Let Me Do The Talking

It is a funny thing to be interviewed for some reason other than employment. In a variety of speech contests I have been briefly interviewed, and even that is weird. For a few moments, it's all about you. That's something that I must confess I want most of the time, , and most of the time I don't get it. For that reason, I don't have to face up to the fact that I don't know what to do with it most of the time. Then it happens.

For the few moments that I'm being interviewed, I realize that what I'm asking for I actually shrink away from. I think I handle myself well enough in those situations. They ask a few questions and I garner decent reactions with my responses, most of which are designed to fend off the question without answering it. That's my way, I suppose- to dance around the issue without hitting it head-on. I'm working on that in improv.

Those interviews are about me though, and maybe it's the tendency of those interviews to force introspective thought that I don't care for. Other interviews, such as the sort I've submitted to a couple times for a podcast, are not so penetrating, or at least are not so in the same sense. On those occasions, I answered questions and talked at length with some comfort. There's some unease about not knowing what I'll be asked and therefore not knowing how I'll answer, but it's not so bad.

I think I have managed to be candid when it was called for on podcasts, which is a step for me. Perhaps I am motivated by the opportunity to talk about other things. Talking about what's in the news is fine. Talking about generalities is fine. Addressing things like my dating record is not so fine, but I find every time that I am able to open up more that it benefits me more than it hurts me. I will have to make more of these interviews happen.