We at Kosher Ham Productions acknowledge that "Eric in the Elevator" wasn't the first-ever elevator talk show. Here are some bits of Elevator Talk Show lore: EitE Season 1 in John Cooper's words, and some other perspectives on what has gone before.
John Cooper writes:
Oops, ranting again. What else did we do? Well, Brick will be happy to know that we conducted an elevator talk show. Ours featured Eric Zuckerman as the host, and was entitled Eric in the Elevator. I was Bob, the camera guy, and Michelle was the cue card chick (she had two cards, one said "APPLAUSE" and the other said "LAUGHTER"). We dragged two chairs and a huge potted hotel plant onto the elevator. Eric sat in one of the chairs. Whenever anyone was brave enough to sit in the empty chair, the video camera would come out and Eric would say, "Hello, and welcome back to..." here he would pause and grin into the camera, "Eric in the Elevator." Then he would interview the guest, and applause and laughter would be cued at various points in the conversation. We had a lot of great reactions, from people who clearly didn't get it, to people who have always wanted to be on an elevator talk show. Funny, we saw two hotel security people and a police officer during our half hour show, and they all left us alone. No Flares showed up, they were all busting people for dancing without badges. Later that evening we were amused to see a full poker game being played on the elevator, complete with table and chairs.
Brick Barrientos writes:
On Ginohn News May 30, John Cooper relates an elevator talk show adventure at Baycon over Memorial Day Weekend. He credits me with the idea, but I picked it up from Tom Terrell of the University of Chicago back in 1981. College Bowl held the national tournament that year at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, not exactly a garden spot. All the teams stayed at the Huntington Holiday Inn, a passable venue for college students. The year before, Tom was a senior divinity student and that year, Tom graduated to assistant to the dean of the Divinity School and coach of the team. Overall, this background would not sound conducive to creative mischief-making. Nevertheless, on the last night in Huntington, he put some chairs and plants in an elevator car and held a talk show as it moved up and down.Four years later, in a fit of pointless nostalgia, I mentioned the incident at Disclave to a group which included John Cooper. They all thought this was a great idea and appointed me host. For chairs, we used those low luggage stands one finds in hotels. For a plant, John's then-girlfriend Lisa Lazar stood motionless holding a glass of water with a sprig of green in it. I seem to remember my most entertaining guest that night was Lee Moyer. Hotel security left us alone and just laughed. At the same time, someone was hosting a dirty lingerie party. Don't asked whether that meant the lingerie was merely raunchy or actually soiled. Many women in corsets stepped into that elevator with their crotch at my eye level.
My next recollection of elevator talk shows was when I suggested the idea to some high school quiz bowl team at the 1987 National Academic Championship at the Ohio State University in Columbus. I disavowed all knowledge since I was a judge and symbol of authority at the time.
John Randolph writes (in email):
The first elevator talk show I heard of, was conducted at Unicon in Silver Spring, Maryland, circa 1983. The set consisted of two comfy chairs, a potted palm, and a small table. No video was taken. The elevator talk show happened at several other Unicons as well, and one or two Baliticons.I was the host of the first one. Various other people conducted the others.
Kosher Ham Studios welcomes more information that might be available... ;-D (Does anybody know Tom Terrell?)