On the Thursday before New York Comic Con, I took the train to New York to tape the Superfan Roundtable, a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio that discusses the Howard Stern Morning Show, which I have been listening to for years.
The show has some pretty strict rules about cameras and camcorders, so I don’t have a lot of visuals, but the experience was awesome.
Most of the show was dedicated to Artie Lange’s heroin addiction and a fight that he and Gary “Ba-Ba Booey” Dell’Abate had gotten into earlier that morning.
However, show-regular Ralph Cirella showed up for the taping and, naturally, dominated. If you’re a Stern fan, you know Ralph is somewhat famous for is ability to be a jerk on the show, and he’s absolutely no different in real life.
I brought signed copies of Evil Inc Annual Report Vol. 3 to hand out to the fellow guests and show personnel. Ralph picked up a copy and asked “Do you do the sh*tty art?”
“AND the sh*tty writing,” I replied, laughing.
He also complained that the book was printed in black-and-white. I told him that the next book is coming out in color and encouraged him to come over to my booth at NYCC, but the show was about to start, and everyone’s attention moved to producer Jason Kaplan.
The show was a real blast to do. I did my best to not sound like a moron, and they even let me plug Evil Inc at the end.
Perhaps the greatest thrill, though, was the brief tour of the Howard Stern studio that the other guests and I were treated to after wrapping the show. It was really amazing to be standing there in the presence of Howard’s desk, Robin’s booth, the Jackie and Gary puppets, and all of the other elements of this show that I’ve listened to for so long.
They invited me back, but I’m not so sure I can use too many vacation days to indulge myself in that. But it was sure nice for what it was: My pilgrimage to the Land of the King of All Media.
