Jan. 14, 2010

Our Day with a Crazy Man!

Under extreme secrecy we departed for the great state of New Jersey. We were headed to Plainfield to a small, two sheet curling club. It was there that we would realize our best day as Olympians! You might think we would be meeting the President or teaching the game of curling to some other dignitary….but no, we were about to spend six of the craziest and fun filled hours with a contemporary icon in comedy.

It was none other than Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central. As some of you know Stephen got his start on “The Daily Show” with John Stewart as a bit of a goof on the political reporting scene. He has since taken that character to new heights with his own show and we were about to spend the day with him discussing curling….or so we thought!

We arrived at the Plainfield club and walked in to the small warming house behind the two ice sheets. The warming house was made even smaller by the truckload of camera gear, lights, props, etc. We knew that “The Man” would be arriving a bit later to start taping so we went about the business of getting changed and checking out the scene. And of course, we had to try out the ice!

Once we got settled the producer and camera crew started to get us ready for the first part of our day which was a sit down interview with Stephen. A little makeup, some positioning and some coaching on responses and making sure to seem “serious” about our sport and we were ready.

Mr. Colbert arrived and greeted us and we immediately knew we were in for a fun day. He quickly started bantering with us and we all felt at ease. He made a quick wardrobe change into some old-time curling attire, we took a few photos and then it was time to start “rolling tape”.

Now that the episode has aired, we can tell you that there were too many hilarious moments for them to use. Of course, some of us will never live down some pieces that did make the final show. How funny! We were hardly through the first part of the interview and we knew this was going to be a great day. Stephen rarely has a serious moment even when the cameras are not rolling and that mode of operations fits well with our team.

Once the interview was complete, we had a quick lunch and headed to the ice where the real magic happened. Stephen wanted to learn all facets of the game and get them on tape. Once again there was so much material from that taping that there was no way they could use it all! From the first stone he threw (and yes it was his first stone ever when he slid to the hogline and took five bucks off of me), he was a natural. So we spent lots of time taking shots from every angle and getting plenty of jokes in. What a riot!

Of course it all culminated with the showdown between Shuster and Colbert! Little did we know that Stephen had a remote control rock that would win the game and steal the show!

All in all, we spent roughly six hours with Mr. Colbert on and off camera. He is an amazingly funny and talented guy and he kept us on our toes all day! We all agreed that our “Day with a Crazy Man” was quite possibly the most fun we’d had yet in this whole wonderful experience!

Since its first airing, we’ve all had many calls, e-mails, and comments from friends and acquaintances within curling as well as outside of our sport. To a person, they have all loved the piece and thought that it was very well done and that the team did a great job.

Living the Dream! Only 30 days to go!