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"Hey Dave,
put on this microphone and lay down in the middle of the road for a moment. Don't worry about that bus, he'll miss you."
National Dave Day? And it was yesterday to boot. I think they call this taking one for the team. Also, I take credit for the cheesy wrestling ring from the sports interview this morning.
I remain,
Stagehand Dave
After a couple months of work, WGN has finally upgraded all of our blogs! Woo hoo!
You can now visit our new and improved Morning News Blog here: http://weblogs.wgntv.com/wgn-morning-news-blog/
You can also get to our blog from the wgntv.com website at www.wgntv.com/morningnews.
Q. But what about your old posts? I love watching Pat's crazy antics.
A. Not to worry. If you can't get enough of our old posts, you can still view them here on the old blog. It won't go anywhere. But to get all our latest posts, you'll want to visit our new blogs.
Thanks for watching WGN!
One of the questions I get asked is about Wink Winkle, or "The guy with the neck brace"...someone wrote into Voice Mail and asked the same question, so here's the answer.
The Marcella Raymond Fan Club on Facebook is gaining ground on the Pat Tomasulo Fan Club. I think we need a face-off between the two of them. My money's on Marcella.
I remain,
Stagehand Dave
Having been "politely" reminded that I should actually be posting here on occasion, I am now catching up.
I've embraced the electronic age, and can now be found on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1595923723&ref=profile
I highly recommend joining the Marcella Raymond Fan Club on Facebook. Our membership is creeping up on Pat Tomasulo's Fan Club.
Hopefully I'll get more pictures and videos posted soon. Last week was Robin's birthday, and I was shanghaied into the chorus. At least I got a genuine Robin hug out of it.
I also have been doing some shoots for WGN America's Movie Underground and I've posted pictures from some of that on the Facebook profile as well.
http://www.wgnamerica.com/pages/movie_underground/
Lastly, for now, we did a shoot with Alice Cooper for a WGN America special, there's a promo video on the page, as well as an interactive game featuring Alice himself.
http://www.wgnamerica.com/pages/alice_coopers_munster_mash3
Until I get around to taking more backstage pictures,
I remain,
Stagehand Dave
I really have to remember to get more information before agreeing to do things on air.
Larry starts with "We want you to read a children's story on the air..." and I agree. I REALLY have to remember to get more information before agreeing to do things on air.
For the record, I do not believe plastic surgery is great.
I remain,
Stagehand Dave
So...I finally get to make my clown post.
For something that ran about sixty seconds, there was 4 or 5 hours of shooting involved. Alot of "clowning around" if you will.
The challenges involve lighting, locating and charging seltzer bottles. A shop vise works well for this, as long as nothing goes wrong. Also making up pies. Stagehand Steve has years of Bozo experience in this regard.
The outtakes are probably too blue to run, but they were funny. Matt had a great concept and it all worked out well.
The work environment here is unique. It's not Dean Richards starting a conversation with me "So do you have my enema bag?" it's the fact that the other people standing around didn't blink at this statement.
Duplicating sweat is quite a challenge.
I remain,
Stagehand Dave
The way it works, is we get a call about something, like the weather. A segment producer comes to me and says "We need a cloud."
I am not known for my artistic ability, but I do my best, drawing a cloud and cutting it out, and giving it some definition so it looks at least vaguely cloudlike. Stagehand Steve said it looks like the StayPuft Marshmallow Man.
THEN, they need someone to hold the cloud. Oh, and they want a fan. Could I wear my hair down so it's blowing in the breeze. Now walk offset, oops, we forgot to turn on additional lights, not knowing I was going to be walking offset.
If I could have found a spray bottle, it would have been raining on Paul.
At least I'm not working with clowns. No wait, that was last week. Details soon...
I remain,
Stagehand Dave
Hello,
I'm Stagehand Dave. I've been asked to post to the morning show blog, and will hopefully be posting occasionally to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the WGN morning news. Or not.
Things aren't always as smooth as they appear on the air, like the morning we lost power in the studio and had extention cords running everywhere across the set, the actress who refused to pose for pictures with the people at the station but just "had to have" HER picture taken with another of our morning show guests, which then had to be sent to her, or the actor who refused to demonstrate any of the impersonations he was known for. I think that was our fastest interview ever.
As a co-worker said, "You never know what you'll encounter in the hallways at the station. One day it's a 350 pound alligator, the next day it's the Lavender Cabaret girls in their underwear".
I enjoy my job here, and have been here for more than seven years now, and I do make occasional cameos on the air, as the stakes for a bet over the superbowl, doing dramatic? readings, or being the recipient of the "extreme stagehand makeover". The hair's grown back by now... My rule of thumb is that if you see me on camera, something's gone wrong.
That being said, stay tuned tomorrow morning as I read Valentine's Day poetry on the air. Or something. I don't know exactly what Larry has in mind for me.
I remain,
Stagehand Dave
WGN-TV