Lights, Camera, Action!

In the course of an average day, it never occurs to us our story is interesting to other people. We're too busy living it to notice. Why this blog has garnered 8,000 hits in the past year is utterly beyond my comprehension. I mean, thank you, I'm flattered...but what you're all tuning in for, I have no idea.

So, imagine my surprise when Dave Courvoisier, our local longtime news anchor, called me on the phone to set up an interview and tell our adoption story on 8 News Now.

"Ryan," he said in his smooth, flawless baritone. Even on the phone, I could picture him at his desk on the news set, chroma key screen behind him, light coat of pancake makeup on him, popping off cell phone calls in between segments on the MGM business numbers. "Dave Courvoisier from 8 News Now. I'd love to come out and do a success story on you and Adam and Justice and Justin on the news this week."

"Um, define success," I wondered out loud.

"It's for Wednesday's Child," he laughed. Even Dave's laugh sounds newsworthy. I'm not kidding. His laugh has perfect pitch.

Wednesday's Child is a segment Dave Courvoisier has been doing on the news since, oh, I don't know, the Hoover Administration? Every week, he features a child up for adoption, a set of foster kids, a new adoptive family, you name it. If it's a way to promote adoption and fostering in Las Vegas, Dave's all over it.

"Well, sure," I stammered. "That would be great."

We set up a time and hung up cordially, me still wondering what in the world we were going to talk about. I guess I still see our family of four as survivors in the adoption trenches and not so much a human interest piece, but hey, when in Rome.

Here are the things you think about in the three days between setting up a television interview and actually having the news people come to your house:

1. The toilets. It's not possible they'd come in here and accidentally shoot the toilets, right?
2. Why, why, why haven't weeded the back yard since 2009?
3. What can I be cooking in the background when they're shooting the b-roll? On a typical night, we have hot dogs in the microwave. When a news crew shows up, you want to roll out your "A" game. Is miso glazed salmon with roasted sesame seeds over-reaching? Let's go with that.
4. Please God, do NOT let Justin drop his pants and show Las Vegas his penis. Not even in silhouette.

Turns out, I didn't have to worry.

Channel 8 made it as painless as possible.

The news van showed up first and a cameraman named Jonathan hopped out.

Immediately neighbors started peeking out of doors and windows, gathering in the street, and I could hardly blame them. Usually when a news van shows up in our neighborhood, it's because somebody's fleeing the police.

Dave Courvoisier pulled up next in a jet black, bad-ass, custom-looking sports car, of a make and model I've never seen before on the entire planet Earth. "Shit, Dave," I muttered under my breath. "Forget the story on us. Let's do a story on your car."

We started the taping at 7 pm, so the first thing they wanted to get before the sun went down was a few background shots of the kids playing outside. Justice was a little shy, but Justin happily obliged, strapping on his helmet and hopping on his bike so the cameraman could film him riding up and down the street, darting out in traffic and narrowly missing collisions with parked cars, in the kind of award-winning footage that is sure to bring Child Protective Services back into our lives as soon as it airs.

They put a wireless lavalier mike on Justiin before they filmed him riding his bike...how wierd is that? I guess they wanted to capture the essence of boyhood, leaving no noise unturned. I've got news for you, Channel 8. I've heard the noises that come out of Justin. You do not need a special microphone to enhance them.

After that, they decided they wanted to film me in the street, throwing a football back and forth with both kids, for more touchy-feely background footage. I was happy to comply, because any time we can show America that a gay dad knows what a football looks like, it's a win-win for everybody. The downside was, I break a sweat peeling an orange, so ten minutes of football was enough to ensure I'd look like I'd just taken a spin class before we sat down in the house to shoot the close-ups.

We survived the interview with wobbly finesse. The story was there, but the words are a little hard to find when a thousand watt halogen pops on and hits you in the kisser. Nonetheless, we made it through, no worse for the wear, our normally overly-vocal kids awed into monosyllabic grunts and nods. Dave asked them a lot of quesitons, bless him, but the kids were shy and the pickin's were slim.

They did, however, light up and come to life when Dave asked them to show him their bedrooms, and then we did another little segment where we fingerpainted their hand prints on a canvas poem that'll eventually wind up at Grandma Cindy's house.

All in all, a successful night's work, and a fun experience.

It'll air Wednesday, May 22 on KLAS-TV Las Vegas, 8 News Now, at 7am and 4pm Pacific.

A day or two afterwards, you'll find the same segment archived here:
http://www.8newsnow.com/category/43104/wednesdays-child

I met Dave Courvoisier several times before all this happened. He is a regular, longtime fixture in the world of fostering and adoption in Las Vegas, and one of our true community champions.

He was there at the Adoption Exchange Heart Gallery opening where we first met Justice and Justin. He was also master of ceremonies at last year's Adoption Exchange Annual Gala, where I donated my services as an event photographer.

If you foster or adopt in Nevada, chances are real good you're going to run into Dave Courvoisier somewhere along the line. "I can't say no," he told me with a smile and a shrug when I told him we see him everywhere when there are kids futures at stake. And in the case of dedicated local influence, that's a good thing.

Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go

We've spanned the week with these brand new babies of ours...grace and woe and far to go. And that's just for starters.

But it's nice to see them shine in the spotlight, and it was really nice of Channel 8, and dear, dedicated Dave, to give them that chance -- and that once-in-a-lifetime, really fun experience.

Thanks, KLAS. Set your TiVos folks.

We'll see you on the news.