Does anyone else notice georges inability to come up with any interesting questions?? Most of the time when a guest stops talking and tries to pass the conversation over George says "How can we...AUDIBLE PAUSE WHILE HE THINKS OF A QUESTION" or " what if...." or "let's take some calls"
I have noticed this, too. I believe George has a set of general questions that he asks, one by one, as the interview progresses. That's why you hear him move from topic to topic -- he is just reading through his pre-determined questions. Art, Ian, and Knapp are able to follow a conversation thread in a way that allows them to generate questions on the fly, just as you and I do when we talk to our friends and family. That's why you hear Art sort of "flowing" with the conversation -- he asks genuine questions based upon what the guest says. If this leads into an area that requires more questions, Art asks them. George just can't do this. My greatest criticism of George is that his guests will sometimes get into VERY interesting areas that the listener knows should be explored. Just at the penultimate moment, George says, "OK, tell us where we can get your book." I cringe when I think of how many times this has happened. So, instead of moving into a topic that the audience would enjoy hearing about, George takes the conversation into an area that is not productive.
It's kind of like when I have a conversation with my wife about her day. Sure, I have a few pre-determined questions like, "How did your day go?" or "Who did you have lunch with?" or "Did you get any big clients today?" But I don't rely only on these questions. If she tells me that she had lunch with the president of some company, I'll ask what it is that company does and what she hopes to do for them. I'll ask other questions based on what she says to me until the conversation naturally flows into something else. Again, we all do something similar to this every day. But George can't do it to save his life, poor man. If I was George, my wife would tell me who she had lunch with and what that person's company does and then I'd say, "So, what did you get at the store today?" never to return to the discussion about the company. I'd never have a chance to learn that she was very close to selling them a $2M advertising/marketing/PR contract. In other words, I'd miss the real "meat" of the conversation -- I'd miss the most important part because I had my pre-determined questions that I had to ask. And my wife would probably look at me like I had just grown a second head -- exactly how I look at the radio every time George does this! I dislike George as an interviewer because I consistently feel like the most important stuff the guest had to tell us was never discussed.
I believe that George relies on Fast Blast for most of his questions. That is part of the reason that you hear him hem and haw and string a question out interminably -- he's actually trying to scroll through his Fast Blasts to find a question that someone sent in. He saw it scroll by a few minutes ago and he remembers part of it, but not all. So he starts out with what he remembers while he is desperately trying to find what it is the Fast Blast question asked.
The upshot is that George is just a dismal interviewer. If I was having a real-life, in-person conversation with him, I would feel compelled to reach out and slap him in the face to try to get his attention. I wish we had a "Fast Slap" that would allow us to do this remotely. That's what he needs.
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Topic: George Noory Sucks! -- The Definitive Compendium (Read 379226 times)
