One of my favourite movies is the first Wayne’s World. Mike Myers and his nerdy pal Garth (Dana Carvey) are “teens who live at home and have their own low-rent cable-access TV show in Aurora, Illinios, in which they celebrate their favorite female movie stars and heavy-metal bands.”
This past week-end I lived Rick’s World.
One minute I was a volunteer Floor Manager at the Canadian Gymnastics Championships in Regina — the next, called up to the VIP mezzanine, suddenly moderating a live-to-tape 3hr broadcast of the Finals.
(Pretty boys like Bart Conner and myself are often asked to be TV sport commentators.)
I had a number of expert assistants in each of the gymnastics disciplines. Even Olympic Floor Champion Kyle Shewfelt stopped by for a chat.
What I like about cable TV is that it’s unscripted and irreverent. The more blatantly amateur and “real” the coverage, the more I appreciate it compared with professional Network TV.
Now that I am a celebrity of the Canadian gymnastics media elite, I’d like to thank the little people: athletes, coaches, judges and volunteers without whom there would be no local cable TV coverage.
Bad on those jealous few who complained I disappeared completely from the Floor after being called upstairs.
more random photos from Nationals 2007 – flickr
Rick McCharles 
Hey, where’s the YouTube clip? I need to see this new cable phenom.
Party on Rick!
Just read the review of McCharles’ debut as the new darling of the Canadian Gymnastics Media Elite, posted on-line, on a widely read, popular site:
“…the self-described Calgarian “Pretty boy” performed well in his first on-air stint. Though his blatant use of gymnastics terms and jargon was reminiscent of an episode of “you too can build your own space shuttle” in it’s complexity, his irreverant humor and seeming wealth of knowledge on the arcane workings of a gymnastics competiton shone through. From time to time he seemed as if he possessed a bias toward the men’s apparatus–the “Dark Side”–but he handled himself well, managing to balance the delicate and gentle egos that populate the women’s arena.
Mr. McCharles is obviously an “insider,” (likely on a “first beer” basis with a vast number of the “beautiful people” in the heirarchy of the sport) and he was able to secure appearances with luminaries such as Kyle “Call me Mr. Gold” Shewfelt, and other legends, making the seeminglly interminable 3 hour broadcast bearable by even the most hardened fan of football, mixed martial arts, or even curling, whos fans have been known to riot if the action isn’t kept at a maximum.
No less than fellow “pretty boy” Bart Conner has chimed in saying that despite the fact that McCharles has a “face made for radio,” he could very well end up as the voice (and face) of Canadian Cable Gymnastics in 2007 and beyond.
When asked to comment, the new media darling replied; “It’s a real honor to be mentioned in the same page as Bart, Nadia, Stalin, Ghandi, Mao, Paris Hilton, Presidents Bush (both), and Clinton (both), Jesus, and Larry the Cable guy. These are the men who made television gymnastics the phenomenon it is today, and I just hope that I can provide half the insight they did as I seek to delve deep into the psyches of these amazing athletes, exploring the depths of the human condition for all of us, through my humble, immensely accurate, entertaining and valuable comments.”
“Team McCharles” is in discussion with ABC, CBC, NBC, MTV, MRI and a number of other anagrams about syndication rights to “Rick McCharles: a life in balance,” which is set to begin after Grey’s Anatomy on Thursdays, starting in the fall.
Rick can be booked through his agent, Mr. Dave “that will be 20%” Adlard, and compensation will be on a sliding scale, depending on location, schedule, availability of wireless DSL and other amenities such as free beer and scotch, bar-b-cue, cute coaches and adult large T-shirts with the event logo proudly displayed.
God help us all, we are definitely in uncharted waters here. All I have to say is – stuff like this can only happen in Regina. And only in Regina can Rick be considered a “pretty boy” in the loosest of sense of the word.
’nuff said…
YES. This is the obligatory reply to Downtown Ronnie. Indeed. As you say. Ha!