New TV Segment on Kissing In the Works

I'm replying here to a producer's questions for a possible TV show on kissing.

Q. I’m wondering how you would feel about setting up a show (at a theater or simply in a smaller setting) with about 3 couples and maybe 20 people in the audience. Would that work? How would that be different for you?
A. That's a possibility, although I don't have time to do the advance work on that since I'm teaching this semester and completing a book under contract. My lecture agents also suggested the possibility of a free show at a college. They might be able to set that up. Audiencewise, my typical crowd is 250. A smaller crowd means significantly less energy and excitement not only in the audience but also onstage. A seminar with just a handful of people in the room will usually make the demonstrators become reserved. Crowds bring out the best in the actors. This isn't to say that a small crowd can't work; only that it typically leads to less exciting performances.

Q. How does the show work? How do you go through the different styles of kissing? How long is it usually? Tell me about the different parts of the show.
A. I arrive at the venue for a soundcheck. Then I rehearse four couples for an hour. These couples are provided by the student activities office of the college. We then go onstage and the couples demonstrate thirty different types of romantic kisses while I direct them, tell jokes and interact with the audience. It's like a three-ring circus, only there are no lions, clowns, or trapese artists. There's only me telling jokes and the kissing couples. Usually college crowds find this vastly entertaining because here's a public make out session, plus they're learning a few things here and there, like how to do lip-o-suction, the music kiss, and the Trobriand Islands kiss. There is music during the show, too. It's a regular stage production. You can read more about it in The Professor of Smoochology. The show lasts an hour and begins with a five-minute intro by me. The demonstrators are sitting onstage while I tell jokes. Then the demonstrations start, and I introduce each kiss with a description of the technique involved or some interesting statistic while the students onstage actually do the kisses: the lip kiss, the ear kiss, the neck kiss, the biting kiss, the sliding kiss, and all the rest. The set list is pretty much the same as the kisses in the book and on the DVD. Here's the list of kisses (scroll to bottom of that page).

Q. And if we can get a school for sometime near the end of September, what’s your typical day like on the day of the show? How do you prepare? How do you get the students to participate?
A. I arrive at the airport, get picked up by the college and taken to the venue for a soundcheck of CD player, PowerPoint projector and microphone. I make sure the stage is preset with nine chairs and our props. Hopefully the school did its work and has four couples who arrive 90 minutes prior to showtime. If not I have to look for demonstrators on campus. Once I have the couples I rehearse them for an hour (or less if time is short). The students are always excited to participate in the show (if they're shy I encourage them to enjoy it), and college audiences invariably go wild when the show gets underway. When the first kiss occurs they usually scream.

So, there you have it. A typical The Art of Kissing show.