Being in Oprah's presence is as close to royalty as I am ever going to get. A few years ago, Troy and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to see a taping of THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW in Chicago at Harpo Studios. The guest was Barbra Streisand and it was an extraordinary experience that I will never forget. Walking out of Harpo Studios, I knew that I needed to treasure every moment of that day since odds were that I would never get the opportunity again to see Oprah in person. So a month ago, it was announced that Oprah was bringing her Lifeclass Tour to St Louis. The rules were that you enter your email address one time into a drawing and if your email is pulled or picked, you get two tickets to see the St Louis taping. I entered my email and thought there was no way that I could be lucky enough to have another opportunity to see Oprah again. And sure enough, the day after the drawing, I got an email that said that my email had not been chosen but thanks for entering. So be it. One week ago, I was surprised to receive an email from Harpo Studios that there were a few additional openings and if I wanted two tickets, I needed to respond ASAP. I responded, I got the tickets, and this evening Troy and I went to the Peabody Opera House to see Oprah tape an edition of LIFECLASS that was airing "live" on OWN. The Class was co-taught by Ilanya Vanzant, who has a checkered history with Oprah but they have healed enough that Oprah announced tonight that Ilanya was taking over Harpo Studios for her new talk show debuting this summer called ILANYA FIX YOUR LIFE. We were in our seats by 5:30pm and at 6:30pm, the preshow began. They pumped loud club music into the theatre and the audience wranglers got everyone on their feet and stoked to see Lady Oprah. We were given rules for the evening and then we were introduced to Sherri Salata, who is the President of OWN. Sherri came onstage and took about ten minutes to introduce the upcoming summer season of OWN and showed clips of several new shows coming. Then she introduced the family that owns Sweetie Pie's that is featured on OWN's huge hit WELCOME TO SWEETIE PIES. The Family was sitting in the 4th row and got a huge ovation from the audience. Then the stage manager counted down to 7pm and there in front of us suddenly was Oprah Winfrey herself. She looked beautiful in a yellow dress with her hair pulled back in a perfect ponytail. She seemed thrilled to be there and had nothing but incredible things to say about St Louis and the Peabody Opera House and Staff. After the first commercial break, Oprah introduced Ilanya and the Lifeclass began. The first guest was a man named Steve. Steve is a 20 year drug/alcohol addict. He has recently gotten himself sober and has lost his purpose since being clean. This was an incredibly moving segment that was the cornerstone of the entire evening. Ilanya asked the audience to be honest and stand up if they themselves have an alchol/drug problem. More than half of the audience stood up. Then Ilanya asked the people who knew someone who has an alchol/drug problem to stand up. There wasn't one person in that audience still sitting. The most powerful thing happened at the commercial when the entire audience reached out to Steve and shouted love and affirmation for his bravery. Ilanya Vanzant was brutally honest with this man and drew gasps from the audience when she said to Steve, "Your story has become your addiction." When she said that, Oprah sat back in her chair with a look of shock while realizing that Ilanya was absolutely correct. The second guest was a woman who prayed her whole life for a baby and then when she had one, he turned out to be highly autistic. She admitted that if she had known that this was going to happen, she wouldn't have had the child. Ilanya and Oprah both made headway with this woman, but unfortunately for the television audience, the real breakthrough happened during the commercial break. At the end of the evening, once the broadcast ended, Oprah remained on stage for a short while and talked about OWN. She is standing behind the struggling network and will continue to try and make the best television possible in the hopes that eventually America catches up and pays attention. She once again praised St Louis and made a graceful exit while the audience screamed their gratitude to her. Watching Oprah interact with the audience, I got the feeling once again that she is truly appreciative of the fans. She makes eye contact with everyone and spent a great deal of time during the commercials hugging and posing for photos with people. As for Ilanya, I will absolutely be watching her talk show when it debuts. She is no holds barred and totally entertaining. I have a feeling that her show might be the breakthrough success that OWN so desperately needs. It was a wonderful night full of several meaningful moments to me. The theme of the night was HEAL THE PAIN and the theme of forgiveness was also strong. To say that I had a few "A-ha" moments would be an understatement.
No comments:
Post a Comment