Post Interview Brain Dump

ALRIGHT so, my interview with Mr. Apple Bottom Jeans went extremely well. As previously guessed, a few of my questions made him pause for a few seconds and a couple of times mutter ‘wow that’s really good.’ This interview went really good, lasting almost an hour and a half.

Mr. Apple Bottom Jeans wanted to open up even before my first question started. He started asking me about my interests, and we had a pretty long conversation about starting a business, which is ironic since my first question was about starting his company from scratch. Mr. Jeans went on for a long time about that, which was great. He started off as a child actor. At three. By pure coincidence. And ever since then he had just stayed in the media game. Just switched during high school from in front of the camera to behind.

Mr. Apple Bottom Jeans has had a really great career, and is extremely successful. He attributes his success to being nice and dressing well. Which means that everyone else can earn a lot more money if they just gave a shit….. huh….

My question about communication with clients over the course of his career was very informative to me. He went from starting out waiting in line with other businessmen to go into a telephone booth to call his answering machine to write down the numbers that called him to then go back and call each and every number to try and schedule something….. that was a complicated way to start out. Nowadays, he gets emails/texts and just quickly responds to them. He booked three more appointments during our interview. That is about 2000 dollars he just made in the hour and a half we were talking. The other side, businesses, have gotten a lot more corporate. He has never had anyone drop his services, but he has turned down multiple appointments due to something going on in the same time frame.

I enjoyed my equipment question, because it puts a lot of things into perspective. When he started out, he rented constantly, and had about $2,000 worth of actual equipment. Nowadays, he has about $100,000 worth of equipment in his truck while we talked, more in his house, and very rarely rented anymore.

The relationships between himself, his competitors, and his clients are…. Weird. They are extremely happy. He has all of the people I previously mentioned on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites. (We then spent about 10 minutes looking through photos of him and his clients. Including the extremely high profile ones.)

One note I did write down was that he does not interact with any of the larger people outside of pharmaceuticals because they are unionized. Apparently Mr. Apple Bottom Jeans is discouraged to work with Union people.

To conclude our interview, he actually… um…. Offered me an internship. Since Mr. Apple Bottom Jeans works on a day to day basis, this would be ideal for me over the summer. I can work 5 days of the week, and be alongside Mr. Apple Bottom Jeans the remaining two days. I will most likely try and do that.

Interview Questions (Draft One)

1. You worked as a location sound mixer for over 30 years, right? What was the hardest part about starting off and making next to nothing?
2. What do you do to make sure your clients keep coming back?
3. Do you have any clients that you have worked with from the start?
4. Who got you into the sound location industry?
5. How does your equipment compare from when you started vs currently?
6. What is the weirdest or most odd interaction a client has had with you/you have had with a client?
7. How far on the urban/city sound location do you usually record at?
8. Have your kids or relatives ever traveled with you to a location? DO you think it would be fun?
9. Has a trip to somewhere to record sound ever turned into a vacation? Would you ever want to go back?
10. What is the farthest distance you have traveled to record something? The shortest?

Analyze Ones

Hi, I’m Joe Schmoe and this is Analyze Ones, (not trademarked) the analysis paper writing about hot interviews while eating even hotter ramen. Today I will be taking a look at one of the only 10 minute interviews the popular web series “Hot Ones” has produced. For those who are not familiar, this is an interview show where both participants consume wings tossed in varying levels of hot sauce before each question. As the interview gets more intense, so does the heat. This interview is between Patriots Tight End, Gurgle Waterstein, and the interviewer and host of the show, California Raisin Man.

This interview starts off with a ‘get to know you a bit more’ category question where Raisin Man asks if there is a noteworthy story of Gurglestein’s childhood that might have been popular if YouTube was around. Raisin relates the question to something significant that is already going on in Gurlge’s life, his kids show “Crashletes” which features kids…. Well being kids. Doing silly or stupid sports related activities. This question is a good way to connect with Mr. Gurglestein while opening him up and enticing Raisin to take over the conversation for a while. Of course the followup question of “You popped him with a check?” just encourages the friendly behavior

(1:08- 1:58)

After some self advertising from Raisin Man and consuming of the next hot wing, California throws his next question at the burly tight end. Mr. Raisin Man shows Mr. Gurglestein a set of pictures featuring various wrestlers during the era in which Gurglestein grew up. This is a very good tactic to use. California Raisin Man not only shows that he (or his research team) knows their 80s-90s wrestlers, but Sean now does not even have to say anything for Mr. Gurglestein’s eyes to light up and his mouth walks a mile. Gurglestein even starts to mimic signature phrases or body movements that the various wrestlers make, another sign that he is comfortable and enjoying himself. In short- he will talk more now.

(2:12- 3:49)

Mr. California Raisin Man next approaches the sweaty Polish man by targeting the man’s culinary taste. I really enjoy this question, for many reasons. One being that EVERYONE must eat, so naturally everyone has different tastes. No one likes the same thing, therefore taste between two people are different. Athletes have to eat a specific diet, but that does not mean that they enjoy all of what they eat or wish that they could consume something different. Asking about one’s tastes and preferences in food is a very smart move that California Raisin Man made to an athlete with a near fixed intake. Even more when asked in an interview show which features different types of hot wings, all being consumed. This question is also good because his answer can show the type of person he is, where he is from, what he grew up eating, what home cooking was like back in his childhood, as well as the diet he would want to have. The last part of the question is talking about who he is close to, as well as bringing in his religion which can also strengthen the bond between interviewer and interviewee. All of the large brick of text above entices Gurglestein to talk a lot. Mr. California Raisin Man's followup question asks about location, which can also illude to Mr.Gurglestein’s personality.

(4:26- 5:55)

The second to last question talks about a children’s book one of Gurglestein’s teammates made, and California Raisin Man pitches a children’s book (after several pants and milk swigs) to Mr. Gurglestein. This is my least favorite question as this is clearly geared for the audience watching. This is a good example of a bad move. This features California Raisin Man talking way more than Gurglestein, and the main question Mr. California Raisin Man wants answered is ‘So... What do you think?’ which is only a good question under certain circumstances. This one, is not.

(6:23-8:24)

California Raisin Man’s final question for Mr. Gurglestein talks about his public image. Although this question needs a lot of forwarding, I believe that it is a great finale. How one acts in life and how one is perceived are two completely different things, and this question really tries to dig into that. Mr. Gurglestein is an athlete, and because of that his life is put under many different lenses. Asking about the wrong ways people perceive The Gurgle opens an extremely wide range of possible answers. He even takes a good three to four seconds to think before answering. Even though Mr. Gurglestein’s answer is mostly for laughs and a placeholder, both the viewers and Gurglestein can leave pondering. Of course the viewers at home start to question the settings of the lens they see celebrities in. Maybe that is just me. Who knows.

(9:03-9:33)

Alright now that I have finished analyzing all of the questions asked, in the honor of Hot Ones, let’s let you get a thirty second tag in. Here you go….

Pseudonyms-
Joe Schmoe
California Raisin Man
Gurgle Waterstein