Christy Clark and Me

The audio in the YouTube clip above came from an appearance on the Christy Clarke Show (on CKNW AM980 in Vancouver, BC) when I was guest just before Christmas 2007. I was there as a video game expert to talk about games, what was hot/not, what kids should and shouldn’t be playing, etc. Unfortunately for me – and I’ve done nothing to rectify this particular issue – I have zero media training so it’s kind of difficult to listen to five years after the fact.

Christy’s first question, “So, what are the hot games this Christmas?”

What do I do? I completely sidestep the question and start monologuing about ESRB ratings.


The original question is a solid start and I’m sure I could have naturally slipped in information about the ESRB along the way, but I answer a question that wasn’t asked.

In the first section of the clip, it’s just Christy and I talking and the whole time I was wondering when we’d start taking calls. The fact we weren’t just filled me with dread because it meant I wasn’t engaging enough for people to want to call in with a question. My wife was thinking the same thing but I found out during the commercial break that there was a problem with the phones and they had fixed it for the second half.

First caller: my wife.

Since there were no calls to be heard, she became so concerned that I was boring the Lower Mainland, she called the radio station and sat on hold for 10 minutes until they figured out the phone situation. As the familiar sounds of home filtered across the studio speakers, I momentarily felt like I needed to bring to attention that this caller was my wife but for all I knew this would be the only caller.

Fortunately, there were other callers and just as I was getting into a groove, time was up and my segment was over. Besides starting to feel comfortable and actually answering questions that were asked of me rather than answering questions that hadn’t been asked, most importantly, as opposed to my previous appearance with Jeff on Paul Myers’ Show (in 2003, previously posted clip can be found here), I didn’t descend into making things up on the fly. Score 1 for me!

As a footnote to this whole thing, it’s worth noting that Christy Clark (BC Liberal) is currently the Premier of British Columbia. That may all change in May when the Provincial Election happens – if current polls are credible, it will change – because the current election campaign is getting pretty nasty.