Here’s Your Sign

One thing I try and preach to pretty much everyone I talk to is to never be afraid to fail. We all have to know our limitations, so I’m not telling people to do crazy things, but it never hurts to ask for things, such as going for that job you don’t think you can get or asking out that person you may think is out of your league, etc. The worst thing that could happen is they say “no.” But you can’t win if you don’t play, and about three weeks ago I had a chance to take my own advice.

When I discovered that one of my favorite comedians, Bill Engvall, was coming to Choctaw Casino in Grant, Oklahoma, I not only inquired about tickets, but I asked if I could interview Bill for our newspaper. Now why would they give a small newspaper like ours an interview with a world-famous comedian? And right away, they were nice enough to offer me tickets and I was extremely grateful for that. But, on Thursday evening, before the Friday night show, I received an email that said I had been granted an interview with Bill in his dressing room, before the 7 p.m. show. At this point, my mind went into overdrive.

I’m the kind of person who overthinks everything, at least that’s the opinion of my two daughters, two ex-wives and two sisters and every other woman who’s ever known me, so basically, the jury is still out on that call. My eyes popped open at 2 a.m. with ideas of what I could ask and what I shouldn’t ask. I debated every possible question in my head and then at work I asked everyone, “what’s the one thing you would ask him?” Then I texted everyone close to me and asked them the same thing. No one was any help, so I decided to just have a conversation with him and ask him about things other interviewers haven’t ask him yet. I know this because I spent a couple of hours Thursday night finding past interviews he has done. Again, this is me overthinking everything.

I’m really grateful to not only the staff at Choctaw and their ad agency, but also to Bill’s people who travel with him and the ones back in Los Angeles who were so kind to me. They treated this small-town newspaper publisher like I was a reporter from a big time TV station, and I couldn’t be more appreciative.

I also want to give a big thank you to The Magic Scoop, Jypsy Willow and the City of Sulphur Springs, who all came together at the very last minute to help me put together a small gift bag that I was able to give to Bill. He said to say “thank you” to everyone for all the gifts and I can’t wait until you hear what he said when I asked him about the glass bathrooms. Pick up Saturday’s paper to read the whole interview.