My Interview with Ian Benardo from American Idol

I ran into this guy near Union Square in December of 2005. He recognized me from MySpace and knew I was involved in making the show Highly Questionable. He was the first person to ever recognize me on the street from the show, so when he asked to be interviewed I was happy to accommodate him. It was kind of a strange coincidence that I just so happened to have the HQ mike and camera with me at the time. To add to the weirdness, an NYU film student and his girlfriend were hanging around at the time, so I was able to get him to work the camera. I interviewed a few other people before finally finishing up with Ian. We made the Love episode and put it online on Valentine's Day of 2006, but Ian didn't make the final cut.

Last night I watched American Idol, and at the end saw Ian on the previews for tonight's show. So I scrambled to find the tape on the off chance that he might be featured prominently. I knew he was an interesting character and would likely speak his mind to the judges, and he didn't disappoint. So I edited the video together and threw it up online on YouTube and MySpace to see if people trying to find video of him might stumble upon it. Here it is. Note that the opinions expressed by Mr. Benardo are not shared by the Highly Questionable producers (we both love our parents very much).