In November of 2021, I was asked to be in a commercial for the Comet bus system here in Columbia. I agreed. I was to go downtown to the Transit Station and be interviewed on camera about why I ride the bus. There was a public relations/advertising firm handling the project, and the interviewer was the same person as the one who interviewed me about the Alex Trebek picture. She was now working for this firm, and I felt comfortable with her. I wasn't the only person being interviewed that morning, but I seemed to have more experience than the others. It was cold and rainy that day, and I had on my raincoat, which was also a trench coat. They wanted me to wear it during the interview, although one lapel kept popping up. The still photographer there was an old friend from the MTRA days. We had a good laugh over my April Fool's story earlier about "Barbara".
The interviews were being done on a stationary bus toward the back. Emily had told me what she was going to ask, but she also wanted the answers to be somewhat spontaneous. She asked me what I liked about riding the bus, and I said that it provided independence for me and allowed me to get from point A to point B easily. They used that in the commercial.
After the interviews were over, I told them that I didn't have anything else to do for the day, so they asked if I could ride with them and be some more spots. Of course. So, we went to the zoo and did a commercial there about a mother and two children going to the zoo. Some of us did background work walking behind the family. They had to do several takes, because one of the children didn't look excited enough. We then went to the airport for another shot to show that the bus serves the airport. On route to the airport, they wanted a shot of me and another guy talking on the bus. There would be no sound for this. So, I leaned over to the guy to improvise a conversation, and I asked him what was the meaning of life? He was taken aback by my question, but he handled it very well. Our "conversation" got on a commercial. We also did an interaction with others on the bus. We talked about voting. Again, there wasn't any sound. There was a voiceover in the ad.
We got to the airport, and they were going to shoot a spot of a couple getting off of the bus and heading to the terminal. Then, they did another shot of them coming out of the terminal and back on the bus. At one point, they were sitting on the bus with their luggage in the aisle. I pointed out that the luggage couldn't be in the aisle, because it was against regulations. It had to be realistic, so they moved the couple to another part of the bus, so that their luggage could be easily stored under the seat. The folks arranged for us to have a free lunch at the airport. First class all the way.
We left the airport that afternoon and headed back downtown. There was going to be a shot at a hospital of two nurses getting off of the bus, and we were in the background sitting in a bus shelter. I was getting kind of tired. There was one more site to go at a grocery store, but I asked if I could leave. I was paid for my time with a Visa gift card, and I headed back to the transit station to catch the bus home.
When I got on the bus, a woman asked me if I was famous? She said she had seen me at the hospital, doing the commercial, and she wanted to know if I was famous. She looked kind of excited about it, so I told her that I was famous, just to quiet her down. It was the opposite reaction I was looking for. She yelled out to everyone on the bus that I was "famous". She then went on to announce that there was a "famous person on the bus". Nobody asked me for my autograph, though.
The commercials came out in March, 2022. They were on TV and online. I think you can go to YouTube to see them. My picture, along with others, is also being used for print ads and will be on posters around town at bus shelters. So, yes, I am famous. Autographs will be available in the lobby.
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