“Hello, is this Sarah?” the woman on the phone said.
“Yes, is this Kim?” I replied.
“Hi, I just talked to Mr. Cosby and he would like to talk right now,” Kim said.
“Right now?!!?” I blurted out. I was shocked — definitely not prepared to interview Bill Cosby. I had just been researching all of his accomplishments in his decades and decades of show business.
“Yeah, would that be possible?”
“Um … ” I hesitated. I wasn’t about to make a fool out of myself on the phone with someone as famous and as accomplished as Cosby.
So I brainstormed briefly in my head and came up with the following resolution: I could prepare a list of adequate questions in 20 minutes. “Would it be possible to have some time, like 20 minutes, to prepare a list of questions?”
“Let me call him and ask him. I’ll call you back in a few.”
So she did and he said it would be OK. What a nice and considerate man, I thought. She gave me his number and told me to keep it confidential, of course. In those 20 minutes, I scribbled down a long list of questions, freaked out and turned to my number one supporter, my boyfriend. He told me to relax and that Cosby is just another person — there was no need to worry.
Eventually, 20 minutes had passed and by then, I was on the verge of shaking. New reporter nervousness. It was time to call the one and only Cosby.
You reach a point when you’re so close to doing something daring that you just do it. No more nervousness or anxiety. Instead, a new rush of energy takes over, your body goes numb and you just go for it. This is how I feel before I interview “accomplished” people. Although, I am getting better at realizing people only have fame or power because the majority of the population grants them their power or fame … but, I digress.
Cosby didn’t pick up the phone the first time I called. I waited five minutes and then decided to call again. The phone didn’t even fully ring once and I was already on the phone with Cosby.
Our conversation lasted a good 30 minutes, which is centuries for someone in the entertainment business. He said I sounded Canadian. After our conversation, I wondered why his publicist’s assistant coordinated the interview for me. Why not the Tribune or New Times? Did either publication even try to get a hold of him to talk about his upcoming performance at the PAC?
She and other people kept telling me they weren’t sure they could schedule an interview with “such a tight turn around” on my deadline (I only had a week to write the story). I guess I’m just a student who got lucky by getting the interview.
With that being said, I urge all my other fellow current and future reporters to try hard to schedule interviews — even with people who are famous and seem far out of reach from our smaller publication. Things can and do happen.
I’m just waiting for Nas to reply to my tweet …
Here are the Cosby articles:
http://mustangdaily.net/bill-cosby/
http://mustangdaily.net/33671/