My 15 Minutes of Fame (Actually 6 Minutes)

Some time in April 2004, I received an interesting email from a talent scout at Weller Grossman Production. It was a very short email, and I almost deleted it assuming it was one of the many Spam messages I receive on a daily basis. The email was about some new show called, “Crafters Coast to Coast” that they were supposedly filming for the Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV). So I went to HGTV’s website, and looked up any upcoming shows, and there it was Crafters Coast to Coast! The caption read, “Calling all undiscovered crafters…” I thought we would fit under that description, so I printed the email and showed it to my wife Amy Lynn. She was as skeptical as I was at first, but I told her I confirmed it on HGTV’s website already. Partially excited, Amy stated, “I’m not going to do it, I’d be too nervous.” I told her, I’ll just respond and see what they say, it wont hurt to just try right?”

The Weller Grossman scout told me they were looking for exciting people who love crafting. They not only wanted a unique craft, they also wanted a “fun and charismatic” crafter as well. They requested an application including pictures of my self and some of the crafts I made. I sent our picture along with pictures of some our candles including our Vase Candle, Feng Shui Candle and our Handmade Pie Candles. They seemed the most interested in the Pie Candles and picked the Blueberry Pie over the Apple, Peach and Strawberry Pies.

After a few more emails and a couple of phone interviews, they picked us to be on the show! They informed me they would be in town in about a week, and let me know everything I needed to do to get ready. Next thing you know, both of the show’s producers from California were at our house giving everything a good once over. They reviewed the outside and inside of our house even what I planned on wearing. Almost as quickly as they arrived, and spoke for that matter, they were gone.

After what seemed to be an extra long weekend the two producers were back, along with a cameraman and a sound technician. I was only a little anxious at first, but when they began unloading and setting up all of the professional equipment, the nerves kicked into high gear. One of the producers was making sure all brand names and logos were out of site while the other was figuring out what to film and where. The sound technician had to put a microphone on me for sound, but the producers wanted it out of site. After about 45 minutes of set up, we were all ready to get started.

So we started in the kitchen, ironically that’s exactly where Amy Lynn’s Candles started, with the introduction. We used one of our votive candles and a perfectly sliced piece of blueberry pie that Amy purchased earlier. I was to look at the pie, then the candle, think for a moment, and then come up with the idea for our Handmade Blueberry Pie Candle. That was my motivation, and it turned out as easy as it seemed. It took about 3 takes to get that, and I did not even have any lines! This was only a sign of things to come. Once I came up with my idea, I had to say my name, where I lived and what I was going to do. Once again the request seemed easy enough, but once the camera was rolling, I couldn’t even get my name right. I finally did it perfectly, I got my name, city and everything correct, so it was time to move to the next scene right? The producer said that was great… do you think you can do it again, but says, “Yes!” at the end? At that point, I knew it would be a long afternoon.

When we finished up in the kitchen, we went down to the basement and garage to film the actual steps of making the candle. They had to put a little make up on my forehead so there would not be a huge glair from the lights. It was rather strange, I had to look into the camera and talk to it like I were speaking to a real person. While going over the steps, the producers would ask questions for interesting stories for the piece. In the background, there was a lot of jumping around and huge smiles that were my cues to be more excited and smile for the camera. They also requested that a do and say a lot of silly things that I would never do while making candles, or at any time for that matter. With each request, my facial expressions must have told how I really felt about what they asked, but I did them anyway. At one point we came to an agreement. I don’t remember exactly how they found out I was a salsa dancer, but we agreed there would be no more silly requests if I salsa danced. I said ok and we were both happy, they not only have me salsa dancing in my living room, they already had more silliness then they needed.

It was embarrassing enough when Amy was the only one watching me, but after a couple hours it was time for the kids to come home. So now I have my son laughing at me too, great! To add insult in injury, we had to open the garage door to let some fresh air in. The producer went out and talked to some of the neighborhood kids and now we had a little audience outside! I had to constantly remind myself how much this will help our company and how great of an opportunity it was. On the brighter side, one of the kids told him mom about it and she came by later that evening and bought some candles.

All in all everything turned out great, better then we could have ever expected. It took almost 6 hours of filming, having to stop and wait for motorcycles and airplanes to go buy, for a 6 minute segment. All the silliness was in the show, but my salsa dancing made the piece a lot more interesting, gave it more style then some of the other segments. Since the first time the show has aired, we have received a lot of local recognition. It has been over a year since we filmed and the acknowledgements continue to pour in from our National Television exposure. Every time the show airs, our website’s hit soar and emails pour in from all over the country. There have been countless hours of hard work and sacrifice that my wife and I have put into Amy Lynn’s Candles, and the filming of the show was no cakewalk. It’s great to know that our hard work is paying off and people really appreciate what we do and the candles we make.

info@amylynns.com

Amy Lynn's Candles