Astonish, Bewilder and Stupefy

The walk from the hotel to the Fox studios on 6th Avenue was a short one, and with a borrowed umbrella from the hotel offering suitable protection from the elements, we were there in a few minutes. After a small hang-up at security, a producer named Tiffany ushered us into the green room. “This is Rick at 6:50” announced Tiffany, and Claudia, the make-up artist, said “Hello Rick at 6:50,” and I was into make-up.

Ten minutes later, just as Claudia was finishing up, Tiffany came back to escort us into the studio. All of a sudden time started speeding up like crazy. A soundman was putting a wireless mic on my lapel, and I heard someone saying: “Rick Beyer…is he here with us?” A floor director was calling out “30 seconds” as I was being escorted to the set. I barely had time to shake hands with hosts Julian Philips and Andy Napolitano (who turns out to be a law school classmate of Jerry Fritz) before Andy was reading the intro and we were into the segment.

The interview seemed to go by in a flash. Suddenly we were done, and I was being escorted out. To come into the building we had to go through security in the main lobby, but there is a second door by the studio, and about 30 seconds after I got off the air we were standing out on 6th Avenue in the rain! Hard to believe that in the three or four minutes between the green room and the street, the conversation I had in that small studio was beamed across the country and seen by hundreds of thousands of people! (And you could see the impact by watching the book shoot up on the Amazon rankings…hitting a high of 161.)

Later in the morning, a Mercdes limo driven by a jovial, white haired Lithuanian named Constantine took us to Port Washington, where I was to speak at the library. When we arrived, it turned out that the library was expecting me to talk about the first book, not the new one we were promoting. I, of course, was prepared to talk about the new book—but they were quite insistent that the talk be about the first book, since that is what they had promoted, and that was the book they were going to sell afterwards. After a momentary attack of fear and panic, I headed off a quiet corner where I took out a pad of yellow paper and fashioned a talk that focused on the old book while mentioning the new. I finished my notes with about ten minutes to spare.

The talk went amazingly well. Everything seemed to flow; the audience of fifty or so participated enthusiastically, laughed at my jokes, and bought plenty of books afterwards. It was hard to imagine a talk going better. Maybe it was the shot of adrenaline that the panic gave me.

The audience included my uncle, Ed Smith of Massapequa; my book editor, Mauro Dipreta, from Harper Collins, and a veteran of the Ghost Army, Tom Roche. Another audience member made a sketch of me that you can see here.

After I signed all the books they sold, it was back to town for one more interview at ABC News Now, a cable/online offshoot of ABC.(Once again we were met at the door by a producer named Tiffany--it was Tiffany kind of day!) Then I hit a few Barnes and Noble bookstores to sign books before heading back up to Boston by train. A long and profitable day!