talk while he’s on the air, we get pelted.
anyway, another exchange or two between planning discussions and the mic is back open to do trivia with maj. the thing that seems to tickle ellen is when i’m throwing a comment back into her court (especially when i’m doing it emphatically) and mid-comment, i hit the red button and start the intro to whatever segment we’ve come upon — no break, no breath, no pause — straight from one topic into the next element. she always gives me this look like “someday you’re gonna hit that red button too soon….”
at some point, the discussion concludes and the next topic starts (and fits and starts). average length of a disjointed (yet complete conversation), probably less than 20 minutes. max. length, the whole show.
wonder what we’ll talk about tomorrow? tune in and find out.
rock’n'roll