TED talks are a pretty big deal. People like Steve Jobs and Stephen Hawking have given TED talks. Anyone else would be a nervous wreck right now but Rob manages to keep his cool and makes jokes about how small my pants look on me.
We're downstairs now, Rob and Tamie are reaching out to their peoples to make sure they're watching online when he goes up.
We have about an hour to kill so Rob does a practice run of his talk. He's performing with Poetri Smith. Poetri's a slam poet, actor, comedian and also happens to be creative genius Jimmy Smith's brother.
Rob says to me "Hey Jorge, wanna see Poetri's acting debut?" THIS IS HIS ACTING DEBUT.
We take the long walk over to the ballroom where everyone's waiting for Rob and Poetri to arrive.
The ballroom's quiet and everyone watches us walk in. Its a small crowd of other TED speakers and their attendees.
Rob gets his mic on and heads towards the stage.
Rob starts telling his story and almost immediately everyone starts gasping in shock. He talks about going to prison, having a daughter, working in advertising, and how mad Kanye was because the Coraline Dunks Rob designed were the first Nike shoes with glow in the dark soles. Yeezy's will forever be second.
I'll always be proud to say I was there when Hep gave his first TED talk. I know it won't be his last. He killed it. (If you missed it will be posted on youtube soon, I will post it on here as soon as it is available)
Good eye contact Rob.
Poetri recites an awesome poem about monsters that live inside of us. We can all relate.
Twenty minutes later we're at Sacramento International Airport dropping Rob and Tamie off. They're hurrying back to LA because they have reservations at Chateau Marmont for tonight. (Humble Brag)
