Almost Flawless

I would like to begin by saying that my engineer, Ellen Povill, has been absolutely and positively wonderful. Without her I would not have a TV show on Woodstock Public Access, and would probably be seeing my shrink twice or three times a week. She has been my guiding light, working tirelessly to produce the show, jumping from console to camera, controlling the sound, visuals, and giving me hand signals throughout the show. She is there before I arrive and stays after I leave. She is always available for my questions, which a few months ago were almost daily. Having said that nonetheless, because of conditions beyond her control, things have gone wrong and 2 shows were cancelled in the past 4 weeks. Many people come into the studio and mess things up, and Ellen, almost as much as I am, is very frustrated at times.I spend an awful lot of time preparing the show working at home for hours getting all the photos, videos, and sequences working on my computer, and studying books and such trying to get the most accurate information for my viewers. Tonight we began flawlessly, and for the first 30 minutes I actually thought, OMG this is going perfectly. Then at about 5:30 PM there was a banging on the door ! Ellen went to check to see what the commotion was about and, as I am doing my show, saw out of the corner of my eye that she was talking with someone at the door. Suddenly the audience of one, Ellen, became an audience of two as some unknown guy came in and sat at one of the chairs along the side wall watching the monitor during the show. At first it freaked me out, rattled me somewhat, as he was the first outsider ever in the studio, but then the ole, "the show must go on" thought came to my mind and on I trudged. Then I noticed something strange happening. I actually was enjoying his being there. He was not only engaged, but really looked to be enjoying himself, and that gave an an unexpected lift ! He and I actually had eye contact a few times with his nodding approvingly at certain parts. Later we introduced ourselves to each other and he was indeed a very nice guy. A Woodstock person who lived down on Tinker Street opposite the cinema, who was there for the 7 PM show where he would be playing his guitar. What he was doing there 90 minutes early is still a mystery to me, but hey, I actually realized how nice it might be to be performing this show live in front of a studio audience, just the way Milton Berle and Sid Caesar did in the '50's. And I was just speaking with my wife about my first flight experience in 1973 when I couldn't move for the 8 hr flight to London, not even to go to the bathroom (that could never take place now of course). The movie playing on the Pan Am flight from JFK to Gatwick was Sid Caesar's Ten From Your Show of Show, the name of his TV show with Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Imogine Coca (pardon the probably incorrect spelling), among others. Of course, the studio is way too small for an audience, but perhaps a few other people might not be a bad idea. It was even suggested to me that I might actually get some questions from the studio audience that could help liven up the show. Anyway, Show # 6 - Lake Como came and went, and now it's on to bigger and better things. I have lined up my friend Ric who joined me on Show # 5 last week. He and I will be jointly doing a show on Michelangelo in Florence, discussing his more than 2 dozen works throughout the city, and then a few weeks later Eating in Italy covering a wide range of food topics. I hope to have him on many times as he is just so knowledgable, smart, and charming. Thanks Ric. I still do not have many people calling in questions, or even writing to me at my e mail address at Alansitaly@gmail.com, but all things considered this whole experience has been quite a miraculous thing to have had happen to me, and most times I just stop and say to myself, what a lucky guy I am !!!!!!