Only A Question

Monday morning at 7:15am I was standing on the corner, with extra wardrobe and the cooker cradled in my arms, waiting for my ride to the infomerical shoot and wondering why I agreed to do it. I knew my lines backwards and forwards, but I was nervous! In the middle of these thoughts Elke drove up and we were off to the studio. It took about 45 minutes to get there because there are no direct routes through the city. There is a ring road that goes all the way around Brussels and we had to go to the farthest possible point, plus there was rush hour traffic, but we still made it on time. The studio is located behind a car wash in a row of warehouses with about four parking spots. These spots were filled, of course, so we had to park in the car wash lot and trudge through the mud carrying our cookers and clothes. We walked into the studio and saw a bunch of people working on the set, arranging the cookers on table and scurrying around with electric cables. No one paid any attention to us, so we just stood there holding our cookers, not knowing where to go or what we should do. There were some couches and chairs in a corner with a few people who looked likely to be fellow testimonial givers sitting and talking. Elke and I joined them and we all sat talking and eating croissants for about an hour. There were six of us with lines and recipes and several others who were to be audience members. Eventually a makeup girl came and one by one, we had hair and make up done. We practiced our lines with each other, talked about where we were from and what we were doing in Brussels. It felt like a cocktail party, not a job. The producer came in around 10:30 and announced that one of the recipes had been cut from the infomercial. The cooker company had decided that they wanted one recipe for each function and in the script there was an overlap for 'simmer.' So...no more salmon linguine! My recipe was cut from the show. The producer aplogized profusely and said she would definitely use me in another infomercial if I was willing to to it again and would I stay and be an audience member? I would get the same pay and get to keep my cooker. Well, since I was already there, made up and hair arranged, it seemed silly to leave. I was relieved to not have to say my ridiculous lines, but also a bit frustrated because I spent several hours memorizing them. Oh well, that's showbiz!

We didn't start shooting until almost noon. It took ages for the set to be finished, people placed, lighting perfected and clothes changed. A chef was hurriedly cooking all the food for the testimonials; so, the studio smelled like a diner. Finally everything was ready and just as we rehearsed the first scene, the producer decided the carpet was the wrong color. New orange carpet was brought in and the blue carpet taken out - for the crew to do this, everyone had to leave the set and all the tables and chairs were moved. More waiting. By this point it was a quarter to one and we were all starving, but the director was determined to get at least one scene shot before lunch so we sat, smiled and clapped til 1:45. We had an hour break for lunch (baguette sandwiches and diet Coke) and then it was back to work. During the afternoon the five testimonials were completed and everyone did really well with their lines. There were only a couple retakes for each person and it was usually for the recipe portion. The other recipes were chili, Thai rice, beef casserole, steamed fish and french fries. [The Cooker steams, boils, simmers, makes rice and is a fryer. Very multipurpose!]

By 8:15pm the testimonials were over and it was time for the audience members to ask the host some questions. I had to say, "Mike, how do I know how long to cook something in the Star Cooker?". That was my big line. A few more questions and some audience reaction shots and it was all over. We were released at 9:30 and it was a mass exodus out the door.
We were all super tired. Its funny how sitting and waiting can be so exhausting.

I haven't heard anything yet from the production company about when we might be getting our cookers back, but I hope its soon. I made rice during the week and really missed using it. And we still have to try the fry function and the steam function.

I wonder what the next infomercial will be for...
~K