I Saw You on TV!

If I bothered using tags or labels here, I'd have one named "attempts to become a Kansas City D-list celebrity." I've contributed to community radio and have appeared in a local commercial, among other things, but almost 2 years ago I started plotting my next move into the upper echelon of KC star Power. Watch your back Bryan Busby!

After catching the series premier of "Check Please, Kansas City" on KCPT I applied to be on the show. It's a local restaurant review show produced by public television, no fancy qualifications necessary, just regular people picking their favorite local eats and then reviewing them in studio. The application was simple - list your favorite restaurants across several categories then list the top 3, overall, that you'd want to review.

Food and Public Television are two of my favorite things. I wanted this. With each passing week when I didn't hear back from the producers, I became a little disheartened. Was I not worthy? Had I offended someone when I put down KC Grill and Kabob over Jerusalem Cafe??? Or even worse - had they Googled me????? After a year I had all but forgotten that I had applied (except for when I'd catch part of an episode... sting).

Somewhere in the middle of my unemployment funk, Pam the Producer emailed me saying that I had been selected.

OH HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was excited for the entire process. She gave me info on the 3 restaurants I was to go to. It was obvious that my selection, Souperman, was the "Hip, Urban and Trendy" eatery for this particular episode.

Whitney and I had a fancy date night and went to The West Chase Grille. I took my sister to Souperman when she came into town (mmmmmmmsoup). And Sabrina and I risked life and limb (ICY roads) on the drive to Weston to have a fantastic brunch at The Vineyards.

Mid January brought filming day! I arrived with full make-up and perfect hair. In a stroke of aesthetic good luck, the two other guests and I were all wearing coordinating colors. And when they asked what kind of wine I'd like in my glass for the shot, I said "Water." I was nervous, excited and gaseous simultaneously. Doug the Host practiced saying my last name 5 times, then butchered "Natasha" on the first take. He got both names (close enough to) right the second time and after that the 4 of us settled into a nice rapport and we were able to successfully film the episode without ANY wine being spilt. SUCCESS! Pam the Producer thanked us all again and said to expect to see the episode air sometime in May.

While on a coffee date with Carey, about 2 months later, she asked "Have you heard that Souperman closed?"

"WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

"Yeah, Souperman closed due to some money laundering scheme. Allegedly."

"Aw maaannnn!!!! That blows."

The episode would still air, so I took comfort in that. But the segment of the show where we talked about Souperman would be dropped like a bad habit. TOTAL BUMMER.

Until I realized that's TOTALLY d-list.

Check (please) me out: http://cove.kcpt.org/video/1492154606/