Easily one of my favorite jobs, I spent four summers working for the
Publicity Department of a huge state fair. I handled media relations for
everything but the biggest celebrity acts.
To help reporters find a fresh angle every year, I memorized every single
bandshell act and chicken plucking demonstration in the poultry barn. The Twin
Cities' biggest radio and television stations set up shop for live daily
broadcasts from the fair, and I supplied talent.
It was a gas. I got to:
- Drive Red Skelton and The Sons of the Pioneers to television appearances
in a golf cart
- Have dinner with race car driver Darrell Waltrip
- Escort representatives of the United Arab Emirates to see the Budweiser
Clydesdales
- Converse with a mechanical talking trout to see if it could handle a
media interview (it could).
