WHAT four-time Emmy Award-winning TV host has been a major figure in the lifestyle, food, travel, consumer, sports, news, and celebrity reporting arenas for more than 25 years? Bill Boggs. As host of the New York based Midday Live with Bill Boggs and Weekend Today In New York (along with the long-running Food Network hit, Bill Boggs Corner Table), Bill has interviewed many of the most notable personalities of our time - including cultural icons, presidents, international leaders, writers, athletes, celebrity chefs, and food critics – not to mention a movie star or two! Boggs is the host and creator of Home Cooked Classics, a TV series scheduled to debut on PBS in 2006. He's also currently serving as the energetic on stage force behind Simon Super Chefs Live, a 24-city culinary food and wine show presented around the country in Simon Malls. He pioneered the first-ever national restaurant review show, TV Diners on Food Network. He’s interviewed notable guests on CNBC's Let's Talk Stock and also on Historic Traveler and Freeze Frame (on the Travel Channel). In 2003, Boggs debuted in his acclaimed one-man Off Broadway show, Talk Show Confidential, now playing at the Triad Theater in NYC. It’s the first theatrical production of its kind, dealing with the alternately bizarre and inspiring world of talk shows. And it offers everything from celeb gossip to inspirational personal stories. He is a featured columnist for The Good Life Magazine, Crush Magazine and Black Tie International Magazine and has written several pieces for The New York Times. He is currently working on a book, WHAT IT TAKES, based on his interviews with leaders in their fields, to be published by HARPERCOLLINS in the spring of 2007.

Interviewed by Joanna Parson

Tell us about your show, Talk Show Confidential.
It's a show about behind the scenes in the world of TV talk shows--a mixed-media comedy show, really, and it has a denounement that takes it in a totally different direction, one that people find inspiring...cause I get into some of the things that have helped me over the years that have been said to me by people I've interviewed. And I've interviewed about 8000 or so guests in thirty years on TV.

When did you first have the idea to put together a show?
I was still doing "Bill Boggs Corner Table" on Food Network, and my colleague, Jacques Pepin, suggested I give a talk on Crystal Cruises. I arranged to do that, calling it, "Confessions of a Talk Show Host." Well, the stories, which are all true and funny, really played well. And when I came back I made a vow to do a complete, so called, "one man show" and we got under written byEric Krebs at the John Houseman Theater where we first developed "Talk Show Confidential."

I went to my video vaults and photo archives to get some clips, so we've got stuff in the show ranging from Fergie to Mike Tyson, from Jerry Springer to Sophia Loren and Whoopi Goldberg.

Story telling has always been a passion of mine. When I was in "Our Sinatra" prior to Talk Show Confidential, they took out a few songs to allow time for some of my stories about Sinatra, when I interviewed him and so forth.

You’ve been a talk show host, news host, and television personality for decades – what new skills did you find you needed to cultivate in order to successfully create and run the show?
Actually, just being sure I have the stamina to deliver the goods for 80 minutes--I've been on stage all my life since about age eight, and I've developed the skills to keep people focused. I also had to master some technical stuff, with the videos in the show and the music cues--we have a pianist, Anna Dagmar, and the comedian Stephen Scott has a role recreating an interview situation.

You’ve also had acting opportunities in the past. How did those experiences prepare you for Talk Show Confidential? What’s different about performing by yourself?
I think recreating situations and becoming the other people I need to inhabit in the show--woman and men--is an innate thing I can do...I have a gift for mimicry. It's easier for me to do this because I am recreating situations I have lived. So this for me is not as difficult as when I did "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," or "Come Blow Your Horn."

Describe your process in writing the show. Did you work with a director from the beginning, or write on your own and later bring in collaborators?
I went back to Philadelphia and the table where I used to do my homework and wrote out the body of the show--the organization and the stories I wanted to tell. I have never written out the stories, they are in my head, but it would have stayed at one level without the input of my director, Jeffrey Moss, whom I met when I performed in a cabaret production of his at The St regis Hotel.

He deserves major credit for the ending and the pacing, and the over-arching meaning of the show.

What is it that excites you about an intimate face-to-face venue like the Triad Theater?
I've been a specialist in live TV, and stage work is like that--no safety net. The possibility to go out there and hold 100 people in one's grasp for more than an hour is a thrill that never, ever, diminishes for me.

How did you decide which video clips to use in the show?
I just went with ones I thought would get a laugh.

How did Talk Show Confidential inspire your upcoming book, Got What It Takes?
After the show, week after week, people said to me, "you have to write a book about this." So I did.

"Got What it Takes?" is based on my interviews with 44 stars in different fields, and the thrust of the interviews I did was to find out about the internal components that helped them to be successful, the lessons they've learned along the way. The subtitle to the book is "successful people on how they made it to the top."

I'm going to take a lot of what's in the book, combine it with a little comedy material from the show and do a speaking tour to colleges and corporations with the stuff that's in there. It's really powerful.

For the book, you interviewed over 44 leaders in their fields about what it takes to achieve success, including actors and performers like Renee Zellweger, Brooke Shields, and Peter Cincotti. In your opinion, are there similar character traits and attitudes in the entertainers profiled in your book, that actors can learn from and emulate?
Having the will to prevail. Believing in oneself when others doubt you, following your passion, doing what you do for love of the work, not pursuit of "fame," --those things are just the tip of the iceberg of wisdom that's in the book. I think that the book will help anyone who wants to do something with their life.

Talk Show Confidential is peppered with rare video clips from interviews you’ve done over the years with entertainment legends like Natalie Wood and Frank Sinatra. In your book, you talk with leaders of today. Do you think there’s been a difference over time in the way performers discuss and think about their work?
No. The work itself changes because of tastes, styles, evolution of the craft, but we still talk about it and ourselves in the same way

You started in television when you were a young man. What advice do you have for young people hoping to break into television news today?
Go to a small market and get as many responsibilities as you can... don't go looking for a break in the big city - go local and learn and grow and move forward from that position.

You’ve hosted many successful talk shows, including Corner Table with Bill Boggs on the Food Network. What advice do you have for actors who believe they have what it takes to be a host in today’s TV environment? What does it take?
The ability to put yourself in second position every day to your guests, and to listen, listen, listen while they are speaking, and to have fun in the process...

In your show and book, you talk about the mindsets that successful people share. One is the willingness to take risks. How should young actors approach risk?
I think that risk and fearlessness are a crucial part of the basic tools an actor needs...look at BORAT.

You also ask successful people how they triumph over insecurities and self-defeating attitudes. How can young actors motivate themselves when their confidence dips?
Take it one day at a time. Focus on the best work you've done when you have doubts. Never think that others are not feeling the same insecure feelings. Help someone with less experience.

What would Frank Sinatra tell actors who are reading this interview and hoping to gain some insight into the life of a performer?
Go out there and have a good time!

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