Oh, Brian. You’re so dramatic.

You were shot down. You got dysentery. You saved puppies. (I mean, puppies, Brian? You brought sweet, innocent little puppies into your stories?)

Ok, true or not, let’s face it, Brian can tell a story. He just seemed to forget that a news story isn’t something you tell around a campfire, or whisper to your kids to get them to sleep at night.

News stories, like all press, have to be true.

As a Producer, you’re gonna want press. And lots of it. As Super Power press agent Rick Miramontez said in my very first podcast, press is free advertising, yet can reach further and faster than any New York Times ad or Times Square billboard. (My “Virgins Get In Free” promotion for My First Time cost me zero dollars, and went global.)

And as you come up with your own unique ways to get press for your shows, you’ll be tempted to twist the truth into something more dramatic than it is. You’ll want to “Williams” it. (Yep, that’s right, I made his name a verb . . . it means “b.s.”)

But don’t.

Why? Well, first, you’ll be found out. You can’t get away with anything today, so don’t even try.

Second, and most importantly, once you Williams (See how I did that there?), your credibility is shot. The public won’t believe you, and the press definitely won’t.  And if you think all press is good press, wait until you’ve been outed as a Williams Artist.

Just remember, when you start brainstorming all the ways you can get your project in the papers . . . you want your show to be the story, not the subject of one.

It’s too bad.  I like Brian. I was even lucky enough to get on his show when they did a story on the Tweet Seats at Godspell.

And don’t worry. He didn’t make that one up.

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