its sunday night, so lets pull the curtain back and talk about the weirdness of doing a panel show, one that requires four guests to engage and perform at the top of their game.

an old friend of mine, yesterday, called me out (again in a public forum) for not being on the show in the last few years. yep-a very talented actor saw the kerfuffle on twitter about me banning someone and decided he would join in - not to support me, but to indulge the falsehood that i ban people.

again , i've never banned anyone; but since the early days of redeye, people who aren't asked back assume it has to be some grand conspiracy. Nope - the hard truth is you bombed -even for a show at 3 am.

but no one wants to hear that criticism. So we don't tell them - especially if we happen to be friends. its why i shy away from having friends on for the most part (and why jamie lissow and kilmeade are on all the time: i hate them with a passion).

the first time i ran into this silliness was on redeye -- a girl named Julia went public to claim that she had been banned from Redeye.
now, its funny: because being banned from redeye is like being banned from the port authority bathroom. there is no velvet rope, darling --we welcome all freaks. but the last show she was on, she was terrible, and got into fights with people here and there (rude to staff) - we just stopped inviting her, because she sucked. is that banning?- nope. its "come back when you've grown up."

i get a few emails from some who say "why haven't i been on your show in a while." They assume theres some nefarious back story.

i never say a thing about it. but now i have to because the so-called banned are demanding evidence to the contrary. Well the contrary is that you weren't that good. and we pay to fly people in and put them up and invest a lot into this show every night - and we can't do that if we know its gunna create a crappy show.

but thats hard to say to nice people.
and its not their fault they don't do well on the show. the show is weird, fast, and loopy. its amazing we have so many great guests to begin with!!!

my show is a bullshit session at a table at a bar. and it just looks easy.
some guests see that as if they're watching it from home. so when they come on, they assume its super easy. they aren't prepared, or they can't make that leap from observer to participant (this has happened many times - in the break i will say to a guest "you're on this show, you aren't watching it." )

the show guests are chosen based on performance, audience response - and yes, ratings too! but never as a favor.

so one guest publicly accused me of banning him - stating he had not been on in awhile - because of course - banning could be the only reason!!! he was
baiting me to prove him wrong, publicly. i wouldn't.

I think its occams razor that stipulates the most obvious explanation is the actual explanation.
The idea that people think i sit around and ban people based on corporate pressures is the opposite of real. the most obvious explanation is - the shows you were on weren't very good.

sorry to unburden myself. off to bed!