Like many of my colleagues, I have a love-hate relationship with press conferences. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an honor to be invited to the party with the big guns. It’s just that everyone, including the megalithic outlets, all leave with the same answers to the same questions.
Before the age of “instant everything,” the press conference concept was the very height of progress. Now, your fingers must move with the speed of greased lighting to get the information to your audience before they click away to another mobile outlet.
In the second act of “Magic Mike XXL,” a hilarious drag queen, Tori Snatch (Vicky Vox), shouts out a warning to all in ear shot not to “mess with the mojo, especially on the last ride”—sage advice!
As the press conference roared to a close, my colleagues and I rushed to the table to ask our questions. My recorder in hand, here is what I asked Tatum and Carolin.
AmNews: Channing, April 26, what’s your mojo?
Tatum: What’s my what? My mojo (laughing). “My mojo,” well, I don’t really know. What does “mojo” mean?
April 26, you’re blushing. Mojo means magic, and you’re “Magic Mike,” and you co-wrote one of the funniest lines in the film that talks about “mojo.” Reid, you and Channing wrote one of the funniest lines that I’ve heard all summer and it’s delivered by one of the funniest characters, Tori Snatch. I woke up laughing So what’s your mojo?
Carolin: (laughing) Damn, that’s a good question. My mojo is just trying to keep myself centered. That’s a weird thing to say, but if—and this is a lot of what the characters are going through—if they are learning not to judge things, right away, that’s what the conversation in the van is about. If they are not relying on their snap judgements but are actually sitting there, and listening, and letting life kind of show them what the right answer is, then they will probably find it, and it’s probably not going to be the one that they were thinking that they would find, and that’s my mojo.