Here are some musings I wrote for a group of students who requested for random ideas on what I do as an interviewer, as an artist manager and as one who continues to search in life with vigor, passion and fun. Read on.
Tips in interviewing
• Know that it’s all right not to be perfect. A mispronounced word does not define your mind. You ask a question because you want to know the answer and not because you want to test your guest.
• You don’t know everything and that’s okay. But prepare for a battle.
• The shorter your questions are the better.
• Don’t answer your own questions.
• Nothing is worse for an interviewer than missing out on an important question or failing to make a crucial follow-up. That moment is depressing.
• Ask the tough questions with respect.
• For an interviewer, silence from a guest who has been asked a tough question is riveting.
• Ideally, fast talk strips you of your defenses. That’s why we laugh nervously when asked — sex or chocolates? Lights on or lights off? Best time for sex?
• Listen but know you have five minutes on air. Remember you can dexterously cut a guest in what Ted Koppel calls, “judicious to delicious interruptions.”
• Your best interview is always the next one.
Some life reminders
• Challenge the common until it becomes uncommon. And when the uncommon becomes common, continue the cycle of questioning.
• Not believing in what I believe in doesn’t make you right. Neither does it make me right.
• It’s okay not to learn everything. Nobody does. I don’t know everything and that’s fine. I know something you don’t, you know something I don’t — that’s why we are all teachers and students all our lives.
• Do not be afraid. Someone is always there to catch you when you fall.
• Some people are nasty because they’re lonely.
• I was diminished over and over. I had no choice but to come back again and again.
Some things I learned about showbiz
• Stars go for the kill. They know they don’t stay forever.
• I will always be a rabid fan.
• The most precious gift we can give anyone is time. But in the celebrity business, we appreciate fame.
• When you’re in fame land, next door is hell.
• Charisma, X-factor, kapal ng mukha are one and the same.
• In the celebrity business, when things go wrong, managers/agents are maligned for ineptitude — always. They should get special fees for verbal and emotional abuse.
• Stars are fleeting. Managers have longer shelf life.
• Fame can be the most destructive kind of drug.
• Nothing lasts forever. It is important that you don’t lose your way back home.
• I love show business. It’s real as real can be. It is a place where people don’t cry, we weep and wail — people don’t laugh, we holler — people don’t love, we worship. Day and night; rain or shine; girl, boy, bakla, tomboy — are not defined by weather forecasts. It’s magical. In show business, magic is real.