Heather Armstrong of Dooce while preggers
For the last year, I’ve been pretty sure that I wanted to be a talk show hostess. I love attention, I love to talk to people, I’m funny and cute. The perfect combination! Then, I started blogging and thinking, “Hey! This stuff’s for me!” Don’t you know that I got to meet (loosely used here) two of the biggest names in each of these fields this summer on the same day! A few weeks ago, one of my favorite bloggers, Heather Armstrong of Dooce, announced that she was going to be on the Dr. Phil show and gave us a person to contact if we wanted tickets. Don’t you know I emailed that guy as soon as I could! The next day, I got the call saying I got two tickets while I was in the Gap dressing room, which was the perfect public location because it gave me the opportunity to do a private jig and then burst out of the dressing room and tell the first person I could find.
Disappointingly, I could not find one person who was not a slave to their desk and could take a day off to join me. If only my Shadiah had been with me. She would have loved it! I made a friend named Lisa instead and I loved sitting next to her, because she was just as in love with Dooce as I was.
I have to tell you, I did not love being an audience member on the Dr. Phil show. It was too early in the morning, I got tired of smiling and sitting up straight, and the conversation we had (working moms vs. stay at home moms) felt stiff and fake. Kudos to Dr. Phil and his crew for not telling us what to say. I was surprised that whenever we wanted to speak, we just stood up and the cameras and mic would find us. However, that whole day really made me reconsider whether I really want to be in television.
You have to wake up early, wear a lot of makeup, and have superficial conversations with a lot of people who are probably talking bad about you five minutes after you walk away. You have to stop every seven minutes to let the big corporations sell their soap and foot cream. And you can’t say bad words. At least not the good ones.
But BLOGGING! Oh, blogging is for me. You can write about whatever you want, you have a community of fans and critics you can actually engage with, and there’s not all that cakey makeup and bright lights. If you’re a blogger and you want to have a talk show, fine! But it can be about whatever you want, and anyone can access it anytime they like–not when Big TV says they can.
So when it comes down to it, Dooce wins out over Dr. Phil. I would rather be a blogger than a talk show hostess. And it feels good to be in a world (the blogosphere) where you play by your own rules rather than one where you play by someone else’s.
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Hello from Lisa!!
Great posting. I also believe it would be a little too suffocating to be a talk show host. Hope you’re doing well and glad we could partake in the Dr. Phildom together!
Ah, shit. I was hoping to hear that there were fights in involving throwing of the furniture and braided hair sling wearing hippy mamas duking it out with the “let them cry it out” pearls and pumps parenting contingent.
When does it air?
Man, I FANTASIZE about having one of those TV jobs where I have to wake up at 4am every morning, put on Texas-sized make up, do a jig and dance for 4-minute segments and then go home at 1pm and have the rest of my day to go to other TV things/auditions/life/whatever!!
I decided the morning show Despierta America on Univision needs a Mexican female host and that person may as well be me!!
First of all, why the hell did you not invite me to go to Dr. Phil?! I would have jumped at the chance! (Oh, maybe you were in LA).
Secondly, I think you’re just going to have to swallow your objections, because Kaneisha is the perfect talk-show-host name. To whom much is given, much is required…
When I glanced at the title of this post I read “Dooce vs. Devil.” I wonder why…
What you wrote is exactly why I didn’t want to go but I didn’t want to burst your bubble beforehand! :p
I agree that blogging is the thing for you but remember you can reinvent anything and do it your way. The way Dr. Phil does it doesn’t have to be the way Kaneisha does it!
that was work!
Hey, girl! No, it wasn’t that exciting. I don’t know when it airs! They didn’t tell us. Hopefully, one of my many TV-loving family members will remember the topic and let me know when they see it coming up. Look for the one about “Working Moms vs. Stay at Home Moms”. They’ll probably advertise it real dramatically.
Lisa, you’ve been reading! I’m so flattered! That was fun! Too bad neither of us got to meet Dooce.