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Stumbling around like a drunk lobotomy patient escaped from Petaluma Prison, Mike Elgan is refused time and time again by staffers at various Mobile World Congress booths. It’s like watching a bumbling reporter play Whack-A-Mole—but in reverse.
On multiple occasions when the clueless Gumdumb shoves his mic in the face of a hapless product manager, he is given the unequivocal smackdown. “Eww, don’t interview me,” says one woman.
The only person he really gets to talk to is somebody who works in San Jose. Priceless. I’m sure Lisa Kentzell is thrilled that she spent thousands of dollars to send him all the way to Spain only to interview some PR hack from down the street.
The most wonderful part of the video was when (at the every end after he thought the camera was off) Elgan said, “Shit.”
What a way to end the broadcast, Elgan.
Where does he constantly have to “run” to? Isn’t he there to get the interviews? Watching this live, if he would have stuck around for a moment or set up the interviews ahead of time there would have been much less running around announcing the different quadrants of the show floor by countries. El Gummo walked around in circles for an hour.
manimal» Quote comment
“Wait, let me get English speaker for you.”
“No, we have to run.”
WTF?,
HelloWorld’s Mom» Quote comment
Elgum has to run because he knows they will never come back. And Elgum is right there are a lot of dummies running around mostly the twit crew. Ah but twit is saving money. Good job Lisa.
woz» Quote comment
he gets up at 5am to prep for every show.
etropaLoeL» Quote comment
I wish I cared about this enough to watch the full coverage, but I guess the clip will have to do…
It does seem that in the “old days” whatever sales or product person was at a booth would just talk to you on air… but as more and more people started flubbing, it seems like everybody these days refers you to a PR person… who speaks your language. Go figure.
I’ll bet there are a couple ways you can make it work covering an event like this…
1) More than one camera crew, so you can have one on air while the other looks for somebody to talk to, with somebody switching either at a booth on the floor (ala early TWiT CES) or back at a studio (ala slightly later TWiT CES).
2) A producer who’s arranged things before hand, or is walking a few minutes ahead lining up people to talk to. I think Dane and Eileen used to do this… and maybe even Lisa here and there after she’d canned Dane. Maybe the trick here is instead of walking up to the booth and saying “we arranged to talk to somebody” you could say “Is Jim here? We’re talking to him at X:XX”
Since (1) and (2) are pretty darn expensive, you’re left with either not covering it live and just doing clips later, ala more recent TWiT CES… OR…
3) Just accept the fact you’re not there to break news, you’re just there for viewers to attend the show vicariously through you. You don’t always have to be talking to a PR person, just DO WHAT WE’D DO if we were there, let us experience it, and BE A PERSON WHE’D WANT TO WALK THE FLOOR WITH if we were there.
Leo, Tom, Becky, Alex Lindsay… they all got this. We dont care if you’re not talking to a rep from the company. Just be fun to wander with. Ask *specific* questions of people, not “can we talk to you?” Talk to attendees. You might even consider learning something about the products you’re seeing before hand so you can tell us about them yourself. But the trick is if you enjoy being there, we’ll enjoy being there with you.
If you want to see this in action, check out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzUGKPSp4zE
Fred» Quote comment
Perfect, precisely how it is done. Dont ask permission, ask real questions, ask for forgiveness in that business, if they become concerned, THEN tell them who you are working for.
Unless it’s an airport. Dont make that mistake. (Again).
OMFG» Quote comment
It’s all a bit cringe-worthy.
Revolve» Quote comment
Being completely objective here, this guy has absolutely no interpersonal skills. Just look at the interview with SanDisk, he’s so arrogant and unfriendly the moment he meets you.
No wonder nobody wanted to give him an interview, merely his body language makes one uncomfortable.
HelloWorld’s Mom» Quote comment
He’s got absolutely ZERO talent for broadcasting.
BBJ» Quote comment
Do not kid yourself, Leo probably paid nothing for this trip. It was paid for by the show promoters. Many of the Americans at the show are subsidized like that.
Gum is terribly uncomfortable begging for someone to chat with him. It’s horrible to watch. It is as if he is being tortured on purpose until he quits.
Maddow» Quote comment
Yeah, you’d think he’d take the hint already…
dudz_fryd» Quote comment
Gum, you’re doing a heck of a job!
George» Quote comment
Dear George:
Thanks so much for the post-Katrina trailer you allowed us to live in. The kids grew to love taking in deep breathes of asbestos every morning.
floodsurvivor» Quote comment
Why is Mike Elgan in a hurry? He rushes thru each product exhibits. He could slow down & let the viewer see the product. The camera operator does the best that they can do. Where is Miriam? Saw Miriam once which was on Sunday for This Week In Tech. Thought that she or he would had been on last night, All About Android. There was another person to represent WMC live. Enjoyed the SanDisk guy. Why couldn’t Elgan let the guy demonstrate or discuss the new products. He was doing a great job. Let the man talk.
Dark side of doo» Quote comment
Did I hear right that he implied a group of presenters were counterfeiters, or at least used to be? He said that out loud…..live??? Way to get on the good side of those companies.
I can’t begin to explain how totally unprofessional Gum was, lollygagging from one one presenter to the next. Did he do ANY preparation before walking around or did he just arrive after he and his wife finished their vacation photo taking? He seemed to be totally unprepared. He had to ‘move on’ from every display he screwed up at.
‘You always run into dummys at these shows’, seriously, was he looking into a mirror?
Marcus» Quote comment
YA, that was kind of dumb to say it so damn loud.
OMFG» Quote comment
This was REALLY uncomfortable to watch.
Vinny» Quote comment
I’m still waiting to see those “hard tech news” chops that this dead fish is supposed to have. He’s a failure and anyone who thinks he’s not is either waaay too high or an idiot.
dudz_fryd» Quote comment
When Mike took over for Tom, all we heard about was the “new direction” TWiT’s news coverage was going in. I’d say it has definitely gone in a new direction.
Down is a direction.
Vinny» Quote comment
Journalism 101: When you’re told “no comment,” ask again.
Elgan must have skipped that course.
TOT (Tired of Twit)» Quote comment
I’ll bet, like Leo, Mike missed university too
John» Quote comment
I can’t tell it the “we got to run” was arrogance trying to belittle the company that wouldn’t give him an interview or just nervousness because he was live.
DTO» Quote comment
Exactly. Most snarky comment from Elgun, what an asshole really.
OMFG» Quote comment
Most of these companies have english reps there but you have to make an appointment why the dopes at twit didn’t know this is beyond me
rocker182» Quote comment
That first woman was almost like Kanye West dissing Beck at the Grammy’s.
NMorn» Quote comment
It’s horrible. There is absolutely zero preparation. Telling the camera to point at some phones that have some SanDisk solid state memory in? What, did he really think that’s what we should look at?
It’s truly awful – I just couldn’t believe the way he wandered round not knowing who he was speaking about, not arranging to speak to anyone.
The complete lack of preparation, the lack of any knowledge about any of the exhibitors, was just… well, it’s exactly how he does TNT isn’t it. No personality, no people skills, no actual knowledge.
Remember, this is the man who wrote, not that long ago, that Facebook was the biggest threat to Apple’s “business model” (remember, Apple’s business model is to sell premium goods at very high profit margins, and he says that Facebook is its biggest threat). I thought maybe he was a troll, but he actually has no idea – something comes out of his mouth and he creates a story to back it up, even if it makes him look like an idiot.
evilpants» Quote comment
“We have some friends at SanDisk…” ROFL… Obviously… pffft! Gum is such a dipshit. How depressing TWiT has become.
Mr_Pickles» Quote comment
That was really painful to watch.
Hness» Quote comment
Mike hasn’t learned anything since he took over the job. Everyday he performs like it was his first day on the job. Stumbling, bumbling, and completely clueless. The only positive here is that Mike could be used as a University case study for how to do everything wrong as a broadcast journalist. Torturous to watch.
markbyrn» Quote comment
Seriously, it was like watching an episode of The Office, in a scenario where Mike Scott tries a new job, “smile and fake it ’til you make it”.
OMFG» Quote comment
qat the end he says, :..[unintelligable word] I’m not gonna do that shit” – it’s also repeated 3 times by the TD editors.
OMFG» Quote comment