I was nervous. It’s especially hard to do a “stand-up,” or whatever they call it—when you just stand there and spout all sorts of generic nonsense, looking not at people but into a camouflaged camera. You feel like an idiot. But the people on TV are experienced. They know everyone gets nervous at first. And for beginners there’s a special thing—“the rookie booster.” A little foam pad soaked in ether and something else. They didn’t tell me what the second ingredient was (“you don’t need to know that”), but hinted that pharmacies sell it by prescription)). So here’s how it works: you take about three deep breaths through this pad, and all at once you feel so calm, so calm... good...
Here they are just giving me that stuff to sniff. usachev sneaked into the dressing room and captured the moment.