five lessons for going on a morning tv show (or, "look, ma! i'm on tv!")

This morning I got to go on The Weather Network's morning show (did you know they had a morning show?  Neither did I - until NOW!)  I was invited thanks to my Vancouver on the Cheap column with VancouverisAwesome.com.

A totally natural, non-staged shot of the interview.

Lesson number one of going on a morning TV show: morning shows happen in the morning.  Like, the morning morning.

This isn't the "sleep in to a reasonable hour" show.  This is the wake up at 5, and the rest of the team probably woke up around 4, show.  Ugh.  Reminds me of the days I spent teaching 6:30am yoga classes.  Those stopped for a reason!  If you ever get a choice, pick an afternoon or evening show!  (Because so many of us get to pick when and how we go on TV, right?)

Lesson number two of going on a morning TV show: if you are meeting in a large park while it's still dark out, don't plan to meet them somewhere in the depths of the park and walk there alone.

I don't have a car and loathe paying for parking even if I did.  So as I began walking up the paths of Queen Elizabeth Park before sunrise, I suddenly flashed back all the stories of random attacks that happen in seemingly friendly parks at night.  Hmmm…  Well, nothing to do about it at that point, so I texted the host to tell him I was on my way up.  At least that way if I got jumped by a vampire and haven't gained slaying skills by osmosis of watching Buffy over and over and over and over again, it should only take a few minutes for him to realize something bad had happened.

(PS: realizations like this always make me more than a little annoyed.  I hate that as a female I'm being "unwise" if I'm not at least a little scared most of the time.  It's dumb!)

I'm not kidding when I say it was dark out.

Lesson number three of going on a morning TV show: check the meeting point.

I knew where the meeting point was in a general sense (I had picked it, after all), but when I got up to the darkened parking lot I saw only one vehicle - a large white van with no windows and the motor running.  Okay, maybe that was them?  I didn't exactly relish walking up to that van.  Again with the whole "being a girl means always being a little afraid" thing.  Then I saw a smaller van way behind it with "The Weather Network" logo on it.  Just to make sure I texted asking if they were in the creeper van or the Weather Network van.  Logic won.  They were in the vehicle with the corporate logo on it.  Go figure, the folks of The Weather Network are not creepers!

The sweet view of Vancouver from Queen E. Park!

Lesson number four of going on a morning TV show: hope the host and crew are fun people.

There is a lot of waiting around that happens.  I already expected this to be the case because while I haven't ever been on a broadcast TV show myself before, I have coordinated interviews for shows I've publicized and ran my fair share of shoots, so I knew we'd be spending some time twiddling our thumbs.  Luckily the guys were both actually fun human beings!  Score one!

Camera Man Caaleb.

Lesson number five of going on a morning TV show: roll with it.

I hope you don't care about always looking cool, because you probably won't.  Do you look at the camera in your in-between moments, or the host?  Answer: beats me!  Both felt super weird and awkward.  How much clever banter can you come up with on the spot, with a camera pointed at you?  Answer: not much.  Is half your face awkwardly protruding into the shot?  Answer: whatever.