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QUESTION: My girlfriend and I are big fans and were wondering something about something in particular. It seems sometimes that some of these guys you work with are just plain ... well, how shall I say ... mean! The one episode I remember in particular was when you were working with the old guy and his ostriches. If you even spilled a speck of that feed, that guy was on top of you like white on rice!
He's screaming "Don't spill the feed!" at the top of his lungs while you were being attacked and pecked by ostriches. He yelled it again to which you quipped, "Is it feed, or gold, for God's sake?!"
Was it just us, or was he getting really paranoid about you spilling his feed? I might have dumped the whole thing over and said "Forget it!" if he had been yelling at me like that.
Anyway, we're big fans, and keep up the good work!
Aaron and Alyssa
ANSWER:
A & A,
Glad you like the show. The ostrich guy, Doug, was indeed rather particular about his feed. We could have probably cut the piece to make him appear less paranoid, but there is a certain entertainment value in watching me get yelled at from time to time. Truth is, he was not really as worried about his feed as he seemed in the final cut, but he did like to boss me around and that was accurately reflected, I think. People are at their most interesting when they are being themselves, but TV makes it very, very difficult for regular folks to not alter their behavior in some way, and lapse into some sort of "performance." The business of production is just so obtrusive, it's nearly impossible to find someone who is totally unaffected by it.
In a perfect world, none of the people featured on Dirty Jobs would have any aspiration to be on TV. That's why, in many cases, the people who contact us (the owner, the boss, etc.) are less suitable for my purposes than their employees. Bosses and owners tend to have agendas and people with agendas are seldom genuine. Rad (the roofing guy) was an exception and one of my favorites. Like Floyd, he couldn't have cared less about being on TV and didn't go out of his way to appear any different than he really is. That's rare and very refreshing, if not necessarily endearing. I would much prefer people to be themselves (even if that means being impatient, bossy or demanding), rather than pander or assume a "character" that they think I might want them to play.
I really try to resist the temptation to manufacture moments of drama or tension or comedy. It's hard, because that's what television is — manufactured moments. When things start to feel mundane or ordinary, directors and editors start to worry, because we have a basic belief that viewers need to be constantly "entertained." Perhaps they do. But the show works best, in my opinion, when we step back and let the actual personalities emerge from the characters we profile.
For better or worse.
Mike
