Halfway through the WOMMA Basic Training Conference I received a strange voicemail on my cell from a (407) area code. Hmmm. Must be someone in Orlando, I figured. The reception was fuzzy and choppy, so this was all I heard:
“Scott… name … Eddie Crandall … WOMMMA …. African … nametag …Dana Carvey… call back … meet in person …”
What the hell?!
I called the number back. “Yeah, um…is Eddie there?”
“Scott?! Hey thanks for calling back!”
“Hi. Um, can you remind me who you are?! I couldn’t make out your message.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. My name’s Eddie Crandall. I’m a cast member at Disney. I met a bunch of your friends from WOMMA last night at dinner. Anyway, when I went to the WOMMA homepage to learn more about your conference, I found your information and thought your nametag idea was really cool! And I was wondering if I could meet you in person.
“Oh. Yeah, sure. Come on over. I’m just chillin with some friends on the beach in one of these hammocks.”
“Ok cool! I’ll be right over.”
Not sure if it was a crank call, I put my phone away and rejoined my group at the beach. And as irony would have it, my friend Sean Murphy from Customink was telling a story about the Dana Carvey impersonator he’d met the night before.
“Wait, Sean, are you serious? Because I just got a phone call from some guy named Eddie who actually DOES Dany Carvey impersonations…and he’s coming over here right now!”
“No way!”
Sure enough, we turned around to see a Disney Cast Member wearing this nametag. And he looked EXACTLY like Dana Carvey!
Eddie introduced himself to me, and to Liz and Lisa from Edelman. Then he walked over to Sean and said, “Hey, I remember meeting you last night…”
“…Sean, right?” Eddie asked, “you’re the t-shirt guy!”
“Yeah, that’s me!”
Word. Nice job being that guy Sean.
Anyway, Dana (Eddie) told us his backstory. Quick summary: he first watched SNL years ago, noticing his strong resemblance to Dana Carvey. Then people began to notice the same thing. He eventually saw Dana in concert and got backstage passes because someone in security thought he WAS Dana, then met the real actor in person and got a pic and a signed DVD which read, “You look just like me! Love, Dana.”
When Eddie started working for Disney, fellow cast members told him he should start doing Dana Carvey impressions. (Which is kind of funny it and of itself: a guy doing impressions of a guy doing impressions. Ha!) But Eddie’s sister, Dana, who also worked for Disney, gave him her nametag. He now wears it as his Cast Member ID and has a blast entertaining guests at the resort on a daily basis.
When we all said goodbye, Dana (Eddie) whipped out a bunch of papers from his pocket. Apparently he’d printed out a bunch of screens from my website, namely the Approachability Map. “This is so cool Scott! Approachability is very important for Cast Members at Disney. I guess the whole Dana Carvey thing is like my front porch!
Well isn’t that speeeecial?
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How do you build a front porch to your front line?
* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
Author/Speaker/That guy with the nametag
www.hellomynameisscott.com
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