TKA Reporter's' Blog: Last Play at Shea
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Margaret
Exhilarating. That’s my one-word summary of the red carpet premier of Last Play at Shea; a documentary about Billy Joel’s smashing closing concerts at Shea Stadium. I had a great time at the event, even if it got a little hectic at times…
The big thing everyone was looking forward to was getting to interview Billy Joel, as we had been told that we would get to. AJ – who was my reporting partner for the night – Amy, and I spent a good chunk of time preparing and rehearsing questions to ask him when he came down the red carpet, and we were feeling pretty confident about it! We soon saw him and his daughter, Alexa Ray Joel; start making their way over, accompanied by a lady who must’ve been his publicist. They were mere feet from us when the publicist turned to us and said we could have two questions with Alexa but nothing with Billy Joel… WHAT?! No way!!!
She turned around and left us to interview Alexa, which we did, but we weren’t giving up our shot with Billy so quickly! When he went over to talk to the media stationed next to us, Sandy and Amy told me to reposition myself so that I was about one foot away from Billy Joel, and tap him on the shoulder and ask, “Mr. Joel, Mr. Joel, can the kids ask you a quick question?” the second he was done with his current interview. Butterflies were bouncing in my stomach. I was really nervous, mainly because his publicist was staring at me as if she knew exactly what I was about to do (I’m sure she did) and didn’t like it. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, but I tried to ignore it as best I could. When Amy gave me the signal, I did what they instructed, and at first he didn’t react, but after a few seconds he swiveled around to face us and let us ask him a question. We only got one question and a picture with him, but I think we were lucky to get to talk to him because he was quickly ushered away.
The world premier of Last Play at Shea turned out to be one of the best nights of my life, and I’m really grateful to Tribeca Kids Access for giving me the opportunity!
Margaret
AJ
Hi it’s AJ,
Sunday I went to my first red carpet. It was for the documentary film Last Play at Shea. I studied for at least 2 to 3 hours! The main question Margaret and I asked people was “What’s your favorite Bill Joel song?” We got a lot of “Piano Man”, a few, “New York State of Mind”, and one or two “Only the Good Die Young”. Alexa Ray Joel’s favorite was “Lullaby” and Christie Brinkley’s was “Uptown Girl”.
The whole time we were waiting for Billy Joel but then when he was only a few feet away from us we were told we couldn’t interview him. For a few seconds my mind went bland except for one word: WHAT! It didn’t really matter because we did it anyway. Margaret was trying to get Billy Joel’s attention but his publicist did a good job not letting Margaret near him. But then Margaret got past the publicist and asked him a question. Of course I didn’t but we did get a picture!
AJ
