Chapter 098

“Don’t be nervous. It’s not a live broadcast or anything, so you can chill. Even I mess up a lot of times, trying to read from the teleprompter but the editing handles it all.”

Rory Chambers said, smiling as a makeup artist applied some light makeup on his face. He was wearing the same clothes that he would wear on every one of his shows — a blue suit and pants with a tie. It was his signature dress that had gotten famous as the show went.

“I know it’s not a live broadcast but there’s still the studio audience. If I messed up too much, I’m sure that you won’t call me back on the show.”

Aiden muttered as a stylist did his hair. They were currently in the makeup room just before the broadcast and Rory was trying his best to make the newcomer besides him a bit less nervous.

He had met Rory yesterday and after half a day of refreshing together, he had got to know that he was a very friendly and straightforward person. To a really high degree.

Aiden had only met once before during Lonely promotions and back then, they had not even talked for more than two minutes.

“Nah, I will still call you if you just keep doing good in your career or keep getting stabbed.” Rory laughed. “Just don’t become someone who lives in a cloud of its own. I met celebs like that a lot, so it’s very refreshing to work with a newcomer. You know Micky Bella?”

He asked at the end of the sentence and Aiden nodded his head. She was a very popular rapper and artist who had won countless awards. Though, he was not a big fan of her as their music tastes were very different.

“What about her?”

“We did a show last year. She was the guest but she was in a whole new world. I even made a bet with some people from my team that she was on drugs. She kept complaining about working too much and kept talking about how she changed the game for women in the industry.”

Rory took a breath and glanced at Aiden wondering if he was still focusing on his story and continued.

“You know, basically following a character not because they believe in the cause but because it’s a good celeb character trait. It’s very ironic because she married a sex offender and had songs glorifying drugs, cheating sex and how she chooses which guy to go home with at the end of the party.”

“I thought that’s more or less how most of Hollywood behaves.”

“Nah, the number is pretty high but there’s those guys who really believe in what they are doing. Truly meant for the art. But crazy people sell because they have funny stories, so we invite them to the show. Audience likes hearing a story about one celebrity grabbing another celebrity’s hair.”

Rory was literally telling Aiden about how talk shows work. By talking about trending topics with a humorous twist and inviting people who would be able to get good ratings for the show.

“Let’s hope they like my jokes too.”

Aiden was only able to mutter that. He agreed with what Rory was saying and he realised that in a way, Rory was as much a businessman as a talk show host.

He knew the people who are trending in the industry are no good but he knew that those were the ones who would give good ratings.

“Just talk about your stabbing jokes. Those would surely be a hit.”

“From what you are saying, people are more interested in my stabbing story than anything.” Aiden raised an eyebrow.

“That’s what I know. Here, people do everything to make the common people remember their names. At least faces but even with a hit movie or series, it’s a very hard thing to do. But you came out nowhere, got stabbed and became a hero. People might get over the incident and talk about something else, but now over half of America at least knows your face. People are very jealous of you in Hollywood.”

Rory said with a smirk, talking about what he had heard in some parties he had attended. It was weird but a great boost to Aiden’s career.

But Rory knew that Hollywood was an industry where everything happens. If it was fate, no one could stop someone from becoming a star no matter what.

***

“Do you think he would be able to do good?”

Jerry asked as he looked at Rory who was sitting behind a desk and going over the daily news and presenting it in a fun manner, making people laugh out loud from time to time.

He was the producer of the show and was currently talking with Hilton, one of the main writers who had written the concept of the entire show.

“His jokes weren’t bad, so we kept a lot of them for the show. It would really depend on how he delivers them but he speaks well. Probably because he’s an actor and a singer.”

Hilton said. He was wearing a cap and had a bushy beard on his face and a belly that made people wonder when he had last exercised.

“We will know if it will work or not from the audience reaction. Anyway, we can edit out parts and sort it in a 2 min clip. It’s not a big deal.”

“Yeah but it’s better if we could keep a lot of him. He had made people interested in him after the incident, so I’m pretty sure ratings will go up.”

Hilton said and Jerry couldn’t help but nod his head. For ratings, he didn’t really mind doing anything as more ratings meant more money and sponsors for them.

“It would actually be better for us if he failed. We got a lot of views on MeTube the last time one of the celebs messed up this segment. She was trying to sing too hard but her voice was unbearable, even with autotune.”

Hilton knew which celeb Jerry was talking about. She was an actor who was trying out singing and it was even a very hard song, but she managed to mess it up too badly and for the next few months, people truly memefied her.

It was to the point that people became sarcastic and talking about how the actor should opt for a singing career as a grammy was hers to grab.

All in all, it was great publicity for the show.

“So, Aiden could do good or just mess it up. What do you think? Which one are you learning towards?” Hilton asked and Jerry didn’t hesitate to reply.

“Whatever gives us better ratings.”

***

“Good Evening, and Welcome back everybody, to ‘The Rory Chambers Show’ Rory began with a big smile on his face. His welcoming statement was followed by a note on the piano, played by the in-house musician.

As the audience clapped, he gave an short introduction to the next segment, reading out every word from the teleprompter.

“We have a very special segment for our next part of tonight’s show. The hero of the hour, Aiden Silvereye everybody, and he is going to unveil yet another facet of himself for us, by debuting in Stand-Up Comedy for our segment in ‘Did you know? Cause we never did!’ He announced, as the cameras in the studio panned to the foyer, through which Aiden walked in.

He was wearing a buttoned-up black suit, over a black shirt on top of black trousers. He walked to the front of the stage, as he waved at the audience, and took in the number of people around him. The stage light shined on him, as he began to speak.

“Hello everyone, My name is Aiden Silvereye and as you can see, I’m alive.” A few in the audience chuckled hearing that. “I’m just clarifying because a lot of people on the internet think that I actually died. Not a joke. I have proof of it.”

Aiden pointed at a screen where there were screenshots of people actually commenting ‘Rest in peace’ and quotes like ‘People only get value in life after they pass away because regrets are one of the strongest emotions’.

There were even people asking likes and subscribers in comments.

“So, yeah, I’m not really dead.” Aiden said, smiling at the audience. Then, taking a deep breath, he started, “So, where do I start with? I don’t know a lot about comedy and I don’t really plan to get into it. I mean, who would risk getting punched in the face?”

The audience could not help but laugh at that jibe. Feeling like his jokes were working, he showed a confident expression and continued.

“Anyway, let me start with my surname. Silvereye and again to clarify but I’m not from a royal British family nor I have silver eyes for real. Many in Hollywood even think that it’s my username which I used to have in Mayhem online or something…”

As he started his bit, Rory Chambers who was looking over at him from the side couldn’t help but feel that Aiden had a certain kind of charm to him.

It won’t be evident if you talk to him off stage but he was surely showing it off when he was standing on the stage. The people in the audience could not help but laugh at his jokes.

A lot of people were smiling and Rory could not help but think that the episode was going to be successful.