| P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u |
|
HOME | NEWS | PEOPLE | FEATURES
| INTERVIEWS |
 |
| P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u |
|
HOME | NEWS | PEOPLE | FEATURES
| INTERVIEWS |
|
|
PNB interview:Jim Gibson talks | 
|
The pageant world is his stagePNB: What aspect of hosting do you enjoy the most and why? GIBSON: That's a good question. I've never been asked that question. Interviewing the contestants is always the most challenging part because it's the hardest. The interview portion can't be planned. It can't be thought through. You don't know where it's going to go. Interviewing the contestants is a challenge that I like. Therefore I enjoy it the most. PNB: How do you see your role during the onstage interview? GIBSON: As I was growing up, I watched TV hosts like Johnny Carson and Jack Paar [pioneers of the American TV talk show]. My job as a host is to allow the person that I am talking to . . . to be herself . . . to open up so that you aren't seeing something that is a facade. You're not seeing something that is a staged appearance, but you're seeing someone who is a real person. I try to make that person I'm interviewing feel very comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation. If you can do that, you are a good host. PNB: What part of hosting do you like the least and why? GIBSON: The part I like the least is when you start the elimination process, because I know what it's like to not be accepted. I've been in auditions, piano recitals and state vocal competitions. I know what it's like to not achieve what I had hoped to have achieved. Unfortunately, it's my job to give them the bad news. It's like I'm the doctor sitting down with a patient and telling them that they've got cancer. That's the worst part about being a pageant host. After the pageant, I will try to spend a little time with those girls who are upset. I don't spend a lot of time with those contestants who are bad losers. I don't feel they deserve my time if they are bad losers. But the other 98 percent of the contestants, I try to reinforce all those cliches that you hear, like, "You're a winner for trying." I really try to reassure them. It's OK to be upset, but don't be down on yourself. PNB: What skills should a pageant host possess to be successful? GIBSON: A host must make the contestants feel comfortable, and he must get the audience involved in the show. The singing and the humor are a part of it, but the No. 1 characteristic of a good host is the ability to create a relaxing atmosphere. The host is the only one who can do that. The audience can help, but the host will bring the audience into it. And don't forget, when the host starts eliminating contestants, 50 to 80 percent of the audience members are not happy. The majority of the audience, all those parents and boyfriends, are emotional and unhappy. A good host has to help them accept that and help them enjoy the show. When you stop and think about it, hosting is a hard job, but there is a knack to it. PNB: What can a pageant director do to make your job easier? GIBSON: Organization is important. There are times when I work with directors who are not organized, and that bugs me. Most directors only produce one or two, or maybe three pageants a year, and I host 20 to 40 pageants a year, so maybe my patience is a little short. But it is helpful when the director has his act together. The No. 1 organizational problem for me is when the director doesn't have the judging system well organized and the tabulator is not sharp. There are times when I've had to stand onstage and ad lib for 10 or 15 minutes. One time, on live television in California, it seemed like an hour, but I was stuck . . . for three or four minutes . . . without anything planned. It is the state director's responsibility to have a system that doesn't bog down. That has caused me some great embarrassment and frustration. Organization is the No. 1 thing that a director can do to help a host. |
| PNB: What pageant that you've hosted was your most memorable and why? GIBSON: One pageant that I'll never forget was a teen contest that Coretta Scott King's daughter was in. When I looked out into the audience, I saw Coretta Scott King three feet from me. She is an international celebrity and a part of history. Those are the things you remember. |
| PNB: Jim, you have probably worked with more beautiful women than any other man in the world, with the possible exception of Hugh Hefner. Who would be the three most physically beautiful women you've seen as a pageant host? GIBSON: That's hard. Honestly, I don't remember their names. The ones who are the most physically beautiful usually are the ones who didn't win, so they just pass on into the night. I remember one girl. She was out of North Carolina. Rice was her name. Oh yeah, Sharon Rice. She was one of those girls that I'll just never forget. To me, she was one of the most stunning. She was in the Miss Hawaiian Tropic Pageant that I hosted in 1983 or 1984. She's probably married to somebody now and is the mother of five. It's not the big names who are the most beautiful. I'll bet there are at least a dozen that I've seen on TV who have entered pageants I've hosted, like Halle Berry, Marla Maples, Vanna White and many more. The most beautiful ones are the ones you and I would not recognize or remember. PNB: When did you know that you had talent as a singer? GIBSON: It's funny. I never really knew I did. I was a musician as a kid. When I was 5 years old, I had to take piano lessons. I always enjoyed music, and I was kind of good at it. Then I switched to trumpet and continued to play trumpet all the way through school and into college, where I was a trumpet performance major. I played in some very good rock bands, club bands and touring bands. Our jazz ensemble won the National Mundelein Jazz Festival when I was a senior in high school. |
| I had a good education as a musician. I could sing a little "ooh-and-aah" in the background, because when you are in a group you do it, but the concept of taking a microphone and knowing that I was a singer or a soloist didn't happen until I was 21 or 22 years old. I was playing and still performing, and I thought, "This being a musician is not where the money is. People don't know who I am. I'm standing behind the person they know." I traveled in B.J. Thomas' band, and this is a man who has sold over 12 million albums. I was fortunate to be successful as a musician, but it was not getting me anywhere. That's when I decided, "I don't know if I have talent as a singer, but I'm going to learn how to sing." | 
|
| I literally came off the road, went to my home and sat for three or four months in my basement with my recording equipment and just started singing. I'd record a song, and I'd play it back. I was 21 or 22 years old when I sang my first solo. I knew then that I had some talent, but it took a while. It was not natural, and I was totally self-taught. Being a musician came naturally to me. Singing was not natural. It was like a kid learning how to throw a curveball. I went down to my basement and kept working on my pipes [vocal cords] until it worked. By the time that I was in my mid- to late 20s, people started to say, "We really like your music." Then, in 1979, when I was 27 years old, I had my own music and variety television show every Saturday night in Chicago. The singing didn't happen overnight. I knew I could do it when I was 21, but it wasn't until five or six years later that I felt like a professional singer. |
More talk with Jim Gibson ...
|
| P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u |
|
HOME | NEWS | PEOPLE | FEATURES
| INTERVIEWS |
|
|
| Copyright © 1995-2006 Pageant News Bureau, Inc. All rights reserved. |