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Ask YC: Doing first TV appearance tonight. Advice?

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Re: Ask YC: Doing first TV appearance tonight. Advice?

#11

Post by techstink »

hugh wrote: post #7
brandnewlow wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a 20 minute pre-interview with one of the producers a little while ago. Went well. Just got my hair cut. The lady at Great Clips wished me well. So I've got that going for me. And I had my people pull up some fun facts in case I need to reach into the quiver for something good. Time to get some clothes together. The producer said business casual.... but my wardrobe goes from casual straight to suits....let's se…

Suit - Tie - Jacket = business casual. If I were you I'd just show up wearing the suit and lose the jacket and/or tie if they recommend it. Also, no white shirts or finely-patterned ties, since those can look bad on camera. Come to think of it, take a spare change of clothes just in case.

You're better off going with a coat on. You don't need to wear a tie but a coat w/ dress shirt would look better in this type of situation than a shirt & tie with no coat.

Re: Ask YC: Doing first TV appearance tonight. Advice?

#14

Post by thinkcomp »

1) Bring a jacket. I did a TV appearance and apparently when I get nervous, I get cold and start shivering.

2) Be prepared to fly blind. You might think that in a TV studio, you'd be able to see what you look like on TV. Not so! There's generally no loopback feed because there's often a satellite (so they say) delay, which can confuse you since you'd be watching yourself from a few seconds ago. It was really disconcerting for me not knowing what I looked like, but I guess you get used to it.

3) For West Coast people: refuse to do 7 AM East Coast talk shows. It means being awake at 2 AM to talk clearly and coherently at 4 AM, and it just doesn't work.

Good luck!

Re: Ask YC: Doing first TV appearance tonight. Advice?

#17

Post by brandnewlow »

Hey everyone! Just got back from taping. It went pretty well. I wore a blue suit (blue shirt, dark tie) and while I don't think I knocked it out of the park, I certainly did alright.

It was an 8 minute segment and I was on a panel with two guys significantly older than myself, a college prof. and a local comedian, both frequent guests on the program.

Right before we went on they told us to keep it light and fun, which we did more or less.

I got a plug from the announcer at the beginning and, I can't remember, but I think I worked in another mention later on. They said the URL would be on the screen with my name during my introduction.

My main goal was to get invited back. I see a lot of the same faces again and again....and a friend of mine is a producer there, which is how I got the call. So while I could have probably been wittier (though I think I did alright) I'm pleased with how it turned out and I made some contacts.

Now it'll be interesting to see the impact of going on the show on our site traffic, if any.

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