Did I ever mention, in 2006 I was threatened on an hourly basis based on my ability to write hit getting headlines? This is a REAL, honest to gosh, truth from inside the Obama Campaign! Its also the story behind Schmooru‘s most popular series The Narrow Show which launches our ALL NEW FALL SEASON!
2008 was an inspirational time to pretty much anyone. Down at Obama’s New Media heaquarters in Chicago, it was an epicenter of CHANGE & HOPE. We worked so hard there, we really didn’t have much time for anything else. So, when I used to sneak out every week for an hour or three to go down to Chicago’s NPR station WBEZ and hijack an empty studio with my friend “Mike” to record a few conversations, I was really just trying to get a break from it all and do something…anything.. NON HOPEFUL.
Its true that IRA GLASS once spit on one of those mics we used, but he unfortunately had little to do with this extremely precious story about two college educated white boys who met at a university. Despite Obama’s direct and divine influence on their creation, almost none of the recordings from these ‘campaign sessions’ have ever been released under “The Narrow Show” nomer. In fact, Mike & I continued to record real conversations together despite very long distances and we’ve found that to work out much better. It was over a year after the campaign was over, when we needed to start building a library for Schmooru, that we decided to take things to the ‘next level’ (please wait 30 years for the Narrow Show Anthology for these precious audio wonders to be released & they are good).
I sent Mike this show above as a method of putting still images to illustrate our words. Its from this PBS show called Gather ‘Round(the guy in it was hip, before sters were born)– it was something they played for us during “Plan B” during elementary school growing up in Ohio. “Plan B” meant that somehow the weather was too bad for even us rusted Northern Ohioans to go out and play–that we had to stay inside. Accordingly, they still had to torture us while INSIDE, by playing VHS copies of alternating episodes of these BORING stories and the Freaky Friday with Jodie Foster, in 20 minute intervals. While to this day, I’ve never seen any of these things all the way through — in the end, I guess it inspired this form that has brought joy, or maybe fascination is a better word, to 10s of thousands of schmoo viewers.
Despite many amazing things I’ve been a part of with great teams of people– The Narrow Show is the most cultural relevant things I’ve ever worked on that truly reflects the closest thing to my own personal vision. We do not script– and it all just comes out. From the personality that has driven away throngs of women(and many men too), is now the most successful thing we’ve got going right now.
Without further delay–the new as a brand spankin’ new baby’s forehead–> episode 110, The Cranials.