I was just sitting there, waiting for it to happen. And then it did. My phone exploded with text messages and notifications from everyone I’ve ever known, from all over the country writing to say they just saw me on TV.

I still have not watched it, but yesterday saw The Payphone Project get about a minute of air time on CBS Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley. Reviews all seem positive, with the only complaint being that people actually wanted to see more of me. That’s kind of a weird concept for me. Is there actually more of me to be had? Hah.

The segment had been in the works for months already when it finally was filmed, and it sat in the can for months afterward. Obviously this is not a timely news piece, it’s filler or at best soft news, so it’s no surprise that it sat on the shelf for so long. For the filming I had to be at the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman building at the unholy hour of 8am. I have not seen 8am, except to stay awake until that hour, for a very long time. I’m not complaining, mind you. We had to be there before the building opened and the public was allowed in.

I arrived and asked a security guard if there was a film crew inside. He answered in the affirmative, and said I needed to be issued an ID badge. I replied that no one had told me to expect that, and that I hoped this wouldn’t cause me to be late. He went inside and quickly came back out, smiling and saying I was “bona fide” and that I would not need any kind of badge. I guess it would have looked dumb to be sporting a “Hi, My Name Is…” thing on TV.

Inside I found 2 crew members setting up a tangled phalanx of cameras and lights, with the producer and Mo Rocca standing by the row of four wood phone booths that still populate the lower level of the library. No one fed me questions ahead of time, and we spoke for a total of what I guess was about 90 minutes.

I had never heard of Mo until a couple of weeks prior. I could not have been more wrong about this but from what I found of his œuvre I was afraid he was a gotcha type of comedian interviewer who ridiculed his subjects. On account of this I actually almost declined to do this. But that style just did not seem like that of CBSSM, which at the time of the filming was still hosted by Charles Osgood.

The interview style was nothing like what I had imagined. If anything it felt a little over the top in some ways, with Mo asking me questions about things I wrote and comments I made as far back as what seems like 20 years ago.  He and his colleagues did their research, as I guess one would expect from a network news organization.

If I was unusually nervous about this airing it’s because, for one thing, I don’t like doing TV. But more to the point I had only foggy memories of all the things I said that day. I did, however, remember getting some facts and figures either wrong or slightly inaccurate. I was able to clarify those matters in follow-up e-mails, but it still lingered in my mind that I was about to go on television and say something stupid — like that never, ever happens to anybody. I did not make any egregious errors, mind you. Whatever the case I guess none of that stuff was used. I also wanted to communicate what payphone industry insiders say is the final villain in the death of the payphone: the Lifeline program that gives free or very cheap cell phones to the poor. Those folks are the payphone’s last reliable customer base, but giving them free phones makes their use of payphones unnecessary. They probably would not have used such comments anyway.

I remember the film crew guys commenting (positively) that I was “non-stop” in talking about the subject matter. I guess a lot of their subjects clam up. The next day they went to Washington to talk to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There’s a change of pace.

Funny thing, when the producer called to schedule this he said he was calling from CBS. Moments earlier I had just gotten off the phone with CVS, the pharmacy. I was puzzled as to why CVS would be calling me back within seconds of what seemed like a conversation with no need for follow-up.

Anyway… It was fun letting 6,000,000 see my face for that one minute but I’m glad it’s over. The contacts I’ve received since the airing have been very gratifying. Now I get to catch up with that. The most intriguing message I am looking at right now has the subject line “Payphones and Apology Line”. Apology was a telephone confessional art project I worked on years ago, and is a subject I have not visited for a long time. This might not be a bad time to do that.

Coincidentally I reestablished contact with a documentary filmmaker who I worked with last year. She wants to go ahead with her project even though she did not get grant money for it. She said she showed the video of me to some people and that they “wanted more” of me. That, again, is kind of a weird concept for me. How much more of me is there?

This film would not be your typical bullet list of facts and figures or anecdotes about payphones. It was an exploration of tangents, or what I guess what you’d call a character study. I did not anticipate that, and the discussion went off in all directions, discussing people’s vulnerabilities to abusive relationships and, if I remember right, touching on the subject of suicide.

We filmed it at what I would say is my #2 favorite payphone of today, second only to the rogue payphone I spotted a few months ago and which as far as I know is still in semi-illegal service. The phone we used is near a high school, and it so happened that the kids were getting out of school when we were trying to do this. One kid screamed “FUCK YOUR CAMERA!” and hurled his body at the payphone enclosure with the apparent intention of toppling the thing. That would be a hell of a way for me to go: crushed by a phone booth. Another kid stuck his face in mine, and then he screamed something unintelligible into the camera before moving on. I am kind amazed to say that I did not even crack a smile, nor did I have any fear that these kids would get more violent.