Before going onto a TV show, guests wait together in what’s called a “green room.” The green room is not green. It is a lounge of normal room color with couches, chairs, a coffee table, TV, light eating, and easy access to the make-up room. When a show has guests of unequal stature, the big stars may get their own room.

Life in the green room can be pretty interesting. Specifically, it is amazing how quickly you can size someone up in that setting.

Here’s a group of people coming together, probably for the first time. If it’s a show like Donny Deutsch’s The Big Idea, which I was flattered to be part of again tonight, many of those people will be experts with something (like a book) to sell. And watching them interact for the first time, you can see the pecking order come together. Quickly.

It’s a fascinating study, and pretty much everyone walks out of the green room with the same impressions as everyone else. Except for the low man on the totem pole, whose impressions usually differ from the consensus opinion. But he’s the only one.

Imagine the scene: 4, 6, or 8 people all come into an ambiguous environment, no one is sure who’s friend or foe, no one knows exactly what they’re going to be talking about, and there is not even always a producer around to guide folks through the introduction process.

In other words, the green room is a perfect laboratory to watch raw instinct at work. I’d describe it, but I can’t. You just look at someone and make a snap judgment: “He’s an ass; she’s cool; that one’s reading her notes but she obviously knows her stuff… she must be trying to avoid getting sucked into conversation with the guy next to her; that other dude must be someone big, he’s not saying anything but he’s too refined to be a rookie… he’s just enjoying the show.”

Then you leave to go to make-up, and run into Mr. Refined who is coming back from make-up. He stops you in the hall and says, “What’s that one guy’s problem? Why is he emanating the ‘I’m an ass’ vibe? Doesn’t he get it?” And you smile because of the three guys still in the room, you know exactly who he’s talking about. And because Mr. Refined just gave you a doorway to walk through, and if you do it right, you’ll be the BMOC. So you look right at him, smile, and say, “

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