On What Makes Interviews Work
I got a very nice email from reader David Macaray responding to last week’s post Interviewing for Beginners, who shared some of his own insight as to what makes interviews work:
That was a nice piece on interviewing. Honestly, I really wish I’d read it before I did my sit-down with legendary political satirist Mort Sahl, a couple years ago. One of the (many) rules I violated on that occasion was dropping a fairly aggressive question on him, almost immediately (I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’m not even sure we’d had a sip of our coffees yet). The question related to Fidel Castro’s regime, and, looking back on it, was needlessly provocative. Anyway, some other goofs: I didn’t have enough follow-ups; I pressed him on topics he was obviously reticent to discuss; I constantly consulted my notes; I didn’t set a “clear tone.”
So what made the interview work (it was purchased and has been published and reprinted)? Two things: First and foremost, it was Mort Sahl, himself. The man is a genius; his wisdom, breadth of knowledge, courtesy and poise (he’s been a performer for 50 years and was a speech-writer for 4 presidents) are what got us through the Q&A. And second–with all due modesty–my own prodigious knowledge of Mort. I not own every single comedy album he ever made but, as a college student, I more or less memorized (yes! memorized them word by word!) every bit he ever did; I’ve studied all of his bios, his previous interviews and anthology pieces, and even read an obscure (but brilliant) book he wrote, called “Heartland.” In short, I was a walking-talking Mort Sahl Encyclopedia . . . and that–along with Mort himself–is what saved the day. An 80-minute interview led to us being sort of “friends.” I still call him from time to time. A great guy.
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