Thanks, Dewey and Emily! - Behind The Scenes of Episode 25

(For anyone that hasn't watched Episode 25 of the Fort Lauderdale Adventures yet and cares, watch it before reading this article.)

First off, Dewey and Emily, if you are reading this, you were amazing. I was totally blown away by your improv at the end.

For the rest of you, I thought I'd quickly fill in on how that interview took place. Basically, after Tom challenged me to the task, I started planning on who/how/when I would do the interview. I had the intention of conducting it a couple of different times at coffee shops when I went out to read, but it never really worked out. There wasn't anyone that particularly looked interview-able and I still wasn't sure what questions I was going to ask. From the beginning though, I knew that my last question would be "how do you feel about Daniel Wilkinson?" and that I would prep the interviewee to simply say "he disgusts me" or something like that. That's the only part of the interview that I wanted to rig – the rest I wanted to be candid answers.

Anyway, I had started to lose hope in doing the interview since it was coming to the end of my time down there, but then it just kinda fell in my lap on the Keys trip (which was the day before we left to come back to Atlanta). When we are at that restaurant from the video, Hetty, Rebecca, and I started taking lots of pictures, and Dewey and Emily, whom we didn't know at all, came over to ask us to take a picture of them since "we looked like picture-taking kinda people." After I took their picture and they walked back to their table, I realized I had the perfect opportunity. Here were two people that are sociable enough come ask us to take their picture, and now I already have some basis to talk to them as well.

So, I went over, told them about this video series, and asked if I could interview them real quick. Keep in mind that before the interview, I didn't even know their names, let alone they were honeymooners or anything – I literally knew nothing about them except that I had just taken their picture for them 2 minutes ago. Well, they agreed to the interview of course, and that's when I told them about the last question I wanted to ask at the end of the interview, and how I wanted to say something like "he disgusts me." At first Emily seemed like she thought it would be kinda mean haha, but after I explained that Daniel was my roommate and best friend and that we joke around like that all the time, both of them quickly caught on. However, Dewey asked me if he could elaborate on his answer rather than just say, "he disgusts me." I said, "of course," but I had no idea what he had in store.

Anyway, you've seen the video and you know what Dewey and Emily came up with. Basically, it was 100% improv on their part with no direction or cues from me at all. Since they improvised it for the first time during the taping, I wasn't any more prepared for their answer than you were. It was hard to keep from laughing as this ingenious story was unfolding before me, complete with convincing acting!

In the end, I couldn't have been happier with the interview. When I stopped the recording, I already knew it would be one of my best episodes. So thanks again so much for the amazing interview Dewey and Emily!! And I hope you had a safe trip back to Nashville and that you found a job, Emily!

posted by Robert Lee at 9:03 pm on Tuesday, October 13, 2009