675: I’m on TV??
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A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. For every 20 years, Eric Capstik's work for Yankee Stadium is a camera operator. During the game, he rums around the crowd looking for fans to put up on this impossibly huge TV screen that sits over the outfield. And I've seen lots of people work at crowd with a microphone or a camera over the years, and I can say definitively, he is masterful. I'd appreciate if you gave me some really great energy, positive Yankee energy. Are you guys a bachelorette party or something? All right, I'm going to try and get you for the second shot. He's this mind-keep-friendly guy, who by the way seems to know everybody working in the stadium. Daphne Curtis, what's up bro? When he walks past, he tosses and pieces a bubblegum that he swiped from the Yankees dug out. Danny! A piece of gum arcs through the air. He dropped it, he dropped it, but usually he has pretty good hands, but I like to say that half the people in the building can't catch. It's pretty accurate actually. The whole purpose of putting fans up on the big screen is to keep the crowd energized between innings when nothing's happening on the field. So what Eric's looking for is pumped up passionate fans. Sometimes fans ask for Kiss Cam. I'm like, no, you got to go to Queens for Kiss Cam, we don't do Kiss Cam here. You get that Queen's reference? He's saying, Kiss Cam's the kind of lowbrow garbage that you see at Met's games. How you doing? Hi, I want to get the kids, I mean, you know, primarily, so you should sit, probably. He's talking to some teachers and parents of kids from the school. He has 71 in the Bronx, they're here on a class trip. You don't want to be in it? Eric likes to position himself between the people who he's shooting and the screen, so they could actually see themselves on the huge screen right over his shoulder. Sometimes that means perching himself over the edge of a balcony, but not this time. We're about 10 seconds away. Everybody waits. It feels like a long time. Here we go. You're up. Have you been on TV before? No. So how was it? I don't know. Exciting, yeah. So what's so fun about being on TV? I'm like, you just get to see yourself on there and like, it makes you feel famous. How did you know what to do when the camera went on you? Well, I've seen people like, and what they do, like they wave and stuff. Duh.
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