Last week I was working late making deliveries and throughout the day I drank a ton of coffee and a ton of water--which means frequent stops to the boy’s room. At around 8:30pm, I pulled over to the Vauxhaul rest-stop on the Parkway and when I came out, there was Rick Holmes--reporter for Channel 12 News and a cameraman interviewing travelers on the upcoming gas price hikes for 4th of July.

I asked them if they remembered who I was and when I explained it, they did…I served the News 12 crew a meatball breakfast about 4 years ago live on the morning show from my cart at their Edison studios. They said I was a real character and boom--on the fly--I did a segment where we discussed how the gas prices affected me in my business and meatball truck.

Unfortunately, I was not driving the black & gold GMC Ball Bus for them to film, I had my plain white Ford delivery van but they did shoot me driving away in the van holding my Johnny Meatballs baseball cap which was the only “JM” thing I had on me (but I always have something and I am always ready to promote.) I am trying to set up a “Food Truck Friday” visit to their studios with the Bus, check back for when that comes together…but the reason I am sharing this is that they could have been interviewing people on ANY topic, it did not matter. And to be honest, I wasn’t even really aware of the rising cost of gas but I saw a camera and a microphone and that was yet another chance for me get on TV.

Even when I am not trying or seeking them out, I find the cameras so my point to all entrepreneurs, aspiring stars, people with businesses whether it’s related to food biz or show biz (which often coincide for me), or any biz is this…always be ready…never, ever miss a chance and there is nothing wrong with shameless self promotion 24/7. By me being that “character,” the tone never comes across as me just trying to get a free commercial--my conversational and entertaining approach makes for good TV which helps any producer producing any show--be it news, reality series, cooking show, whatever.

But simultaneously, I am indeed getting that plug and publicity and even imperfect, unrehearsed and on-the-fly press is good press. Even BAD press is good press, believe me because you can always SPIN it. Moral of the story is if you are running a company and want to sell a product or service, your world is a stage, you are a public figure whether you want to be or not in 2014. Whether that’s on a local or national scale in the age we live in of social media where anything can go viral at anytime, and you never know who may see you and offer yet another opportunity for a collaboration which can then lead to serious fame and fortune. In that particular span of ten minutes, I thank my weak bladder for producing 15 seconds of screen time yet again for yours truly.

Fast forward to Sunday June 29, 10:30pm, my return to national primetime reality TV in the new hit Spike cooking competition program “Frankenfood.”  

I have been promoting this thing for months with status updates, creative memes and notes, maybe giving the impression to some of you out there that I was in the entire episode or that I had won the $10,000 grand prize for inventing the next big monster mash-up dish. Rule #2 in business is to make things big--bigger than they are--the buildup is even more important than the end result…Sizzle before the steak. (That is, of course when you have something planned that you can promote over time and are not just walking out of a rest-stop bathroom.) I filmed my segment for 18 hours over 2 days and it was all condensed down to maybe 5-7 minutes. I lost.

The world famous “Cheesesteak King of Philly” Tony Luke Jr. and gourmet chef Josh Capon shot down my entrée like it was a rotten apple with a worm coming out of it. (No disrespect to the champion--a spunky gal who won with her “Apple That Went To Brunch” which was a cored-out apple filled with oatmeal and bacon and not quite sure what else.)

Do I have any regrets? Absolutely not. It was an amazing experience and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. The reaction from social media has all been positive and one friend in particular pointed out to me that the judges main flaw was that my sandwich did not contain enough meatballs--which was actually a compliment if you think about it. I was very fortunate to open the show and represent New Jersey after being featured in the commercial several times over the past week which was once again millions of dollars worth of screen time reaching new fans (potential customers) who now know the “Johnny Meatballs” name/brand.

I have said it various times before, it was not an accident that I used my shot on Vh1’s “My Big Friggin’ Wedding” in 2009 and 2010 to create Johnny Meatballs and seize every snippet of air time to talk about JM related stuff even though it was a wedding show. And it was no accident that I created this character so as not to come across and just some guy with a business agenda who was trying to hawk but rather a figure who was indeed an entertainer who just happened to have something to sell which was a meatball sandwich. That is once again what occurred with Spike TV and why I chose to do this whole escapade even though many folks did write to me and say I was nuts--no pun intended.

Speaking of nuts, in case you did not catch the show, the “Nutball” sandwich was my creation. You are probably scratching your head with that and may have been a little stunned to see such a thing but remember, this show is FRANKENFOOD, we had to create weird, scary, MONSTER MASHUPS. And the channel is SPIKE--manly, rough, sloppy! All the dishes look crazy, the idea is: do they mesh together to create something tasty or terrifying???!!!!!

At this time I will share a very brief back-story. The Nutball Sandwich (crushed-up balls with crushed-up peanuts, jelly sauce on deep-fried white bread--which was supposed to be a mesh of Italian-American and American classics) was a bit oily as noted by my “I can blot out the grease for you” commentary/demonstration which accompanied my presentation. No it was not really something I was totally proud of or would choose to eat. But it was a last minute entrée/entry after my first one was deemed not “Frankenfood” enough. What was that?

Well, something I was indeed VERY proud of, was VERY delicious and was the item I was truly hoping to showcase to America. “The Sunday Gravy/Sauce Pot On A Roll” which was co-invented by Frankie Antipasto--my meatball sandwich with bracioles and sausages on it--all the contents of the pot of red stuff. Maybe if we put jelly beans on it they would have accepted it, but it was just not a crazy combo for primetime by their standards. Frankie, the sensitive chef that he is, was a little insulted and dropped out which takes us to my solo appearance with the “Nutball.” Maybe I will sell both things off the Ball Bus or maybe I will just stick to the original that I do best. Time will tell.

But in the meantime, what I hope you all get from this blog is that I am never going to turn my nose up at an opportunity at the spotlight whether it’s the evening news or a wacky gameshow. I LOVE the spotlight, I crave it like you all crave my balls. The real balls. Which I will be back in action serving up real soon. They say the third time is the charm, so my hope is that I can still spin this into my own show. Again, I have no regrets and I cooked my balls off even if it did not seem that way. Look, I was shown in a few not-so-great lights on Vh1 and that did not hurt me and as we get more removed from this show, at the end of the day when all the initial shock is stripped away this will all stand for exactly what I wanted it to be. What most viewers will remember is this: Johnny Meatballs was back on national TV.

I can now state the claim that I have officially starred in 2 reality shows on 2 networks--something very few street food vendors or anyone for that matter can say. It’s all about the lights, camera action. I thank you all for your continued words of support and encouragement…To any “haters” out there, keep on hatin’ and I will just keep on meatballin.’ You may think I am nuts but I will be back better than ever…that’s a promise.

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Frankenfood “Taste of the Turnpike” will re-air on 4th of July morning at 11am in case you missed it or wanna tune in to relive every scary second. Full episode should also be found online at www.spike.com