It takes a lot to make a TV news anchor laugh. I think I may have cracked the key.
This week's TV piece is one of those strange apparitions that came to me while I was letting my mind wander while walking on South Beach Friday morning. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but it just didn't seem to be coming together in the way that I had hoped. So while I was staring at the lake (and all the haze on the horizon) something else popped into my head (that had nothing to do with lakes or haze).
Five minutes later, it was fully written in my head. As I've written before, I have no idea how that happens, but I'm being serious. What popped into my head in those five minutes is pretty much what I said last night, with just a few small cuts for time.
In all honesty, how I wrapped up the piece was the first thing that spilled out of my brain; the rest of it wrote itself to feed that ending. I had no idea how the ending was going to play on TV, and I really didn't want to spoil what I hoped would be an honest reaction on Kevin's part by telling him what I was going to do.
Thankfully, his honest reaction was pretty much what I hoped it would be.
So without further ado, here it is—the piece that popped into my head without warning on Friday, that came off rather flawlessly last night, and can serve as a template as to how you can make a news anchor, a person who's supposed to be serious for a living, laugh, if even for just a second or two.
(jim@wmqt.com)
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