Crazy busy last week.
Spent one day with a crew from the Canadian Travel Channel.
"We'll be oot and aboot the park all day," I told everyone. One ride operator's eyes nearly popped out when I whispered, "They're from Canada. They don't speak English."
That little joke got old very quickly, especially when I fessed up that the crew was a freelance team from Louisville.
The show they're working on is called Uberguide: Extreme Thrill Rides.
Uber.
Not sure we've ever been affiliated with anything with the word "uber" in it.
The show will present 10 of the world's top thrill rides, including coasters from some huge corporate parks, some European parks…
Oh, and The Voyage at Holiday World.
Ubercool.
At one point while shooting general park footage, it hit us no one was doing the usual "Hi, Mom!" thing to the camera.
No jumping in front of the cameraman. No waving wildly or doing that rabbit-ear thingy behind the unsuspecting little brother.
Are we suddenly invisible?
The bubble was broken a moment later; the invisibility cloak lifted.
"Hey, cameraman! Get me!"
"Is this for the news? Awesome!"
"Talk to me! Hi, Mom!"
"Will this be on tonight?"
Rob, the cameraman, told me his stock solution in such circumstances is to loudly command through gritted teeth, "Git!" to the non-camera-shy youth.
I managed to convince him that wouldn't be a good idea here. (He'd done it the day before while shooting footage in a cemetery. Don't ask.)
Rule of thumb: If you want to end up "on camera," act as if you don't see it. The crazy antics are energetic certainly, but they almost always end up on the proverbial cutting-room floor.
Eventually, we headed out of the park proper, to the bottom of The Voyage's second hill for an interview with Will.
Will does a great job in interviews. Especially about his beloved coasters.
He has that engineer's-brain thing going for him, plus a talent for making complicated concepts understandable.
He's good.
Ubergood.
Then came the question about theming.
After explaining that we put our development money into the ride and not so much the theming, Will went on to talk about the decor at The Voyage's station.
"Since we're recreating the pilgrims' storm-tossed voyage across the Atlantic, the station is dockish and wharfish."
Dockish?
Wharfish?
The sky suddenly got prettier, so the crew asked to re-shoot that answer.
Whew! Surely he'll say nautical this time.
Again with the wharfish.
(Perchance I misunderstood. Maybe he was saying "war fish" … you know, first cousin to the Portuguese Man O' War?)
After the interview had concluded I couldn't contain myself.
"Will … wharfish?"
He looked surprised.
Wharfish? What are you talking about?
"Wharfish. You said the station was wharfish."
Wharfish? Did I say that? Really? What does that mean?
He laughed.
It's nice to have a good-natured boss.
Ubernice.
