BROOKE GLADSTONE: Pleasing your audience can be tough, especially if you have a particularly demanding audience of one. That's the biggest hurdle faced by celebrity interviewers. Rock stars and A-list actors can be impenetrable fortresses, but Jancee Dunn knows how to break down their barricades. As a longstanding Rolling Stone interviewer and erstwhile MTV vee-jay, she's penned a sort of field manual of tactics for teasing out that crucial quote. It's also a personal memoir, a tribute to New Jersey and a heap of delicious dish, called But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous. Jancee, welcome to the show.

JANCEE DUNN: Thank you so much.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So your book actually is part memoir and part how-to, and both parts, by the way, are brilliant and hilarious. But for our show, it makes sense to focus on the how-to part, specifically how to or how not to interview famous people. Your opening chapter is called "How to Jolly Up a Surly, Hung-Over Band During an Interview." You're meeting them in the morning after a show, and what?

JANCEE DUNN: I was both a reporter for Rolling Stone and a vee-jay on MTV2. And they would schedule these interviews that I would have with musicians in the morning, which is not musician hour, you know, at 10 a.m. And they would roll in, and I would know immediately if it was going to be a disaster because the lead singer would have sunglasses on indoors, or they would smell like vomit -

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: - and I'd know that [LAUGHING] they'd thrown up outside. That happened a lot. I really did start carrying Tic-Tacs. And I had to devise a plan to get them to wake up and give me good quotes. And the system that I devised works 100 percent of the time, and it is when they roll in and they can't be bothered - and another thing is that they have to pretend like it doesn't matter to them that they're being interviewed by Rolling Stone or MTV, because that's not very rock -

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Right.

JANCEE DUNN: - to act like you're excited, right? So you have to be jaded and take it out on the vee-jay or the writer. So I would always pay attention to the drummer. I practically sat in his lap, and I would roar with laughter at every mild joke that he made, like wah-hah-hah-hah! You know, and I would ask him about his drumming philosophies. They often have one or two. And -

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: - you mentioned one of them. Oh, that's amazing! I never thought of it before, but drumming is a metaphor for life! I have said that before. I'm not proud -

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: - but I have said that before, with a big smile on my face. The drummer is puzzled at first, maybe a little suspicious, but then he can't help but blossom under your tender gaze, your hyena-like laughter. And then eventually, the rest of the band, they'd start jostling, because they can't stand it. They're hostile. Then they're eager to give you the quotes about groupies and drugs and anything else that you need. And then, of course, when you've left and you're putting the interview together, you don't use any quotes from the drummer. [LAUGHTER]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: One of my favorite chapters in the book is "Don't Get Down with the Rhythm and Blues People if You're the Whitest [LAUGHING] Person in the World." [LAUGHTER]

JANCEE DUNN: There's this classic thing at Rolling Stone where there was one staffer that said to Queen Latifah, yo, Queen, where'd you get yo bag!

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: And she said, uh, I, I got it at Bergdorf's.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: You should always be yourself.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And you mostly were, except with Destiny's Child.

JANCEE DUNN: [LAUGHS] Oh, right. Oh, you led into that smoothly, didn't you, Brooke? You got me. I definitely enhanced my religious faith because when I met up with them they invoked the Lord in every other sentence. So I started bringing up the Lord, too. And suddenly I was Billy Graham -

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: - and I really went nuts. And when I was a kid, I was dragged to Bible school, so I could remember certain verses. And at the end of it, I can remember, to my everlasting shame, they were testifying about something; they were talking about how the Lord would provide or the Lord was going to do something. I forget what it was. But they were all holding out their testifying hands, and, and I, too, held out my hand.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] But for the most part, it strikes me that where you went right with most of these people is that you really did stay yourself. You didn't embarrass them by trying to be one of them.

JANCEE DUNN: No, no, no. It would be such a mistake to even attempt to pretend. You know, I've interviewed really hardcore rappers and R&B stars and, you know, at first I tried to be D.O.W.N. And it just doesn't work. And when I was myself, I found that they really did respond to me better, because you don't have to be exactly alike. The contrast sometimes works. And at the same time, I also didn't do that: "I, I have a funkiness deficiency, you'll have to help me out here."

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: You know, that, that, that goes wrong too, you know. I was just myself. It wasn't always a smash success, but sometimes it did work nicely.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now, a lot of your interviewing do's and don'ts derive from a keen understanding of human nature. For instance, the power of first impressions, or what not to say when you're meeting somebody. So could you give me some examples of classic deadly openers?

JANCEE DUNN: Oh - "I'm a big fan of yours."

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: Oh, that's a killer. "I loved your film." So did 300,000 other people. They've heard it 50 times a day by people who stop them in the street. So I've learned the hard way that anything that starts with the word "I," even if it's "I didn't kill myself because I listened to your album," their eyes glaze over. They do not care.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Unless you say, "I was having sex the first time I heard your album." You said that one's okay. [LAUGHTER]

JANCEE DUNN: Yes. I did. I said that to - oh, I hope my folks aren't listening - but I did say that to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, and it was, in fact, true. I won't even name the song. It's too sordid.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: But, you know, they perked right up.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: That was the only time I bent my rule and led off the proceedings with the word "I."

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So we've talked about the psychology of the host, but what about your psychology, Jancee? I mean, what happens when your editor wants you to ask that question that you would rather die than ask? How do you find the courage or temerity to ask the question that you hate?

JANCEE DUNN: Oh, Brooke. If it takes place in a restaurant, which often, of course, it does, I have made the mistake of asking the painful question before the check comes, and if the person freaks out on you, then the wait for the check is -

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: - long and very tense. So I really do always try to ask at the very end. And I'm not fooling anyone, and I always blame my editor: "I, I really don't want to ask about, you know, that prostitute, but my editor wants to know. What can I, what can I say?" For instance, Kelly Ripa of "Live with Regis And"?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Ah-ha.

JANCEE DUNN: I had to ask her, for Redbook magazine, of all places, if she and her husband used sex toys, and if so, which ones.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: Can you imagine?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: For Redbook!

JANCEE DUNN: Redbook!

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: What's that about? And she turned bright lobster red, and she was really embarrassed. I mean, she's kind of an old-fashioned girl. And at least I was by the door when I asked, and I immediately said, oh, thanks a lot, okay, see you later, bye, and I ran out of there. Of course, she talked about me the next day on the air. That was mortifying. I did a spit-take into my coffee.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Well, then how embarrassed could she have really been?

JANCEE DUNN: That's true. I mean, just like me, she was using everything for material. It's all sausage, right?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: It all goes somewhere.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now, you faced a situation with Ben Affleck when his breakup with Jennifer Lopez was still raw, and you were there to talk about something else, but you had to ask this question?

JANCEE DUNN: Well, this was to promote his short-lived movie "Jersey Girl," directed by Kevin Smith. And we were putting him on the cover of Rolling Stone, ostensibly because of this movie, but, of course, it was post-breakup and it was very convenient. And his publicist had said, do not ask about Jennifer Lopez, he is not going to answer. But that's the whole reason I was going out there, so I was extremely nervous. And we met at his office, and he was not in a good mood. And usually he is an interviewer's dream. He's very quippy, he's very funny. He really labors to give you that good quote. But he had his arms folded and he was very brittle, and he was barking out his answers. So I said, listen, do you want to talk about the breakup with Jennifer? You know, my editor's making me - you know, I blamed the editor again. And he floated a theory that the media were complicit in the breakup. And I said, oh, really, how so? And he said, well, they just absolutely followed our every move, and we didn't have a chance, our relationship. I mean, I didn't want to say, but every time you turned around, there they were making out with each other on the red carpet, you know, and she was fryin' up chicken on the television show.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: And, and so I started to sweat, because we got in an argument. But I kept saying, mm, you really were participants in this. And he said, that's not true, and I'm going to prove it to you. He grabbed his keys and we hopped into his BMW, and he said, let's go get a taco, and I'm going to show you what happens. We went to this place called Pequito Mas in Los Angeles. Very good tacos, by the way. And within three minutes of me getting my veg burrito, the paparazzi converged.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And he egged them on. He told you to - [OVERTALK]

JANCEE DUNN: He did.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: - hide your tape recorder.

JANCEE DUNN: Mm-hmm [AFFIRMATIVE].

BROOKE GLADSTONE: He hugged you and whispered something funny in your ear so that you would laugh. [JANCEE LAUGHS] And those pictures were taken, and when you got back to Rolling Stone -

JANCEE DUNN: They were all over the wires the next day. There was a bidding war among the tabloids, and the winning tabloid bought them for 11,000 dollars.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: And what he was whispering in my ear was, you're really stiff, you got to look like you like me, you know - [BROOKE LAUGHS], 'cause I was very nervous 'cause his arm was around me. And what was funny is every time that I pretended like I didn't want the photographers to take a picture of me - I would kind of shrink away with my tray of tacos - they were all over me. So it was very telling. And he made his point in a very interesting way.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Doesn't that support the argument that maybe we should not feed this appetite for intimacy that is created by countless articles and stuff?

JANCEE DUNN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I have felt -

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Do you hate yourself?

JANCEE DUNN: Yeah. [LAUGHTER] Well, I was about to say - "self-loathing" was the term I was going to use. Yes, of course. In my off hours, I certainly don't read any of that stuff. I don't watch any of those television shows. It is truly what I do for a living, and that's it.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: But that's the question. You see, you've -

JANCEE DUNN: Mm-hmm.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: - been able to, in a sense, O.D. on it. But I still read that stuff.

JANCEE DUNN: Do you?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Sure. You had a conversation with Robert Downey. I've never met Robert Downey, but I kind of feel like I know him and I'd read your conversation.

JANCEE DUNN: Well, at this point I feel like, with celebrity journalism, that we really are one giant high school and they're the cool kids, and everyone on the Internet can comment on them, can envy them, despise them, emulate them. So I understand why you feel a familiarity with them.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Public radio is populated almost entirely by the high school nerds, so maybe -

JANCEE DUNN: [LAUGHS]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: - it's even more intense for that reason.

JANCEE DUNN: That makes sense. Well, Rolling Stone, too. I mean, everybody was a card-carrying former nerd, you know, carefully disguised.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS]

JANCEE DUNN: But Mutt and Chop sideburns can't disguise, you know, the inner nerd.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Jancee, thank you so much.

JANCEE DUNN: My absolute pleasure.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Jancee Dunn, Rolling Stone interviewer extraordinaire, is the author of But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

BOB GARFIELD: That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Megan Ryan, Tony Field, Jamie York and Mike Vuolo and edited - by Brooke. Dylan Keefe is our technical director and Jennifer Munson our engineer. We had extra engineering help this week from Rob Christensen and other assistance from Claire Peters and Noah Kumin. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Katya Rogers is our senior producer and John Keefe our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and find free transcripts, MP3 downloads and our podcast at onthemedia.org, and e-mail us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media from WNYC. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. [MUSIC TAG] (FUNDING CREDITS