I’m sitting in a darkened ballroom, waiting for a client presentation to go up on a big screen in front of two hundred managers from around the world.
There’s two actors onstage at the moment, going through a mock version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (complete with a celebrity lookalike for Regis). Everything has been scripted to map to the company’s culture and business . . . which means people are laughing at jokes that are only funny in this room.
“Regis” tells a real joke: When you do a good job here, it’s like peeing your pants when you’re wearing a dark suit. You get a warm feeling but no one notices.
Suddenly we’re in the Catskills. No one laughs.
It’s all got an additional layer of surreality, because I know the actor playing the contestant.
But here’s the ultimate in surreal: I spent four hours yesterday pressing a button over and over again. This morning I have to watch someone else press the button.
The actor just won a million dollars. Yay.