JD's coffee provoked ramblings: My first will always be the best

I must say June 16, 2007 was a blast.

The evening began arriving at the Gem Theatre in downtown Detroit. A most stunning theatre. Light snacks and full open bars were waiting, which the "Come On Over" company took full advantage of - especially the bars. Photographers greeted us on the red carpet and at the steps to the theatre. Not once all evening did I open a door myself (unless I was going where I didn't belong...) At 6 PM the events of the evening began. The main floor of the theatre was table seating with theatre style seating in the balcony. We had great seats on the main floor. "COO" occupied 7 tables. We were by far the largest group there. The next largest was perhaps half our size.

The announcement of our first nomination for music was celebrated by much noise and cheering from the group. Imagine the cacophony when our own Paul & Chad were announced the winners. They made their acceptance speeches and disappeared stage right. Our next nomination was also our next winner: Joel Tanis, creator of the show, won for on camera talent.

By now I've got my third drink of the evening sitting next to me and am being very careful not to touch it to retain some modicum of lucidity because I'm next. For the past 5 weeks, I've been hearing I've already won my EMMY because I'm the only nominee in my category. All along this has felt very odd to me because I didn't know how the nominating process worked. But I learned - basically, every entrant is rated between 1 and 100. The higher the better. An entrant must reach a score of 70 to be considered a nominee. The single qualifying rule in judging, is, the entrant must be EMMY worthy. If they are not in the judge's opinion, they must score them accordingly. As to my category, I have no idea how many other entrants there were, but I do know I was the only one voted worthy. In other cases, if a category has 9 entrants worthy of an EMMY, they all become nominees and one of them goes to the stage a winner.

Energy is pounding through me and I'm next... They read the nominee (a formality), they open the envelope (another formality), they mispronounce my name, I go on stage, I take my EMMY from the model there and correct the guy who mispronounced my name. I thank Joel for creating the show, I thank the producers, I thank the production designer, and I tell them I'm going to let my 5 year old son dress it in tin foil the next day and I thank the audience, good night.

The first thing I hear after walking off stage right? "Congratulations, Sir! May I have that?" and they take my EMMY away from me! The guy with white gloves polishes it and hands it back to the model for the next winner... Clever! But two feet away from me is a young lady who also congratulates me and sends me around the corner. This continues until I am in the basement at a table being greeted by a very nice lady who knows my name and hands me a rather large box. AHA! My EMMY! Well, not yet; The next thing I'm handed is the brass plaque that identifies it as mine, then I am handed a small jewelers box with the special EMMY screwdriver to attach my plaque. Then I am handed the directions for attaching it. Immediately I am moved to another area where I stand in line to get my formal EMMY portrait taken, which I walk away with a copy of and am sent back upstairs to enjoy the drink I've been avoiding. All the way up I'm greeting by ushers, staff and God knows who else, all congratulating me.

OK, that was FUN!

Keith was the next winner I remember. I advised him not to let go of his EMMY when he gets off stage just to see what may happen. I never found out if he got into a fight.

We won 6 EMMy's that night. They are:

Category 45A - Musical Composition/Arrangement

Come On Over ENTHUSIASTIC PRODUCTIONS /WOTV

ChadDykema, Paul Chamness

Category 48D - Graphic Arts – Animation