Really it's just all about preparation. I'd only made that pie three times before. (The third one was the finished one we brought out on the show.) But I knew about how long each step took. I knew where I had to be in the process when the segment started, and kept an eye on the floor manager for time cues. I saw the two-minute warning and sped up on the mixing. Robin was really good about letting me interrupt her to keep it moving.

All the dialog was stuff I had rehearsed in my head a hundred times, or written about here and on the blog. I had enough material front-of-mind to do a half-hour without having to improvise much.

The only thing that sort of surprised me was the reaction to where I got the cover photo. I thought it was mildly interesting, they thought it was hilarious. Okay, that's fine with me.

The thing you can't tell looking at the footage is that I didn't have any butter when the show started. That and the pan to make the double boiler got left in my kitchen. They fortunately had a frying pan that was small enough to work, barely. And while Robin was doing the intro my wife was frantically running around the station checking refrigerators for butter. She found a tub -- real butter, not margarine, yay! -- and gave it to me during the first segment.

I owe someone a tub of butter. I'll bring it next time I do the show. :-)