My adventures in TV as a candy expert

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - by Brian

So, as many of you may know, I was on CNBC’s “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” on Monday night as a candy expert!

UPDATE: The clip is now on YouTube.

It was an amazingly fun experience and I thought I’d share the details with everyone. I’m still hoping I can get a digital clip of it and post it. Until then, here’s the narrative of how it happened…

I got an email from the show’s producer on Thursday, May 15 looking for a candy expert for the show. I wanted to do it but I was flying Monday night to Chicago for the All Candy Expo so I wasn’t sure if we could make it work. We ended up flying me Monday morning to NY, flew me back to RDU, then from RDU to Chicago. Phew! The show covered the costs of my flights to and from NY, of course.

On Friday, May 16, I got some more emails from the producer and she said one of the other panelists I would be with was Kevin Nealon from Saturday Night Live. KEVIN NEALON! OMG! Huge fan! Is she serious? (she was)

I got on the plane to NY Monday morning and after I landed in NY and got my bag, there was a driver waiting for me holding a sign with my name on it. Just like the movies! Eddie drove me to NJ to the CNBC complex. When I got there and walked in I was immediately met by Mike who said hi and whisked me off to the green room to wait. John (from Crackheads Candy) and Pam (from Blair Candy) were already in the room – no sign of Kevin (or Donny).

I talked to John and Pam a bit and drank some water and ate some cookies and eventually the producer came in and said hi and briefed me on what was going to happen. A bit later I was called into makeup. John was in one seat and Donny was in another. When the finished with Donny, I took his seat (still warm – creepy) and they plastered me with makeup. Airbrushes, brushes, powder puffs, everything. It felt like Halloween.

Right as they were finishing, a tall pretty blonde woman came in to get makeup. I had no idea who she was. Turns out she was Whitney Thompson from America’s Next Top Model. I’ve never seen the show so I didn’t recognize her. Phoebe Cates was also in the studio too but I never saw her live, just on the monitor as we watched the show being taped.

Eventually they called for us (me, Pam, and John) and we went into the studio and Donny was talking to Kevin Nealon about his new book. We sat and waited and watched as they finished their bit. Once they were finished with kevin’s book segment, they took two chairs and put them next to Kevin. Pam sat nest to him (RATS!) and I was on the end. I said hi to Kevin, introduced myself, and shook his hand (!!!!). I never really met Donny – he was there and he asked me how to pronounce my last name and that was pretty much it until they started taping.

Two women come in and touched up everyone’s makeup and then they started rolling. It was literally 5 minutes of taping. No edits, just bam, bam, bam. Donny agreed with some things I said, and Kevin did too. (w00t!) Afterwards I went up to Kevin and asked if I could take a picture with him (I brought my camera in the studio in case I could take some pictures). Then I got a group shot with all of the panelists including Kevin and Donny.

I felt like it went really well and I did a good job and it’s now Wednesday and I still haven’t actually seen it. I was in the airport in Chicago when it aired. I have had a lot of family, friends, and readers say they saw it and they aqll said I did a good job. I’m still hoping to get a digital copy of it to put on YouTube and here on the site (if anyone happens to have a digital copy, let me know – free candy in it for you!) My wife DVR’d it so when I get home I’ll get to watch it.

After filming I hung around for maybe 10 minutes or so and then was whisked away again to the airport. All that time and effort for literally 5 minutes of filming. But wow, what a fun 5 minutes!

• Full photo gallery of me on The Big Idea on CNBC
• CNBC page mentioning me and linking to Candy Addict
• KevinNealon.com
• Blair Candy