Chapter 7: The Hour & My Ultimate George Experience!

Previously, we've had (and this is by no means a full list) The Hour: The Mug, The Hour: Observations, and my favourite: the Universe speaking to me via George. This last post earned a link to this blog on The Hour's blogtracker in early 2006, and I was high as a kite for awhile thereafter, even though I was otherwise a raging ball of scorned female fury (I'm not explaining...just go and read the post).

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you probably know I am a huge fan of The Hour and of George. Well, on January 21, the day after the Bloggers creamed the competition on Test the Nation and immediately following my afternoon at the ROM, I went to a taping of The Hour. I emailed the audience coordinator before I left for my trip and secured myself a seat quite easily, and to say this experience was the cherry on the sundae, the icing on the cake, or whatever other tired cliche applies in this context, would be a total understatement. It was the thrill of my as yet pathetic, boring, unexciting existence. It was the most exciting fucking thing I think I'd ever done to date in all my 33 long years of taking up precious space on this rapidly declining panet.

Again, exact descriptors escape me. And we all know how rarely that happens, right?

OK. So, I trudge from the subway station to the John St. entrance of the CBC building, unable to keep a silly grin off my face because I'm just so excited about the next couple of hours. I sign in at The Hour's desk in the lobby and then get lost trying to find the bathroom, because there will be no piss breaks after being seated in the studio. As I wandered around looking for the can, I ran into Jules, one of my Blogger teammates, sitting near security. It seemed that the CBC had made a mistake with her return travel arrangements so she was patiently waiting for someone to come down and make things right. We had a bit of a chat, but I did have to find that elusive bathroom, which I did after asking two more people. After that, I got into the The Hour: The Lineup (above right).

Now, just because you're first in line doesn't mean you get a front row seat and an unobstructed view of George. Seating is assigned; all I had to do was be in line by a certain time and I was in. As it happened, I was second to last in the line. The very last people in line was a group of three girls that looked about student age. As I minded my own business, and as The Hour's staff (again, kudos to the CBC staff for being very organized) counted us off and took us into the elevators in batches, along comes Rick Mercer.

He just walks on by, in the company of some other guy. Starstruck, I only stared, but inwardly I was thinking, Man, he's a little...short. But so what?

I'm in the last batch of people to be taken up in the elevator, which was hidden behind an enormous yellow door disguised as a wall. While I'm waiting, again minding my own business, I hear a cry of startlement behind me from amongst the three girls. I turn around to see what's wrong and...

....It's George!

Like, George. Really George! He'd just snuck up on this group of girls and scared the crap out of one of them as she turned to see who was all of a sudden standing behind her.

It startled the hell out of me, too! I just gaped wide-eyed and said, "Oh my God!" as George moved among us, saying hi, thanking us for coming out, a handshake here, a touch on the shoulder there. I just stared, completely dumbstruck and looking, I'm pretty sure, like a complete idiot. I perceived that he gave me a funny look, and I wouldn't blame him, but he shook my hand and then said he had to go get ready for the show.

I could pretty much have died happy there and then, but more was to come.

We went up the elevator and came out near Studio 43. There was a coat rack where we hung our stuff, and then we went into the studio and were seated. Since I was by myself, I was moved around a bit, but it didn't seem to matter where you sat, you'd still get a great view of the stage, and luckily there wasn't a 7" tall male seated immediately in front of me. It was nearly four. Kevin Hunt, who had run Test the Nation the night before, was running this show, too (I also recognized a couple of the camera operators). We got emergency exit instructions and practice applauding before George came out and did his own explanation of what would go on during the show.

They began by taping a segment that would air on an upcoming show. George interviewed these two guys who had made a documentary about the pot industry in BC (God, I cannot remember who they even were! That's terrible!). When that was done, George went off to change and soon after, the taping of the show that would air that night began.

The live guest was David Frum, a person I am not a big fan of. The taped interview was an absolutely bizarre piece with John Leguizamo, and George had set it up for us by saying that it was one of the most awkward, bizarre interviews he'd ever done, and he was looking forward to how it had been edited down.

During commercial breaks, George took questions from the audience, told stories, joked around, and was generally entertaining. While the pre-taped stuff was playing, he moved rapidly around the studio talking to various staff-members. He was always moving.

When the taping was over and done with, there was a giveaway of several copies David Frum's book and some T-shirts from the pot documentary. In order to win something, you had to answer various skill-testing questions that were all about George. By this time, I was a ball of nervous energy, so I didn't participate.

Before the taping, I'd approached the girl who was seating us all and asked her when the taping would finish, as I had to be on the 18:43 Go Train to Burlington. She said it would all be over by about 5:30 but that George stuck around afterwards to hang out. Allan had said much the same thing the night before as we chatted in the Test the Nation line-up.

So, of course, once the giveaway was done and people started either leaving or approaching George, I got in the Meet George Melee. Most of the people ahead of me were girls wanting pictures with the man and not much else, but I wasn't going to settle for that. When my time came, I stepped forward, extended my hand, and introduced myself, mentioning that I hail from Rossland, BC. Jules was lucky enough to get a standby ticket to the taping, so I gave her my camera. There was a bit of small-talk and then we posed for a picture. George put his arm around my shoulder...Jules fiddled with my camera a little...And I said, aloud, "Oh my God, this has just made my life."

Jules clicked and the picture was taken. But that wasn't the end.

This is what impressed me the most about George: There was that little interruption in the conversation as Jules snapped the photo and I made that very sincere statement, and often that's where the conversation ends, right? Especially when there are a lot of other people around. But, as I retrieved my camera, George turned and looked at me expectantly, and said, "Why did you just say that?"

I was a little stunned. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and honestly wanted to know what had prompted that statement. So I told him. I'd been watching The Hour since day one (or as my schedule permitted during those horrible bakery days) and was a huge fan, and it had always been a dream of mine to come to a taping of the show and meet George. He seemed to be in no hurry, and we wound up having quite a nice little chat, in which I invited him to Rossland (it'll take some convincing...he wasn't keen, especially after the Yak show, and the promise of fabulous downhill skiing didn't seem to sway him much...I should have offered to cook for him, come to think of it). I also got to tell him something I'd wanted to tell him since that fateful episode in February 2006 when the Universe spoke to me through George: that that Closer was so perfectly relevant for me at that time (despite the vastly different context), that it was just what I needed to hear right at that moment, and that it made me feel better about something painful going on in my life and that the post had made the blogtracker. He said he was glad to hear that and was grateful for the feedback. We briefly discussed the Blogger victory at Test the Nation, and then I had to go and get my train. We shook hands again, George thanked me for coming and said he hoped I could come again; I thanked him and said I had a wonderful time and a fantastic experience.

I practically skipped to the hotel to retrieve my luggage. I got a taxi to the train station, and even though I had a terrible experience getting on the Go Train when it finally boarded nearly half an hour late, I was giddy with happiness. Life was good, and if I died tomorrow, I would die a pretty happy woman.

This isn't the greatest picture of me in the world, but I don't care! I had the ultimate George experience! Once again, thank you CBC for this amazing opportunity and the trip of a lifetime!