Despite competition from the President’s First Big Speech on January 27, 2010, Mike still draws an unexpectedly large crowd.
Let’s start with the small Press Conference beforehand (yeah, yeah, he’s not the kind of guy who gets all dressed up and all):
and here’s the intro:
and the audience:
and the speech:
and the one of the little fans there:
and always working the littlest crowd members:
Yep, there’ll be more but that’s all for now.
G’night Cape Girardeau, Missouri. We hope you’ll never be the same. (in the best sense of course)
9 Comments
Keep up the good work Mike, hard working America needs you!!!! We can’t let our fellow working class go under! I am tired of just working to work to work to pay more to work. Good golly, your doing great!!
I really enjoyed my evening at the Show-Me-Center with Mr. Rowe. For those of you that were there and have read the other comments, I was sitting on the aisle about four rows behind Mrs. Connelly’s son Jack. I kept rooting for him to actually make it onto stage, but he has parents with cat like reflexes. Maybe next time buddy…
I nearly got my hands on a microphone to ask a question near the end of the evening, but didn’t quite make it. I’ll just go ahead and put it up here on the off chance I get a response from the fine folks here at mikeroweWorks.
I was aware that Mike was going up against the State of the Union Address and that it was three days or so short of the anniversary of the letter addressed to President Obama. I was wondering if there had been any response from anyone at the Federal level yet, or if there would be a follow up letter if anything were mentioned in this year’s speech?
I hope you get an opportunity to make it back to our area someday.
Very Respectfully,
Hey Mike,
My husband and I would really like to thank you for taking time to see Nathan and sign his hard hat. Nathan thought it was really cool that you wanted him to autograph his picture for you. Nathan could not wait to go to school the next day and show all the children in his class the hard hat and tell them the story of how he met MIKE ROWE! All the children were calling him a Super Star! Again, thanks so much for taking your time to make my little guy so happy.
Career Linkages would like to thank Mike for such a wonderful show and we would also like to thank the community for the warm welcome you gave Mr. Rowe. We all had a blast and look forward to seeing Mike again someday. Until then good luck with Mike Rowe Works (let us know how we can help) and the show, we’ll all be watching!
And so the story goes…
My husband Michael, my son Jack and I headed down to Cape Girardeau in the family truckster last night to participate in Mike’s “Dirty Talk” at Southeast Missouri State. Alas, we did not have the opportunity to meet Mike, but boy howdy, did we have a great time.
First off, Jack refused to wear ANYTHING on his head, whether it was a hard hat or brown felt fashioned into mutton chops to resemble Barsky. However, we could not have asked for a more well behaved two year old, although he did attempt to go up on stage during Mike’s talk repeatedly. I do not think I have seen my Michael move as briskly. It was impressive.
The program began with a speech by a former student of the University who introduced a couple of films created by SEMO students outlining what would happen if dirty jobs stopped being done, while incorporating the mikeroweworks logo.
The topic of the first film was that of roadkill removers. There was no sound to the clip and given the topic, you could have heard a pin drop in the facility. Jack was as content as could be playing with his Matchbox cars on the floor where our seats were located…until he came across a piece of ABC gum that he thought was utterly fascinating. And gross. SO, in the quiet arena, with everyone watching this student film, our son goes “EEEEWWW” in what was perfect timing for the film being played. At the tender age of two my son has not only developed an astute understanding of timing, but was able to get the entire facility to chuckle in unison.
The second film introduced involved two college aged men and their disgusting bathroom. Given our seat location on the side of the stage, I did not have a chance to see this clip, as I was more focused on keeping Jack off the stage.
Once the second film had concluded, Mike took the stage. We all stood up and clapped. Even Jackie, who again tried to rush the stage as he instantly recognized Mike’s voice, which really isn’t surprising since I assume he figures Mike narrates our daily family life with as often as either Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Lab, Ford Truck Commercials and so on and so on are played on our family room TV.
But, I digress. Mike is a dynamic and engaging speaker. You can tell that his communication degree has served him well.
At one point, he began to tell the story of the sheep farm where he learned the true meaning of Rocky Mountain Oysters. Again, the audience was hanging on every word. It was quiet. Until Jack again discovered the gum and went “EEEWWW”, at which point Mike heard that, walked over to the side of the stage facing us and said, “Yes, exactly my thoughts” or something like that. Audience cracks up. Again. Because of Jack.
So, Mike, if you were wondering who that little boy was, laying on his belly to your left while up on stage, playing with his cars, that was Jack.
Mike then opened the floor up for questions from the audience. I could not come up with a creative question to save my life. Of course, that did not stop me from raising my hand. I did not have the microphone passed to me, which was probably a good thing, seeing as I would have likely made a fool out of myself.
The questions posed by the college students were amusing, particularly those by the female students who blatantly flirted, which Mike ate up. Oh to be 22 again. But, Mike took it all in stride and it was funny. Mike even sang a few bars from a Robert Goulet song and unfortunately I saw Will Ferrell doing Robert Goulet and laughed. To use one of Mike’s favorite words…awkward. He does have a nice singing voice, though. Good projection.
There was also a member of the audience named Jason, I think, who hit the nail on the head regarding the mission of mikeroweworks and that was really cool to hear their discussion.
Finally, the speech came to an end after about an hour and a half and given our seat location I went up to the stage afterwards and tried to say hello, but a bunch of other people had the same idea.
What was really neat though was that the University randomly selected students to go backstage and meet Mike after the talk. Granted, I would have really enjoyed the opportunity to meet Mike and I was a little disappointed, but you know what, that’s OK. There were a handful of other members of this site and the DJMB there, who also wanted to meet Mike, but given the tight security and schedule, we couldn’t make it happen. But again, that’s OK. The fact that we had a family adventure, had the opportunity to see Mike and listen to him speak in person was great.
I am now holding out for that book tour of Mike’s, which he alluded to in the beginning of his discussion. I will keep my Sharpie at the ready.
We now have a great story and Jack got acknowledged by Mike Rowe. Not a bad way to spend an arbitrary Wednesday evening at all.
Thanks Mike for a great story.
Take care everyone,
Sarah
Mike-It was great to hear your thoughts & comments on our world today. A common sense approach is just what we need to get America going. There should be no shame in hard work no matter how “dirty” it gets you! You advice to everyone to find something they love to do & pursue it with passion is the key to happiness. Thanks for all you do to make sure the backbone of America is appreciated. Enjoyed it!
Looked like a great night. I notice even cardboard Mike was present. Good to see the little ones attended as well, the future of America!
Hey Mike;
Hope you liked the area enough to make a return trip..good talent & interesting talent,very much worth seeing again.man you have a great TV Show.Even tho,how do you do some of that stuff,whew,mercy. But good to see you in Cape Girardeau Missouri. Y’all come back.
do take care.
keep it dirty,
make’s it interesting.
Douglas Cotner
Aww thats cute .. !!! Ya so are you too Mike … you just stay yourself and keep it real .. big luv from Alberta Canada … Cori