I thought my radio debut went pretty well. The host laughed a couple of times. But my Lethal Schlepin’ joke, so popular on line, fell flat because of my bad timing. I was a little nervous, mostly because I had no idea what I was supposed to talk about. Afterwards, my biggest criticism came from Sophia and it was less about the content, then it was about my speech. She absolutely HATES when I go “ummm…like…,” thinking it’s just one notch above ape-language in the world of communication. Combined with my fast-talking, Noo Yawk accent, I’m probably not going to get a career in radio anytime soon.
But I probably should work on that “ummm…like…” speech. Any suggestions? Maybe there’s some sort of “My Fair Lady”-type elocution class at UCLA?
“The rain in spain falls mainly on Erica Kane.”
I woke up early to listen to the beginning of the online broadcast to get a sense of David Burd’s Washington Post Radio show. 4 AM in LA! I broke out in a sweat when I heard him say, “Later we’re going to speak to Neil Kramer in LA about why he chose Mel Gibson as his Citizen of the Month.”
Huh? I never said that! Is he calling me thinking I am a supporter of Mel Gibson? Of course, I immediately woke Sophia up, who was not very happy (we were at a wedding last night until late).
“I need to come up with some line to explain why Mel Gibson is my Citizen of the Month!” I spouted.
Sophia threw the alarm clock at me, but, as always, came through at the last moment with a great opening line.
I tried to download the online broadcast, but I screwed up. I only captured the first minute. I wrote to the show to see if they can send me a copy of my spot. Let’s see if they actually will…
You can hear that little piece of my interview about Mel Gibson here. (link)
All and all, I did pretty good, but I think I should stick to ummm… like… writing.
A Year Ago on Citizen of the Month: And the Winner is… Boules!
You and Sophia are sleeping in such close proximity that she can throw a clock at you? I must have missed a few posts!
1) I am jealous you get to even sleep “close” to Sophia.
2) Sounds like you were doing a good job. I hope we get to hear the rest someday.
3) If we ever meet I am not going to be embarrassed at all about my Southern accent – although we might need an interpreter in order to have a conversation.
4) Did I mention I am jealous you get to sleep close to Sophia?
Um, like, I hope they like send you the rest of the interview. I’d really like to like um…listen to like the rest of it.
Oh, that’s so cool to hear your voice. I’m with Leese (hi Leese, nice to meet you); rest of interview.
Dave, thanks for the Toastmasters suggestion. I’ll check into it. Hopefully, next time you hear me, I’ll be sounding like James Earl Jones.
Wow. Good job!
Honestly, I think your voice sounds somewhat like Howard Stern’s. And you know how well HE’S done on radio.
Inquiring minds want to know: are you and Sophia doing some re-kindling?
1. 55 friggin comments? you da man.
2. dave beat me on the toast masters idea.
3. you could always try to substitute “Wellllll,…” when you start to say something. it worked for the gipper.
Congrats! I can’t listen now at work, but will ASAP. I used to have a radio show and would find myself saying the weirdest things. Like my mouth moved faster than my brain or something.
Was it weird to hear yourself talk on the radio? I remember singing into a tape recorder once as a kid, and when I played it back I thought my voice sounded really odd. Also, I’m a bad singer.
Saying ‘Ummm … like’ as a filler isn’t that bad. Sometimes I like listening to people speak that aren’t overly polished — it makes them seem more natural.
I love finally hearing blogger’s voices it’s like a whole new world.
Also, dude! You sound like you’re straight out of Park Slope or something.
i do that all the time, too. i think it’s, like, a really difficult plague on our, um, generation, you know? i had a professor in, um, college who taught phonetics and stuff and that really, like, ticked him the hell off.
okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you are not alone.
Sophia has started using an old Pavlovian technique to rid me of my “likes” and “ums.” Brooke mentioned that they also use something similar in school speech classes. I now have a rubberband around my wrist, and if I use the evil words, my wrist gets snapped, either by her or myself. So, if I meet any of you in the near future and I say “um” or “like,” feel free to cause me some pain.
Congrats on the spot, Neil!
As for “um….like”, my 12th grade English teacher made us start over any time we interjected either into our speech until we got through what we were saying without them. It was annoying as all get out to be corrected so often, but it greatly reduced my usage of them.
wonderful, perfect laugh.
don’t change a thing.
You are so adorable.
You sound kind of british-noo-yawk without even getting henry higgins involved.
Neil –
According to my sister, the speech therapist, the “um…like” habit is a non-worrisome form of “disfluency”. A more severe form is stuttering. So, her suggestion is to just be aware when you are about to “um…like” and DON’T. And be happy you don’t stutter.