Heart & Stroke Post Leads to TV Gig

Posted by Thomas Alan Gray Jun 18, 2009

Elise Cerny of Shaw TV in Edmonton is sheduled to come with a camera person next Monday evening. I get to pretend to do a campaign call on a neighbor.

Camera shyness will not be a problem; I had a stint on live TV years back doing "Homework Hotline".

Here's one of my favorite stories - and one of my most embarrassing moments - from that period.

We started every show session by going in for makeup, necessary so that we didn't look washed-out in the studio lights. As a guy, I found that a bit freaky at first, but after a few weeks got used to it.

After one show, I stopped in a supermarket to do some shopping . A pretty young man began following me surreptitiously around the store, smiling and obviously flirting. I'm straight, and ignored him, but wondered why on earth he was interested.

He followed me into the checkout line, and I thought that if he followed me into the parking lot I would have to confront him. The disgusted look on the cashier's face suddenly clued me in: I I had left the studio in a rush and was still wearing the heavy pancake makeup!

I hastily babbled an explanation, borrowed some tissues from the cashier to wipe up with, and apologized to the fellow behind me for accidentally leading him on. We all had a good laugh over the incident.

But under the makeup, my face was red!