Tweeting @CraigyFerg to be a Musical Guest on His Show

Can I get a spot as a musical guest on "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" through a Twitter campaign... directed solely at Craig Ferguson?

Stranger things have happened.

Much stranger.

Did you know there's a legit TV pilot being shot right now (starring William Shatner), that's based on a guy's Twitter account (@shitmydadsays)?

With that in mind, here's what I'm doing...

A couple of weeks ago, I sent the following tweet to Craig Ferguson (aka @CraigyFerg)...

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According to "The Aladdin Factor", if I simply ask, @CraigyFerg will have me as a guest on his show! But what if Craig hasn't read the book?
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Okay, so it wasn't exactly sent _to_ him, but it did mention him. And when you mention somebody on Twitter, there's a chance they might see it. Considering the number of tweets containing @CraigyFerg on any given day, that chance may be slim... but it's a chance, nonetheless.

When I sent that first tweet, I had no plan to send any more. It was just a thought I had that morning. Can't even remember what triggered it. Maybe nothing in particular triggered it.

Does everything have to be "triggered"?

Then something happened.

I had the idea to post a tweet @CraigyFerg every day.

That was at least partially triggered by Conan O'Brien's successful Twitter campaign that's led to him selling thousands of tickets for his "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour".

Granted, I don't have quite as many followers as Conan, so it's comparing apples to oranges. Or is it big-ass apples to tiny apples? Or millions of apples to a handful of apples?

Whatever the case may be, it's not exactly a level playing field.

And my "campaign" is not directed towards my followers. It's directed towards one person.

Even though my "strategy" is a bit different from Conan's, and the odds of success are obviously a bit different as well, we're both dwelling in the same "market space". Yeah, I don't know what that means, either. I'm not much for suit-speak. It just came out, and I decided not to backspace.

Point is... it's a whole new world. Conan (and other celebrities) can leverage off of millions of followers, directly contacting their fans, bypassing the gatekeepers and middlemen who once held a monopoly. And I can use the same communication pipeline to try and get the attention of a single celebrity (or one of his staffers).

Screw the "odds". This ain't all about probabilities... measurable things... quantifiable things. There's something cool about having these connections happening, without regard to the odds.

And there's already been some unexpected, unmeasurable byproducts to come out of these daily tweets (now at 16 consecutive days, by the way)...

+ It's helping me focus.
+ It's inspiring me.
+ It's increased my interaction with my Facebook friends.

Not only that, but I'm truly starting to believe... make that, I'm truly believing... that this will lead to a spot on Craig's show...

Or something better.

That last part is what I've learned through various self-help gurus (e.g., Jack Canfield... author of the aforementioned "The Aladdin Factor", from my first tweet @CraigyFerg). They say that when you come up with affirmations, you should end with "or something better". It opens your mind to other possibilities. We don't always get what we're asking for, but the process of asking often leads us to something even better.

I'm excited to find out where these daily tweets will take me... because I'm determined to keep tweeting until something happens. And then I guess I'll continue tweeting (or using whatever other communication channels open up in the future) until something else happens.

Of course, there's more to life than tweeting. In between tweets, I'm getting back to the creative matters at hand... the things that make me happy... the things I can control... like, playing my guitar, singing, writing, reading...

Speaking of reading...

I just finished Craig Ferguson's book "American on Purpose". A lot of it hit close to home. For one thing, he wrote about getting to a point in his career where he started doing the creative things that he could control (e.g., writing a novel), because he was fed up with people shitting on his projects... when he even got so far as to get money from people to do projects. And he's not far removed from where I'm sitting right now... and where I was a few years ago. It wasn't that long ago that he went through divorce(s) and debts (see: me a few years ago), and wasn't getting much work in Hollywood (see: me... period).

And this ties into the "or something better" thing from above...

He got his first big-time role on The Drew Carey Show after bombing on an audition for a different show. He wasn't even going to go to the audition (since it was a Hispanic role, and he's Scottish), but a friend encouraged him to go anyway. He said he did a terrible Hispanic accent, but a guy chased after him and asked him to audition for a different show... which turned out to be the pilot for Drew's show.

I don't tell the story as well as Craig. I recommend buying his book if you're interested in being truly inspired.

But the point is...

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". -- John Lennon

Craig Ferguson did not leave his home that day to audition for The Drew Carey Show, but that's the show he ended up being on for eight years. And, as he wrote in his book... it changed his life.

A similar thing happened on the way to his late night talk show gig. It wasn't something he'd been pursuing. It just popped-up... and rather than me trying to regurgitate his story again like I did a couple of paragraphs ago, I'll once again encourage you to buy his book...

As kiss-assy as it may sound.

You know what? I don't care if it sounds kiss-assy. I just finished reading his book, and it was great. He's a really good writer, and his story inspired me. And one day, I hope to shake his hand and tell him that in person.

In the meantime, I'll have to settle for my tweet-a-day regimen, hoping to get his attention, and get a spot as a musical guest on his show...

Or something better.