Next Stop: The Colbert Report

I'll be part of a Colbert Report episode next week.

Thanks to the Kyle situation (see the post just below this one), I was contacted six weeks ago about appearing on the Colbert Report. The subject: Kyle's lawsuit against NYC and the safety of unicycling in general. I happily acquiesced.

The associate producer, Kim, emailed me about setting up a date, and initially we were shooting for the first Sunday in March, but the weather didn't cooperate, so we found a date that ended up working: March 26. It wasn't during our regularly scheduled meeting times, but with the excitement about the taping and the fact that it had rained the week before (on our usual day to meet), we had a big turnout despite the near-freezing can't-believe-this-is-Spring temperatures.

Before the meeting, I was interviewed for about 45 minutes. The camera was set up in a courtyard of the Union Theological Seminary on 121st Street and Broadway (I'm not sure why this outdoor spot was chosen on such a chilly day). The producer, a young man named Aaron, was off-camera, asking me questinos that I would then answer by repeating the question within the answer. So if the question was "Would you consider yourself a unicycle expert?" my answer would be, "Yes, I am a unicycle expert." The questions were mainly about how unicycles aren't actually dangerous to pedestrians; towards the end of the interview, I also had to announce that unicycles are not the enemy within. Despite the cold, I enjoyed the experience.

Afterward I thought back to one of the moments during the interview. I'd been asked to repeat a sentence about unicycles and bicycles, and I accidentally said that "a unicycle has two wheels and a bicycle has one." The cameraman caught the error, and I corrected my statement. But it occurred to me that if they wanted to make me look really foolish, they could put together my 'unicycle expert' sentence with the mistake about the wheels. I didn't think that they were going for that type of result, but just to be on the safe side, I emailed Aaron a short note to thank him for the fun day and to ask about that possibility. He said not to worry. I slept a lot better after that!

The show airs soon, and I'm really looking forward to it.