Latest / The Shivan Show with Shivan Sarna / What Does Hosting HSN at 2AM Really Do to You? | Helen Keaney

Transcript

What Does Hosting HSN at 2AM Really Do to You? | Helen Keaney · The Shivan Show with Shivan Sarna

• 0:00
  When they hired me, they told me I was training in the overnights for three months.
• 0:04
  I ended up working that shift for six years.
• 0:07
  To not be fired in 24 years is an incredible achievement.
• 0:10
  It's a big deal.
• 0:11
  What's the worst thing I ever had to sell?
• 0:13
  Or the most difficult to get behind.
• 0:16
  One of the reasons I decided not to continue with HSN is I wanted to go back to doing stand-up full-time.
• 0:20
  It's like a big fish in a little pond.
• 0:22
  I moved to Chicago.
• 0:23
  Completely different story.
• 0:25
  You're truly an American hero, Helen Keeney.
• 0:27
  I don't disagree with that.
• 0:28
  This is The Siobhan Show.
• 0:30
  Hi.
• 0:31
  Health, wealth, wisdom.
• 0:32
  laughter is the best medicine, and my friend Helen Keeney is here to help us understand how we can make everything funny.
• 0:41
  Everything?
• 0:41
  Most everything.
• 0:42
  Hi, Helen.
• 0:43
  Hi, Siobhan.
• 0:44
  Hi, Siobhan.
• 0:45
  Hi, Sadie.
• 0:46
  You were just on Comics Unleashed.
• 0:49
  That was so much fun.
• 0:50
  You in the lady chair.
• 0:51
  I loved it.
• 0:52
  You were fantastic, of course.
• 0:54
  Thank you.
• 0:55
  I was very honored to be on.
• 0:56
  And actually, the weekend that I taped it, I think I taped it on a Monday, they had just found out that they were moving to the 1130 time slot.
• 1:05
  So everybody was so excited.
• 1:07
  Everybody there is so nice.
• 1:08
  The producers, the writers, the social media team, and of course, Byron Allen.
• 1:13
  He was amazingly kind and chatted with me in the makeup room.
• 1:17
  And we talked about all sorts of stuff.
• 1:20
  He was on The Tonight Show when he was 18.
• 1:23
  I think he was the youngest comic to ever do The Tonight Show.
• 1:26
  And then he was like, my goal is to be out with the 1130 time slot.
• 1:29
  And it only took him like 61 years.
• 1:30
  So I love the stick-to-itiveness, which I also have.
• 1:35
  First of all, Helen's an amazing comedian.
• 1:38
  And she's also an actress.
• 1:40
  And the way that I know Helen is because she and I were hosts at Home Shopping Network together.
• 1:45
  And we clung to each other.
• 1:48
  On the raft of life.
• 1:49
  Can I tell a story about you?
• 1:50
  I think so.
• 1:52
  When you started HSN, you started something called the Overnights.
• 1:55
  So you have to be at work at 11 p.m. and you go on air at 2 a.m. And sometimes you're out from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. or 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.
• 2:05
  When they hired me, they told me I was training in the Overnights for three months.
• 2:11
  I ended up working that shift for six years.
• 2:15
  And I was a single mom.
• 2:17
  So there wasn't like time to sleep either.
• 2:22
  So it was very, very difficult for me physically.
• 2:26
  And Siobhan was sort of, Siobhan, you're right here.
• 2:29
  I'm talking about you in the third person, like you're a rapper.
• 2:31
  You sort of mentored me.
• 2:33
  I would say mother slash mentored me from, even though I'm older than you, you mother mentored me since I first started.
• 2:39
  So one day I come to work.
• 2:42
  I get there at 11-ish.
• 2:44
  No one was there to punch a time clock, FYI.
• 2:47
  So sometimes I do a stand-up show.
• 2:49
  After the stand-up show, I would drive to the studio and be on live TV.
• 2:52
  That happened actually a lot.
• 2:54
  So I get to my desk.
• 2:57
  There is a bottle of vitamins on my desk with a post-it that's like, take these, Siobhan, XOXO.
• 3:05
  You were so concerned for my, as well you should be, as well you should have been, since that day.
• 3:13
  Ladies and gentlemen, America international audience, she has continued to give me health advice, psychic future advice, relationship advice, I will say.
• 3:27
  Because you were at my wedding and you've known me since husbands and boyfriends.
• 3:32
  Just every kind of advice I can imagine.
• 3:35
  And so for that, I am eternally grateful.
• 3:38
  All good advice, by the way.
• 3:40
  Do you even remember doing that?
• 3:41
  I do.
• 3:42
  Well, first of all, I adore you.
• 3:44
  And we could spend the whole time just talking about how much I adore you.
• 3:47
  And it would be a refreshing change of pace on the internet, right?
• 3:50
  It's not a lot of clickbait when two women are saying nice things about each other.
• 3:53
  Right.
• 3:54
  Exactly.
• 3:54
  There's no hook here.
• 3:57
  No hook.
• 3:58
  The thing is, is that because you are so nice and you were not a predator...
• 4:02
  And I liked you, like sincerely liked you.
• 4:05
  And you were smart.
• 4:07
  You're from New York.
• 4:08
  Just you had so much that I was vibing on and adoring.
• 4:12
  And my heart went out to you because I had done the overnights for six years as well.
• 4:16
  When I saw you, I saw myself and I was like, I got to help this girl.
• 4:20
  So Tina Berry, one of the very first hosts at HSN, helped me a lot.
• 4:26
  I just wanted to pay it forward from what Tina did for me.
• 4:28
  But also, like, we were drowning in many cases.
• 4:32
  And it was a great place to work, but it's a tough gig.
• 4:35
  Anybody who works the overnights, you know that.
• 4:37
  Anybody who's done that shift, you know it, whether you're a nurse, truck driver, you know it.
• 4:41
  Walgreens, CVS employee at the 24-hour ones, gas station, you know.
• 4:45
  And I talk to people who, you know, I find out they work that shift, whatever.
• 4:50
  And they're like, oh, but I like it.
• 4:52
  And this is my advice for you.
• 4:54
  Never, ever tell management that you like it because they're relying on you liking it to never move you.
• 5:01
  And one day you may want to move and you'll be like, I've been there for so long.
• 5:05
  And you're like, now I want a different shift.
• 5:07
  And they'll be like, yeah, I'm going to move you.
• 5:08
  but you like it, right?
• 5:09
  And you're like, well, no, my lifestyle's changed.
• 5:12
  They're like, but you like it, right?
• 5:13
  Because you said it once.
• 5:14
  I think the worst part is they moved me to the morning show, which was even worse because I had to be at work at, I think, 3 a.m. Yeah, it's tough.
• 5:22
  Or 4 a.m.
• 5:23
  was even worse.
• 5:24
  It was just shifted even worse.
• 5:26
  And I did that for like a year and a half.
• 5:27
  However, it was a really fun year and a half because I co-hosted with Guy Yovan, who was absolutely a delight.
• 5:33
  And the producer was Jared Toxtein, who is to love Jared.
• 5:38
  And we just laughed.
• 5:40
  We had such a great time.
• 5:42
  And then I went to the mornings briefly, and then they put me back in the overnights.
• 5:47
  Brutal.
• 5:48
  So that was a brutal, kind of like, we don't believe in you kind of a thing.
• 5:53
  And then they gave me my own show at 3 a.m. called 10 Faves.
• 5:59
  And they said, good news, you're not going to have any guests.
• 6:02
  You're going to do the hour by yourself with 10 products that you're going to have to learn 40 unguested products a week and do both sides of it.
• 6:11
  It's going to be great.
• 6:12
  And that is the one and only time I cried.
• 6:16
  Again, that show turned out to be wildly successful, lots of fun to do.
• 6:22
  And my producer was this guy named Dan.
• 6:24
  Remember Dan Paulson, who was, and I hope he's watching, crabby AF.
• 6:31
  He would say things in my ear that were horrific.
• 6:34
  And I said to him...
• 6:36
  Dan, you've got to say that out loud so everybody can hear you.
• 6:39
  And that's he started coming on and saying the things that he was saying.
• 6:43
  He's like, did you even did you even read your card?
• 6:46
  Do you even know what you're talking about?
• 6:47
  I said, no, I don't.
• 6:48
  And before the show, I would go over the products.
• 6:50
  I would say I go torture me at this product because I don't it would be a time killer.
• 6:55
  Because I had to do, I think, was it 10 minutes each?
• 6:58
  Five or 10 minutes?
• 6:59
  I mean, it was an ungodly long amount of time to do by yourself.
• 7:03
  I just remember that.
• 7:04
  But Dan became, and to me, that was like the funniest thing about the show, was the things that Dan would say privately in my ear that he was saying now publicly.
• 7:14
  And that became like a thing.
• 7:15
  That is hilarious.
• 7:16
  Dan is not by nature a funny guy.
• 7:19
  No, he's not.
• 7:20
  He's very serious.
• 7:21
  He was like that big brother that would torch you, but like secretly like cared whether you lived or died.
• 7:26
  I'll give you an example.
• 7:27
  One time I was outside in the outdoor set.
• 7:30
  I heard some rustling behind me in the bushes.
• 7:32
  Alligator?
• 7:33
  No.
• 7:34
  A crew member jumped out with a wolf mask on at me on live TV.
• 7:40
  Dan had given him money to go to like Walmart or something.
• 7:44
  I don't know, but it was before like the internet and clips and before all that.
• 7:49
  And I know somebody's got a clip of that somewhere.
• 7:52
  He also had two kids and it was hard for him working in the middle of the night too.
• 7:56
  Oh, I'm sure.
• 7:56
  Yeah, it was hard for all of us.
• 7:58
  Was there anything you liked about working the overnights?
• 8:02
  no, there absolutely was not.
• 8:03
  No, I did not like it at all.
• 8:05
  I hated it.
• 8:06
  I found this postcard that I've written my sister back in the day.
• 8:10
  And then, by the way, I have a huge disclaimer coming up.
• 8:14
  And it said like, hey, from, you know, whatever, I saw this picture on this postcard, who writes postcards anymore, and thought of you.
• 8:20
  P.S., please pray for my schedule.
• 8:23
  Like you could not be around me and not know that I was freaking miserable and I was doing the prayer committee.
• 8:29
  Yeah.
• 8:30
  My hairstylist was praying for me.
• 8:32
  My nail tech was like it was a campaign.
• 8:35
  I found my replacement.
• 8:38
  Hello?
• 8:39
  Amy Morrison, I'm talking to you.
• 8:41
  Oh, okay.
• 8:42
  Yeah.
• 8:42
  I think she was in the overnight for 15 minutes and then launched the beauty reports.
• 8:46
  She's a superstar.
• 8:47
  Same with Alice Caron for desperately wanting to get out of the morning show.
• 8:52
  She would talk about me like I was a delicious, greatest things in sliced bread.
• 8:57
  She was like, you know, you would be great in the morning show is Helen Keeney.
• 9:00
  We need to get her into how do we get her?
• 9:02
  Like she hated doing the morning show.
• 9:04
  So she pushed and pushed and pushed for me to take over.
• 9:08
  And then she quit.
• 9:09
  And then she quit altogether.
• 9:11
  Good for her.
• 9:11
  Yeah, good for her.
• 9:13
  I think it's called retiring.
• 9:14
  The golden or technobond or absolute or diamond handcuffs that keep the host there.
• 9:20
  First of all, it is a great gig.
• 9:22
  Second of all, the money is good and the benefits are good.
• 9:25
  I mean, you guys at home probably could guess that we're judged a lot on what our performance is, you know, having people watch us and buy us and things like that.
• 9:32
  But by that measure,
• 9:34
  I did extremely well, but by the how pretty you look on TV and how cool you looked and, you know, your outfits were snappy and everything.
• 9:44
  I was awful at that part of it.
• 9:47
  I was never a style icon when there were several hosts that were like, oh, my God, what's she going to wear today?
• 9:52
  And I want to be like her.
• 9:53
  That wasn't me.
• 9:54
  I was awful.
• 9:56
  It was it just wasn't I didn't realize that that was 90 percent of the job.
• 10:00
  What's so weird.
• 10:01
  OK, here comes a disclaimer is that we both had very good careers there.
• 10:07
  Yes, we did.
• 10:08
  Extremely good.
• 10:09
  You were there longer than me, actually.
• 10:11
  How long were you there?
• 10:12
  24 years.
• 10:13
  To not be fired in 24 years is an incredible achievement.
• 10:16
  It's a big deal.
• 10:17
  And when I did leave, it was because I had moved.
• 10:20
  Otherwise, I'd still be on air with DG2.
• 10:23
  Like that's that's a fact check.
• 10:24
  But here's the thing is that it is a phenomenal career.
• 10:28
  It has a lot of fun to it.
• 10:31
  It's also brutal.
• 10:33
  What would happen is you wouldn't just have this 1 to 4 a.m. shift.
• 10:37
  It would be 4 to 7 a.m., 1 to 4.
• 10:40
  like that, that, that changing was really tough.
• 10:45
  It was already tough, but then like you're changing back and forth in those valuable sleep moments.
• 10:51
  It's not healthy.
• 10:52
  Anyway, can I bring this kind of full circle back to standup comedy?
• 10:57
  So I just moved to Chicago, a city where I know zero people and I'm,
• 11:03
  Well, I was at HSN and before I was at HSN, I was a standup comic for a living.
• 11:07
  And one of the reasons I decided not to continue with HSN is I wanted to go back to doing standup full time.
• 11:12
  But I could have just stayed in Florida because everybody knew me.
• 11:16
  I was like a big fish in a little pond.
• 11:18
  I just waited for my phone to ring and I would work as much as I wanted.
• 11:21
  I had light everywhere.
• 11:22
  Nobody, nobody.
• 11:24
  You know, everybody was super nice.
• 11:26
  Can you do this?
• 11:27
  It was just, I was just like, yes or no.
• 11:28
  It was like, okay, so I moved to Chicago.
• 11:30
  Completely different story.
• 11:32
  I have this agent in New York who I knew maybe 30 years ago, 30, 25 years ago.
• 11:39
  He reached out to me kind of out of the blue when I moved here.
• 11:42
  He started helping me and booking me, which was the universe helping me.
• 11:46
  So lucky, very happy.
• 11:48
  And he got me into this top club called Zanies.
• 11:51
  It's like a top club.
• 11:52
  Very grateful.
• 11:53
  My same agent also is the agent of some of the Real Housewives and the reality shows, right?
• 12:02
  And a guy who was on the real, he was the husband of one of the big Real Housewives of New Jersey.
• 12:07
  His name is Joe Gorga, Joey Gorga.
• 12:09
  And he's married to Melissa Gorga.
• 12:11
  And in 2012, Melissa Gorga sold...
• 12:15
  jewelry at HSN.
• 12:17
  And I have a picture of me and her.
• 12:18
  We did a show.
• 12:18
  She was extremely nice.
• 12:19
  He was nice.
• 12:20
  Very beautiful woman.
• 12:21
  Beautiful.
• 12:23
  And sold jewelry.
• 12:24
  Many of the Real Housewives came on shopping channels.
• 12:28
  I could give you a list of, you know, NeNe Leakes and Ramona Singer, like a lot of them.
• 12:33
  Yeah, I was a host for Ramona, yeah.
• 12:35
  Yeah.
• 12:35
  Joey is doing stand-up at this club, Zany's, on a Saturday at 4 p.m.
• 12:41
  I don't think I've ever done a 4 p.m. show at a comedy club.
• 12:43
  But good idea because his audience is probably women that want to be in bed by 8.
• 12:48
  That's me.
• 12:49
  That's me.
• 12:50
  Yeah, that's us.
• 12:51
  I'm in.
• 12:52
  My agent is his agent.
• 12:53
  We're the same agent.
• 12:55
  So he asked me to be on the show.
• 12:57
  Yeah.
• 12:58
  And I'm like, you know, I'm like, I'm really trying to establish myself as a headliner here.
• 13:03
  I don't do, I haven't done anything but headline the past 20 years.
• 13:06
  So my agent's like, you know what?
• 13:08
  He has a lot of followers.
• 13:09
  You should do the show.
• 13:10
  Just be, you know, so, and obviously I want to make this agent happy.
• 13:15
  And I was like, I give up.
• 13:17
  Yes.
• 13:18
  You know, I was like, so I say, you know, how much, whatever.
• 13:21
  Next thing I know, we're still talking about it.
• 13:24
  Joe Gorga does a post.
• 13:28
  of him and me doing the show at Zadies.
• 13:32
  And my picture is not like a little tiny picture in the corner.
• 13:35
  It's Joe Gorga with special guest Helen Keeney and a big picture of me.
• 13:40
  And I look at his social media, a million followers, one million followers.
• 13:44
  And I have like 15 followers.
• 13:46
  I don't know.
• 13:46
  I have like 30,000, 35,000, 39,000, something.
• 13:49
  I think I looked today.
• 13:50
  And then people have come out of the woodwork like this guy who was on Comics Unleashed with me.
• 13:58
  Oh, my God, Joey.
• 13:59
  Like, he's obviously friends with him.
• 14:00
  Helly Keating and I just did Comics Unleashed together.
• 14:02
  And Joey and I, you know, partied together.
• 14:04
  Like, you guys, like, all this, like, thousands of comments.
• 14:08
  And, I mean, a million followers.
• 14:11
  Good.
• 14:11
  It's good karma paying that thing off.
• 14:13
  The full circle.
• 14:14
  Full circle moment.
• 14:15
  Full circle moment.
• 14:16
  Here in Chi-Town.
• 14:18
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• 14:21
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• 14:24
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• 14:26
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• 14:29
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• 14:40
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• 14:46
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• 14:50
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• 14:51
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• 14:52
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• 14:57
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• 15:00
  Okay, see you there.
• 15:02
  And you're starting a podcast.
• 15:04
  I am starting a podcast.
• 15:05
  It's called Everything's Funny with Helen Keedy.
• 15:08
  And it's going to launch, I hate to give a date because I'm not 100% sure, but I think the end of September.
• 15:15
  And it's kind of very focused on women comedians and women in the industry.
• 15:22
  So women comedians, women in the industry.
• 15:25
  And I think what I, I have some people that I'm super excited that are going to be on it.
• 15:32
  You know, here's what I've learned about podcasts.
• 15:34
  It doesn't hurt to ask.
• 15:36
  Absolutely.
• 15:36
  Because I know you've had like some of the most famous doctors in the world.
• 15:40
  Like, you know, you just...
• 15:42
  you're connected.
• 15:43
  Not yet, but I mean, it's nothing to sneeze at.
• 15:46
  I'm pumping you up.
• 15:48
  Yes, I have.
• 15:48
  Thank you so much.
• 15:49
  There you go.
• 15:50
  Did you find a good nail tech in Chicago?
• 15:52
  Those of you who are watching are like, why is this such a big deal?
• 15:55
  I love getting nail art.
• 15:56
  It's something that is almost like a hobby obsession.
• 15:59
  I look at nail art all the time.
• 16:01
  It's part of my brand.
• 16:03
  So here's the thing.
• 16:04
  If you're a host, you spend more time with your nail tech than you do your lover.
• 16:07
  Okay.
• 16:08
  Your day off, you get your nails done.
• 16:10
  So I find someone on Instagram, Olga, Russian artist, near where I was in my Airbnb.
• 16:18
  So my husband and I stayed in Airbnb for five weeks while we were looking for a place to buy a condo to buy.
• 16:24
  I go there.
• 16:25
  She is fantastic.
• 16:27
  She does watercolors on my nails.
• 16:32
  We get our place, we move, and I'm a 40-minute bus ride in the city.
• 16:37
  And I'm like, okay.
• 16:38
  And I plan it out, and I go there, and I ended up being 20 minutes late because I got on the bus the wrong way.
• 16:44
  And I'm so embarrassed and upset that I'm late.
• 16:46
  I say, I got to find somebody closer to me.
• 16:50
  So I Google and I walk around.
• 16:52
  We go to dinner one day and we walk by.
• 16:54
  And my husband, Eddie, he goes, well, let's walk into this place.
• 16:57
  We'll just, why don't you just ask them if they do what you.
• 16:59
  So I went in and I said, this is what I like.
• 17:02
  I like, I like gel.
• 17:04
  I have my natural nails.
• 17:05
  I like art.
• 17:07
  And they're like, yeah, we do that.
• 17:08
  So I'm going to give them a try.
• 17:11
  So I make an appointment.
• 17:12
  I go there.
• 17:14
  They take, they drill off one hand and then they go get the soak to soak it off.
• 17:21
  And I say, no, no, no, you don't ever soak these off.
• 17:23
  You just backfill them.
• 17:25
  And then, and they go, oh no, we don't do that.
• 17:29
  So I have one hand drilled off and one hand not.
• 17:34
  And they tell me they don't do it.
• 17:36
  After I stopped by, after I called, after I came in and discussed with them what I wanted.
• 17:43
  Your due diligence, yeah.
• 17:45
  So I'm walking around the streets of Chicago, and I walked into like three places, and none of them do the thing.
• 17:52
  Eddie like, you know, finds somebody, texts somebody, gets a place, gets a place.
• 17:56
  The very nice lady does it.
• 17:58
  I show her the kind of artwork I'm doing.
• 18:00
  And she's like, wow, that's incredible.
• 18:01
  I've never seen anything like that.
• 18:03
  I'm like, okay, we're getting plain, which is what I have right now.
• 18:08
  The plainest my nails have been probably in 20 years.
• 18:11
  But she completed two hands.
• 18:13
  I went home and made two appointments with Olga.
• 18:16
  Just freaking Uber over there for $150, okay?
• 18:19
  Just spend the money and the time, girl.
• 18:23
  How is the budget for the hair going?
• 18:25
  Is it more expensive than Florida?
• 18:27
  It's less expensive than Florida.
• 18:28
  I told you.
• 18:28
  I told you you were paying too much.
• 18:30
  I will say, I don't want to use the word too much.
• 18:33
  I was paying what, you know, people decide what they're worth.
• 18:38
  You were paying what the market would bear.
• 18:40
  I was paying what she was worth for that market.
• 18:45
  And it's not that different in Chicago.
• 18:48
  It's similar.
• 18:49
  I would say...
• 18:52
  similar, a little bit less, maybe 30% less.
• 18:56
  But I carefully looked at prices, and I was not going to continue to pay.
• 19:02
  I would have stopped doing it.
• 19:04
  I find that hard to believe.
• 19:05
  Okay, you caught me.
• 19:06
  I was lying.
• 19:06
  I would have taught my husband how to do it.
• 19:08
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:09
  Absolutely.
• 19:10
  Because he did do it during the pandemic.
• 19:12
  He was not a fan of what it looked like, but it looked great on TV.
• 19:15
  I'll tell you that.
• 19:15
  That's all we care about sometimes.
• 19:16
  That's all we care about.
• 19:17
  Because the pandemic, I was still on TV every single day.
• 19:20
  I got a letter saying that I was an essential worker.
• 19:24
  Sit with that for a moment.
• 19:25
  Congratulations.
• 19:27
  But I think me being on TV kept people employed.
• 19:30
  Absolutely.
• 19:31
  If the host did not risk their lives, then all the people that worked at home would not have had paychecks.
• 19:37
  You're truly an American hero, Helen Keeney.
• 19:40
  I don't disagree with that.
• 19:41
  I remember one year I was negotiating my contract and I had never colored my hair until I got to HSN.
• 19:47
  Oh, really?
• 19:48
  One negotiation, I was like, OK, that's fine, whatever.
• 19:51
  But I'm not paying two grand a year to color my hair.
• 19:54
  Like, that's just not happening.
• 19:55
  And they gave it to me.
• 19:57
  I was like, two grand, no.
• 20:00
  Give me the money.
• 20:01
  Over the years, that budget included your clothes, your makeup, and they gave you a chunk of money.
• 20:08
  So the shock of not there was many things that I miss about the job.
• 20:12
  The number one thing is having someone else pay for my hair and my nails.
• 20:17
  It felt like I had a sugar daddy, to be honest.
• 20:20
  Paid all my bills, but I paid for it.
• 20:23
  There was a toll.
• 20:24
  Being a host on HSN, Home Shopping Network, HSN, for those of you who are like, I have no idea what these women are talking about.
• 20:31
  What I used to say also to the new people that would come on, I'm like, it's endurance once you get the skill set.
• 20:37
  And then also be nice to your crew, you know, show up on time, call Jen Kelly back.
• 20:43
  By the way, it's her birthday today.
• 20:44
  Happy birthday, Jen Kelly, who was our scheduler.
• 20:46
  Oh, is it really?
• 20:47
  Yeah.
• 20:48
  She was, by the way, the most important person.
• 20:49
  The scheduler most important person.
• 20:52
  When she left short term, the whole department collapsed.
• 20:56
  She was empathetic.
• 20:57
  I asked her to come back.
• 20:58
  She knew my daughter's birthday, doctor's appointments, when her school started, what time she got out of school.
• 21:05
  She knew intricacies of my life and brilliantly made it pop.
• 21:10
  If it wasn't for her, I don't think I would be able to have kept that job so long.
• 21:16
  I agree.
• 21:16
  No, I really agree.
• 21:17
  She made it work.
• 21:19
  And you better be nice to her, man.
• 21:20
  And she's still there to this day.
• 21:22
  So what happened was HSN sold to QVC, for those of you who don't know or care, we understand.
• 21:29
  And they maintained campus in St. Pete, Florida, one of the largest employers there.
• 21:37
  And then they closed the campus and moved a smaller group to Pennsylvania at the QVC campus.
• 21:46
  They offered every host who was there to continue with their job.
• 21:50
  I personally said thank you, but no thank you, because I had had it in my head for probably two years.
• 21:56
  I want to go back to doing stand-up full-time, and it was the push I needed.
• 21:59
  I'm not saying it wasn't scary, because I know it is.
• 22:02
  To be honest, and this is a note to anyone in show business, when you're making money, save your money.
• 22:09
  And when I was making money, I saved my money.
• 22:13
  That's all I'm saying.
• 22:14
  That's very, very good.
• 22:16
  When you get later on in life, it gives you freedom.
• 22:19
  And I knew lots of people who did not save their money who are making more money than me.
• 22:24
  My dad always used to say it was easy to make money.
• 22:26
  It was hard to save money.
• 22:27
  It's hard not to go, oh, I'm going to buy that huge fancy car because I can pay, I can afford it.
• 22:32
  It's I'm going to buy that huge fancy house.
• 22:34
  I can afford it.
• 22:35
  If you live just...
• 22:37
  a tick below your means and save that, you can, you know, have the freedom to make choices.
• 22:43
  And there's lots of industries, Siobhan, that have high income, then no income.
• 22:49
  I don't think it's just show business that you make high, high income, no, no income, you know, and it's and the personalities in entertainment show business aren't usually the I'm going to be, you know,
• 23:01
  Uh, practical.
• 23:02
  We're not a practical bunch, Shavad.
• 23:04
  You're not a practical bunch.
• 23:06
  I'm including you in the entertainment industry.
• 23:08
  Okay, thanks.
• 23:09
  Yeah.
• 23:10
  I did not have an expensive mortgage when I lived in Florida, and that was like, I was not house poor.
• 23:16
  And that worked out really well for us.
• 23:18
  That worked out.
• 23:19
  That was a wise, that was a very wise move.
• 23:22
  I made some unwise moves as well, by the way.
• 23:24
  I don't want you to...
• 23:25
  I recall some of those.
• 23:26
  Yes.
• 23:26
  So just to let everybody know, this is not somebody who's made fantastic financial moves their entire life.
• 23:32
  This is someone who's made disastrous financial moves and then had to pay the price.
• 23:37
  So luckily, it wasn't too late for me to recover.
• 23:41
  And I have the steam running through my show that it's never too late.
• 23:46
  But you have to hustle.
• 23:47
  I mean, you have to work at plan, you know.
• 23:49
  By the way, I watch your show and I watch the clips on social media.
• 23:52
  Oh, my God.
• 23:53
  And I feel like I have every problem.
• 23:55
  There was a lady talking about mold and I was like, that's it.
• 23:58
  It's mold.
• 23:59
  I knew it.
• 24:00
  Like every like I'm the person who like listen, like everything you talk about.
• 24:05
  I think I've got that.
• 24:06
  I'm so sorry because some of the things are really annoying, but I do remember the coffee pot at HSN that was making you sick.
• 24:13
  Oh, gosh.
• 24:14
  That's right.
• 24:14
  I think there was some serious mold going on over there.
• 24:17
  Oh, yeah.
• 24:17
  And you used to get sick from drinking out of that coffee pot.
• 24:20
  Moving to a new city, I've had some...
• 24:24
  You know, like mystery, you know, mystery thing.
• 24:27
  Like I got a cold and I thought, who gets a cold in in August in Chicago?
• 24:32
  OK, well, David and I were recovering from the flu after 12, 14 days.
• 24:36
  So we told me that.
• 24:37
  And that made me feel better, actually, because I thought I've done something wrong because you don't even even if you decide to get a flu shot or not.
• 24:43
  No, it says get your flu shot in June.
• 24:45
  You know, it's usually late, you know, or I and by the way, they tested me for everything.
• 24:50
  And I the lady at the urgent care was like, you have a cold.
• 24:53
  I was like, what?
• 24:56
  I was kind of disappointed that I didn't have anything else.
• 24:58
  You don't have anything exotic.
• 25:00
  The other thing that I think a lot of people wonder about with home shopping is, are we scripted?
• 25:06
  And the answer is no.
• 25:08
  We have those blue cards or have those blue cards and it's who, what, where, when, why, and how.
• 25:13
  And the calls are real.
• 25:15
  And it is very closely monitored by the FTC.
• 25:18
  And...
• 25:21
  It's someone's talking to your ear the whole time and you're trying to be aspirational and mildly entertaining and get the problem solving out there.
• 25:31
  QVC is the number one last I looked TikTok live seller on TikTok, which I think is fantastic.
• 25:37
  That's great.
• 25:39
  HSN came first, then QVC.
• 25:41
  HSN is the OG.
• 25:43
  QVC surpassed it.
• 25:45
  in financial success and then some.
• 25:48
  Yeah.
• 25:48
  Then they gobbled it up after, you know, many decades.
• 25:52
  So I don't know what their future holds, but I certainly wish everyone there all the best.
• 25:57
  All the best.
• 25:58
  Can I just say, everybody watching this podcast, before the podcast, I said, I don't want to talk about the shopping channels.
• 26:02
  And that's all we've talked about.
• 26:04
  So ignore me.
• 26:05
  But I do want to bring this up.
• 26:07
  So recently, there was a blooper on QVC.
• 26:10
  Tony Bratton, we love you.
• 26:12
  We love Tony Bratton.
• 26:13
  One of the models, Donna, is somebody who I'm friends with, and she's a model at HSN for forever.
• 26:20
  So there's been many a blooper, but this is the first time the network leaned into it and promoted QVC.
• 26:29
  She was on Jimmy Fallon!
• 26:31
  100%.
• 26:31
  And also, they put the blooper on the QVC page.
• 26:36
  And I felt like that was something that I was pushing for, for decades, that people want to see that it's live and things happen and it's not on purpose.
• 26:51
  And I think that's what makes it so riveting that we're just talking off the top of our head 24 hours a day.
• 26:57
  Like when we are talking at 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.,
• 27:01
  And we're half out of our mind from not sleeping.
• 27:03
  What all the stuff we're saying is 90% of that could have been on the blooper reel, you know.
• 27:09
  And the fact that they did that, I felt like maybe it was learning.
• 27:15
  The way they leaned into it.
• 27:16
  And it's an industry that Siobhan and I both love, even though we're currently not working in it.
• 27:22
  We love it and support it and want it to be successful.
• 27:24
  I still buy stuff from them.
• 27:26
  I felt like that gave me hope that there was a future that that people would be like, oh, I should watch even if I'm not buying every single thing.
• 27:35
  Funny things are happening.
• 27:37
  It's interesting.
• 27:38
  And that's my two cents about that.
• 27:40
  I think it's very exciting.
• 27:41
  So Tony Bratton had this blooper where she talked about.
• 27:45
  having her hair, a wig, but you don't have to get your... A blow dry.
• 27:50
  You don't have to get a blow dry.
• 27:52
  But she didn't say dry by mistake.
• 27:54
  You just see the back of her and you can tell she's like laughing and she's like, oh, you know, like I want to go invisible.
• 28:00
  And then she like slumps down.
• 28:01
  And Donnie Bratton is a hardcore...
• 28:04
  performer, OG shopping channel.
• 28:07
  She has been doing it.
• 28:09
  True Blue, lovely, lovely.
• 28:12
  Like, I'm so glad it was her.
• 28:13
  Yeah, inside and out.
• 28:14
  And they leaned into it, and I'm so glad because it does, for me, also symbolize hope and their savviness of being more with the times.
• 28:24
  And I hope that they can continue to evolve.
• 28:28
  I really do.
• 28:29
  I really, really do.
• 28:30
  I do, too.
• 28:30
  They've made some major changes.
• 28:32
  Yeah.
• 28:32
  They filed for Chapter 11 and they are out of bankruptcy now.
• 28:36
  And they have got a new CEO who is an old CEO, someone who was a CEO for 12 years, they have reinstated.
• 28:43
  So maybe they're trying to embrace like what made them successful in the first place while also embracing the future.
• 28:50
  I hope so, because if they get it right, there's no reason why it couldn't go really, really well as long as they get it right, engage the social channels, continue to improve the product.
• 29:01
  Well, they were the original.
• 29:04
  I mean, HSN, it was the original Bob Sercosta selling those toasters.
• 29:10
  Can openers.
• 29:10
  Can openers, yeah, on the radio.
• 29:12
  On the radio, it was the moment of the birth of this entire industry.
• 29:19
  Including all the TikTokers now selling stuff.
• 29:22
  Totally.
• 29:22
  Social selling.
• 29:23
  Gary Vee calling it out.
• 29:25
  Good for you.
• 29:25
  Yeah.
• 29:27
  So I just, I really hope it all works out.
• 29:29
  Do you remember British?
• 29:31
  British 4.
• 29:32
  Yes.
• 29:32
  We started the same day.
• 29:34
  So she is a very successful TikTok selling.
• 29:38
  She has a little, it's almost like she's got her own channel because you'll tune in and watch her live and,
• 29:43
  And I think that is such a smart move.
• 29:46
  She's fantastic at that.
• 29:47
  She's a great, great person.
• 29:49
  Great.
• 29:50
  Knows how to describe a product so that people know whether or not they buy it, which is a whole skill.
• 29:55
  So she's got, I've been watching her a lot.
• 29:57
  Everybody at home, you should watch her.
• 29:59
  British Ford.
• 29:59
  So British and I started the same day.
• 30:01
  I thought it was British Hill.
• 30:02
  Her maiden name was Ford.
• 30:05
  Anyway, we also clung to the same raft as we started there.
• 30:10
  And Tina Berry took us under her wing and helped us so much.
• 30:15
  So I actually went to Washington, D.C. to do the doll show.
• 30:20
  I walked the floor.
• 30:21
  Oh, my God.
• 30:22
  You've never told me this.
• 30:23
  That was a trip.
• 30:24
  Was Marie Osmond there?
• 30:26
  Marie was not there.
• 30:27
  Gloria Vanderbilt was.
• 30:29
  Because the doll thing, for those of you who are watching, who haven't watched shopping channels since the day it was birthed, born, was...
• 30:39
  Dolls were a huge part of it.
• 30:40
  Collectibles.
• 30:41
  Collectibles.
• 30:42
  Yep.
• 30:42
  Yeah.
• 30:42
  Oh my gosh.
• 30:43
  What's the hardest thing you ever had to sell?
• 30:45
  Ever had to present?
• 30:47
  What's the worst thing I ever had to sell?
• 30:48
  Or the most difficult to get behind?
• 30:51
  Well, you know, I'm pretty actually easily amused, so I had a really good time selling most things.
• 30:57
  But for some reason, one Christmas season, they had some really ugly flashlights that were like the stocking stuffer gift.
• 31:04
  And, you know, leopard print can be done well or poorly.
• 31:08
  And these were the ugliest leopard print flashlights.
• 31:12
  And for some reason, the time slot, like, it followed me around.
• 31:15
  I probably sold them eight times in ten days.
• 31:18
  Yeah.
• 31:19
  Oh, my gosh.
• 31:19
  I was just like...
• 31:21
  I don't want to talk about these.
• 31:22
  I never want to see these again.
• 31:23
  These are hideous.
• 31:25
  Of course, I didn't say that.
• 31:26
  Right.
• 31:27
  But I will tell you right now, I would buy a leopard flashlight.
• 31:29
  Well, no, it's a great idea.
• 31:31
  100%.
• 31:33
  Obviously, it's a great idea.
• 31:34
  Come on.
• 31:34
  It was just not, they didn't execute it.
• 31:36
  It was not executed well.
• 31:38
  And I'm sure the buyer felt the same way about it, but they had a bazillion of them and they had to unload them.
• 31:43
  And for some reason, I kept getting them and I was just like, can I...
• 31:49
  Anyway, it's weird.
• 31:50
  Of all of those things, that's the one I remember.
• 31:53
  Helen, what was the weirdest thing?
• 31:54
  I did a show with Tony Little, who is America's personal trainer, very famous.
• 32:01
  And he had a massager that was shaped like this microphone that vibrated.
• 32:07
  Oh, dear.
• 32:08
  And him and I are like two-year-olds when we get together.
• 32:12
  And we could not make eye contact because we were laughing so hard.
• 32:16
  He was representing a very excellent brand of home health items, but it was the shape of it and it vibrated.
• 32:31
  And then you push the button and it was on the table and it was like...
• 32:35
  I mean, I'm pretty good at holding it together, but that was hard.
• 32:37
  That was the most difficult, no pun intended.
• 32:39
  It did well.
• 32:40
  People wanted it.
• 32:43
  You're a delight.
• 32:44
  I love you so much.
• 32:45
  Love you back.
• 32:45
  Thank you so much.
• 32:47
  Thank you so much.
• 32:47
  All right, everyone, go find HelenKeeny.com.
• 32:50
  You can see where she is headlining.
• 32:53
  I'm going to be headlining the Kenosha Comedy Club in Kenosha, Wisconsin, September 18th and 19th.
• 32:59
  And I'm very excited.
• 33:01
  Excellent.
• 33:02
  Follow her on social media as well as follow her podcast that's coming out.
• 33:07
  And it is called?
• 33:08
  Everything's Funny with Helen Keeney.
• 33:10
  And on Instagram, I'm the official Helen Keeney.
• 33:13
  And on Facebook, I'm Helen Keeney Comedy.
• 33:15
  Excellent.
• 33:16
  All right.
• 33:16
  I love you.
• 33:16
  I'll talk to you later.
• 33:17
  Thanks, everybody.
• 33:18
  See you next time.
• 33:19
  So that's a wrap on today's episode.
• 33:21
  Thank you so much for being here.
• 33:22
  It genuinely means everything to me.
• 33:25
  If something in this conversation sparks something for you, share it with a woman or a guy in your life who needs to hear it.
• 33:31
  That's how this show grows.
• 33:33
  That's how we heal the planet together.
• 33:35
  And that's how we really connect.
• 33:36
  For more resources, free tools, and everything we talked about today, head over to sivansarna.com.
• 33:41
  That's S-H-I-V-A-N-S-A-R-N-A dot com.
• 33:46
  It's all there waiting for you.
• 33:47
  And until next time, keep asking the questions, keep finding the answers.
• 33:51
  You deserve the full picture and the very best.
• 33:54
  Namaste.