The Day Steve Wilkos Came To Town

31_Loz
28_Loz

I get a lot of odd/weird/bizarre/quirky assignments at my ad agency.  Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call last week from one of our company’s VP’s: “Hey, Michael—Steve Wilkos is coming in to the agency this Friday. Can you please schmooze him and make him feel welcome since that’s sort of your thing?”

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Wilkos is a protégé of Jerry Springer. He started as the bald, badass bouncer on Jerry’s show. He became such a fan favorite that he was given his own segment on Jerry’s dysfunctional program.  And it was that popular segment that convinced producers to give him his own show, now in its 6th season.

When Wilkos showed up, my co-workers were giddy, giggly and nervous. I wanted to smack each of them. Over they years I’ve learned celebs put their pants on just the rest of us mortals, so if you fawn over them too much they become skittish. Plus, I’ve interviewed Jerry, and he’s about as down to earth as anyone. So I figured Steve’s disposition would be similar.

Fortunately, it was.

Why was Steve at our ad agency, you ask? It was a simple meet-and-greet. We spend a crap-ton of $$$ placing TV commercials in his show. If you watch any commercial break, likely 3 out of the 4 spots will feature our schools or colleges.  Steve was impressed, but not as impressed as when we showcased our “Top 5 Steve Moments.” Each clip was more lurid than the last and he generously gave a brief synopsis of the snippets we flashed on the screen.

My favorite part of the afternoon was re-creating one of the more popular segments on his show, “Steve’s Mailbag”. We had obnoxious, pre-written questions about our co-workers on note cards. Steve was supposed to berate, chastise or mock the co-workers in the hot seat. Instead, he ended up complimenting (read that: flirting with) all the girls and mugging to the audience.  Everyone ate it up with a spoon.

155_Loz
Steve’s show isn’t for everyone, mind you. But it does make for some good afternoon TV viewing if you’re bored and/or want to feel better about yourself.  And Steve is just like you would picture him on TV—larger than life, filled with bravado and ready to punch you in the throat if you lip off to him.