My 24 hours at The Oscars
Loyalty, Preparation, Circumstance and Gratitude.
It had been quite a day, and I was ready for a glass of wine.
When you work in show business, there’s this sense of exhaustion, project completion, and satisfaction with a finished show. I’m sure many can assimilate to that moment in translation with various work projects. But personally, after I have cleared emceeing, writing, or producing a big event, I’m usually wiped out. I like to take a minute and have a quiet glass of wine, preferably in solitude, maybe take a day off, reflect, decompress, and unwind before looking at what’s ahead.
This was the plan in place after I hosted a large scale Saturday afternoon event at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Get home, put my feet up, and hide, but with a wife and three young children, that internal dream can reorder quickly. Sometimes you have to compromise the plan, and the compromise as such was that we would all walk and get some wine and some appetizers and ice cream at our local market. You know, family stuff. Everything was soft and in place. The six and four-year-olds were scootering ahead of us, and the baby was snoozing in the stroller. Meanwhile, my wife and I were in the middle of a quiet catch up. The temperature was oddly warm for February, and the sun was slowly giving way to the night sky.
Tender is the night. Things seemed perfect. Then the call came. The phone buzzes.
If I don’t recognize the name or the number I’ll usually bypass, but have you ever had that friend that no matter what time of day when you see that caller ID pop up, you always pick up the phone? You know that no matter the circumstances, you are always in for a colorful surprise, conversation, or catch up? Well, I do. For this piece’s purposes, names aren’t necessary, but as we often say in my industry, if you know you know. I picked up the phone a little hesitant because it would break my zen, but knowing it was this particular person, I would certainly share a few minutes. Maybe he needed someone to bounce an idea off of, perhaps he was going to taunt me about Tennessee football, maybe he was up in my neck of the woods and wanted to just grab a meal. We went back twenty years in both show biz and friendship, and that was most important. Who knew? Who cared? Here we go.
The conversation, and day as I remember it went something like this. I heard things bustling in the background and some street noise, so I assumed he was knee-deep in a show or project.
Him- “Kennedy, how are you?” Him- “Hey, Listen, I just came out of a meeting, and it was decided that we need a pre-show announcer for tomorrow’s show.” Me- “What show?” Him- “Hold on a second.” Him -“The Academy Awards; are you available?” Me- (brain mildly exploding) “Umm Yea.” Him- “So listen, I have to lock this, so I have two quick questions. Do you own a tux, and can you be on a flight in a couple of hours? We’ll discuss it all when you get here”. Me- “Done”
That’s how quickly it happened. I got off the phone and said to my wife now holding the baby, “Wow, you’re never going to guess what just took place, I just got booked for the Oscars tomorrow. Do I even have a tuxedo?” I know that might sound ridiculous, but my brain stopped working for a few minutes as I was soaking in what had actually just happened. I am lucky that I married the woman I married for thousands of reasons. Still, she was most needed right now as she was an event and show producer and logistics are her forte. Inside my head there was currently a controlled caleidoscope picturing all the things I had to do in two hours. As I stumbled through our conversation like Homer Simpson, she immediately went into go mode.
What time is your flight? What are you packing? What do you need me to do at home?
I just asked her to head home and start researching all things Oscars. Find out current nominees, last year’s winners, all-time winners, nominee trivia, Oscar fun facts, etc. and print everything she possibly could in the next hour. And to please pack an overnight bag with anything she thought I might need.
I started sprinting back to the house, and if you’ve ever seen me run, it’s not pretty. Meanwhile, I was simultaneosly on my phone looking up tux rentals, tux stores, suit stores with tuxes, tux costumes, friends my size that had a tux, etc. At the end of it, all and there were two words I needed to see “Men’s Wearhouse,” It was only 15 minutes away. Drenched in sweat, I ran into the store 10 minutes before closing. I begged them to cobble together anything that said tuxedo — All I had were pants. Still, I needed the rest, plus the realist in me didn’t want to drop 750 dollars on a legitimate tux. They made it happen, it was like the whole place worked like a symphony as my story unfolded throughout the store. I arrived home without even time to shower, grabbed my bag, my papers, and was gone, sketchy tux and all. One last thing that was the cherry on top in this section was that the cufflinks I ended up using were my wife’s grandfathers. She handed them to me as I was walking out the door. And I was off…
“Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.” — Seneca
Not much different from Merryl Streep or Denzel Washington on the night before The Oscar’s, of course. With 45 minutes to my flight, I was now sweating and speeding my minivan through the back roads to the Oakland Airport for a trip to Los Angeles. Hollywood and Highland, to be exact. The Academy Awards.
The plane flight was a surreal mix of what was happening in reality while also cramming mentally and somewhat academically for the biggest test of my life. But an eerie calm came over me as I started to pour through notes and facts to prepare for the next day.
Luckily, I was no stranger to these setups. The carpets, the celebrities, the press, the photographers were all pretty standard in the many shows I had done before. Still, then you run the train of thought that everything that came out of my mouth could be magnified around the world. I’m not a rookie, but it is one of the biggest shows on planet earth.
These converse thoughts sawed back and forth, but ultimately I realized butterflies are excellent. Once I stepped out on the red carpet and went live on the microphone, I would be the most comfortable and be at my best the same as I had done hundreds of times before. Malcolm Gladwell once had an excerpt about putting in 10,000 hours to become a real expert in something. Well, from my beginnings, Sesame “Street” Place in Langhorne, PA through my stadium and arena years to hundreds of other shows, I had definately clocked in the time, now I was praying it would just hold true, at least for this show.
Flight to the car, car to the hotel, hotel to the meeting.
This was one of those meetings that brevity was of the essence, I sat down at a table in the lobby of the hotel and met with my key person. Only a few words were spoken, but basically, they surrounded me with additional insulation of confidence. “Kennedy, you’ve done hundreds of these, it’s a walk in the park.” The instructions were simple. Here is your call time, then meet this person at this time and get your clearance and credentials. Then meet your stage manager at this time. Among other things, you’ll get the crowd ready when ABC goes live with coverage. Still, I’m going to need you in position as world coverage begins much earlier than that. World coverage? Now let that sink in on your elevator ride to the room.
“You ready, champ?” “I’ve been ready for this my whole life.”- “Rudy”
I was en route to the room, took a breath, looked out from the windows, and saw this…It was all becoming real.
Needless to say, there wasn’t much sleep in the 5 hours that followed, but that clock was creeping me closer and closer, and then the sun began to rise. No putting it off, time to get ready. Most celebrities have teams of people getting them ready for these events, but not this guy. I think my only worries were deodorant marks, forgetting a part of the tuxedo, or leaving my notes behind. Most of the time, I am in and out of the shower in record time, flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt, but this time I used my full allotted hour to make sure I didn’t look a mess. I left the room two or three times, doubled back at the elevator doors, and made sure I didn’t forget anything.
“Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” -Christopher Robbins
Showtime. The Oscars are one of the most secure shows in the world. I knew it would take a while to run through security, credentialing, and the different sections of magnetic barriers, so I made sure I was nice and early ready to deal with all the protocol necessary to have a safe show. Then it was time. I was out on the carpet standing under the two colossal Oscar statues that frame the entrance to the theater when I heard the call out to get into my position from my producer. Still staring up at the iconic figures while glazing looking down at the thousands gathered on all sides of the Red Carpet, we had the handoff. “Here’s your microphone, sir, have a great show.”
I walked around the corner, faced the crowd, and let her rip. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 87th Annual Academy Awards Red Carpet.” I was now live to the house and got to entertain the grandstand crowd, talent, and onlookers for the next six hours. We were a long way from my teenage years entertaining crowds at Cookie Monster Mountain at Sesame Place. A privilege, a goal, a pinnacle, and a dream, this was all those things.
It all blurs together at a certain point, but I can recall two of my first few surreal moments. The American Forces Network had me look into the camera and announce that we were “Live from The Oscars Red Carpet” in that deep announcer voice. After which I casually asked, “Who were we broadcasting to?” and the gentlemen casually said “You know, our troops all over the world” and immediately after that another broadcast had me do something similar and again off camera I asked, “How many people did that just go out to?” and she said “Oh, about 20 million are watching in our country”. That went on for hours between talking and walking, meeting and greeting, and trying to propel all that beautiful pre-show energy into homes around the world. Also, some usual stuff like being asked to hold Reese Witherspoon’s clutch as she took selfies, rounding a corner too fast and almost knocking Ed Norton over, introducing Robin Roberts and the crew at GMA to the event, you know standard everyday moments.
I loved this place, and the crew was the best of the best. When you work on shows of this caliber, you are working with some of the highest and most experienced people in your industry above and beyond what most people see on television. To be surrounded by that is an exhilaration that’s hard to describe. Ultimately and finally, I got to introduce Chris Connely, who I had worked with a few times during my time at MTV, so it was like seeing an old friend and finishing with a very comfortable handoff to begin to conclude my day. He then took over the live hosting duties, and I just had to cue the crowd a few more times, and then we winded down. The flashbulbs were slowing, the carpet was thinning, and the inside show was about to begin. My producer called the wrap, and we were off.
As I was exiting, I was bound to have a final Forrest Gump moment, right? One of my dear producer friends was motioning and waving to me as I was crossing the theater entrance, getting ready to exit. Naturally, I ran over to say hi with my arms flailing and a huge smile thinking we were going to congratulate each other. Little did I think he was waving frantically to clear a live broadcast shot during the show. As the millions of viewers were heading into a commercial, they unfortunately also witnessed my Oscar broadcast debut. That’s me on the right. Luckily I was laughingly forgiven and still asked back a few more times.
My day was winding down, but what a day it was. Lights, camera, and action were working at their highest levels. I watched this show my whole life, and now I was in the books as a tiny part of it. I was able to work with some of the best producers and directors in the show and event worlds. That was a stand-alone to seeing some of the highest levels of creative talent on the planet. Even if the moments were brief and the interactions were sparse for this show, I’ll always have those images, those memories, and that accomplishment. Once you check off, you typically look for a space to sit, breathe, and rest. It’s sort of counterintuitive to what most people think. Still, people like me try to avoid any parties or people once the job is complete.
As soon as the show ended, I was out of there. I headed straight to the hotel to put on my “comfy clothes” and get ready for my flight. I quietly celebrated with some wings and an iced tea at the hotel bar while waiting for my taxi, which took me to the airport to catch the last flight out. I was home by the 11:00 o’clock news with kids crawling all over me. My wife was toasting me with a glass of wine as we discussed what we needed from Trader Joe’s when I do the Monday shopping. For just a few minutes, I would reflect on what just happened and breathe in the gratitude that was bestowed upon me and appreciate the culmination of loyalty, kind spirit, and hard work.
After all, it had been quite a day, and I was ready for that glass of wine.
