The Montel Willams Show

May 23, 2003

On May 23^rd, 2003 Matt was a guest on The MONTEL WILLIAMS Show.  Actually, even Mom was involved in this adventure, doing her own short interview with Montel.

We flew out to NY the day before the interview and were treated to a wonderful barbecue dinner by Robin Hommel, the producer at MONTEL in charge of Matt’s segment.  We had previously met Robin the end of March when we were in Long Island for some gigs on behalf of The MAX Foundation.  At that time, Robin interviewed Matt and Mom and Matt’s sidemen and filmed the Trio performing a “Concert for Kids.”  This footage was to be shown as an introduction of Matt before his live appearance on MONTEL.  Well, Robin became a friend during her filming of us, so she was completely and totally wonderful and attentive during our entire visit to NY for the live MONTEL appearance.  We felt more like we were visiting a friend than preparing to appear on television.

The day of the live appearance, Matt and I were shown to a nice waiting/dressing room.  The make-up and hair stylists fixed up Mom for the cameras, but Matt went on the air “as is”.  Matt has the blessing of short hair that always looks good and beautiful skin.  Ah, to be young again….

While we were waiting in the back area, Montel came in to meet us.  For those of you who have never seen Montel, he is a very energetic, intelligent, caring individual who has a great sense of humor and an innate ability to connect with people.  I really did not know what to expect when we met him.  But, he strolled right into the room and smiled and after saying a quick hello to me said hi to Matt.  He sat right down and chatted with Matt, asking Matt about Matt’s love of music and especially jazz.  They talked about jazz musicians they liked.

Matt started to walk out of the room, saying, “Let’s go”… expecting to go out onto the stage.  Montel caught Matt in his arms to stop him from leaving, and then told Matt a story.  He said that when he was little he was the youngest and smallest of 4 boys, and his brothers used to tickle-torture him.  He promised that when he got big and strong, HE would do the tickling.  He taught himself not to be ticklish, and had Matt try to tickle him and make him laugh.  No response.  Then Montel, who is in phenomenal physical shape, asked Matt if HE was ticklish.  Matt said he was the most ticklish person on the face of the planet.  Montel tickled Matt, and Matt was doubled over laughing.  Matt’s reaction was so funny, that we were all laughing, and Montel threatened Matt that he was going to tickle Matt when they were on stage.

Montel kind of explained what would happen on stage when they went out.  Then he asked if Matt had any questions for him.  Matt asked him, “How many overtimes can a basketball game go into?”.  Everyone was kind of surprised at the question, given that the conversation had been about jazz, but then I remembered that Robin had told Matt that Montel was extremely knowledgeable about sports.

Montel smiled, and sat down again, and the guys started talking sports.  There was another gentleman in the office who was into sports, and Montel called him over, and they discussed the answer.  (For those of you who are wondering, the answer is: three, and there is a sudden death.)  Anyway, the guys continued to talk sports until Montel had to leave.  But between the music and the sports interests, Matt and Montel had bonded already.

I wish I could go into detail about the show for those of you who missed the airing; but the time went by so quickly that it kind of became a blur.  It seemed as if we were only on stage for a few minutes, although the segment was about 15 minutes.  First the audience was shown the footage that had been filmed by Robin at the earlier concert mixed in with some of our home video to tell Matt’s story.  Then I was brought out to answer a few questions, and then it was onto Matt!  Montel asked Matt about what music means to him.  Matt answered and they chatted for a bit.  Then Montel got up, saying he wanted to hear Matt play the piano but that there was something he had told Matt he was going to do on the air that he was going to do first.  Montel proceeded to tickle Matt, who slid out of his chair onto the floor, laughing.  After Matt stopped laughing, Montel asked Matt to play a song on the piano…something from his new CD.  Matt played the title tune, “Chasing Your Tail”.

After a commercial break, Montel had Matt come sit down with him again.  He asked Matt about how the Trio was formed and about Matt composes his songs.  Matt answered him that the hardest thing was deciding what kind of song to write.  Writing the song itself was easy.

Montel then did something that impressed me.  Without his knowing whether or not Matt could do it (and on national television), he gave Matt a challenge.  He challenged Matt to improvise a song on the piano in the style of Miles Davis.  Matt jumped up, completely excited, ran to the piano, and proceeded to do just that.  His tune sounded exactly like something Miles Davis might have played.  Then Montel asked Matt to switch to a John Coltrane style.  So Matt switched to a rapid-fire bebop deluge of notes and finished up the improvised tune.  Montel was beaming and gave Matt a hug.

After another commercial break, Montel asked Matt what Matt would say to someone who said another person couldn’t do something because they had a disability, and Matt answered, “I have three words.  HE IS WRONG.  You can do anything if you try.”

The crowd cheered, and then Montel said we were out of time but he asked Matt to play one last tune, a Matt Savage kind of tune.  Matt played “Firecracker”. 

It was a WONDERFUL and totally fun experience.  Montel is really an unbelievable man.  He is charismatic and funny and quick-witted.  He is the same off camera as he is on.  I hope we have the opportunity to meet him again.