I had also developed another little plan: as part of my act, I was going to act as if the speaker were George Washington. I in turn would act as if I were Ronald Reagan conducting an interview of George Washington. I began speaking in a raspy voice which I thought would approximate Reagan's voice, "Well first I would like to say I would like to conduct an interview of you, Mr. Washington."

A roar of approval went up from the crowd as everyone seemed to have immediately recognized that I was impersonating Ronald Reagan. I then made it clear to the speaker that he was also part of the act and that he was to play George Washington. His position seemed to dictate that he go along with me, and he immediately assumed the role of Washington.

I began asking questions as if I (as Ronald Reagan) were a reporter conducting an interview of George Washington. I tried to make the questions as amusing as possible because it seemed that the main goal of what we were doing was to have fun. The speaker answered and the audience laughed several times. Since I did not have any prepared script, I had to think up the questions quickly. Some questions met with more success than others.

Recalling a story I had recently read in a news magazine, I asked something like, "Mr. President, there have been some reports that some of the rooms in the White House are haunted. And Nancy, who is a little (I made a motion with my eyes and a kind of humming sound as if to say that Nancy Reagan was slightly mentally unbalanced) anyway, sat out in front of your room one night and said she saw your ghost three times. Is that true?"

The speaker in his role as Washington answered the question. I was thinking that I also wanted to ask a question about Abe Lincoln, to see if Washington ever came in contact with Lincoln in the world where he was.

I continued asking questions and at one point when the speaker answered, the audience broke into a deafening laughter. I hollered out to the speaker, "So you're the one who is responsible for the mess today?"

The noise was so loud, only a couple people right next to me could hear me. When the room finally quieted down again, I thought it would be backward to say the same thing over so that people could hear me, so I rephrased the question to say, "Do you take responsibility for the situation today?"

After the speaker answered, I continued asking more questions. I tried to make sure I said "Mr. President" instead of "Mr. Washington" when I addressed him, since I thought that was more proper, but I slipped a few times and said "Mr. Washington." Gradually he had moved around the room and was finally standing not far from me on my left. I thought the interview had probably already lasted about 15 minutes, which was long enough, so I said basically, "Well, I'm going to close the interview now, but before I go, I'd like to know, Mr. President, if you could give me some constructive criticisms. But No. No. Forget that. I never ask for criticism. Thank you. Good bye."

The audience began laughing and loudly applauding. I was surprised that they had liked me so much. As they applauded, I also noticed they were making a sound which sounded like "Mmmmmmmmmm." Since I did not know what that meant, I turned to my friend sitting next to me and asked, "What in the hell does that mean?"

He said the sound meant they thought what I had done was delicious. I felt good. I thought maybe a prize was going to be given for the best impression and I had a good chance of winning it.