The Monitor recently spoke with Willie (W) and George (G) Powell, producers of "Variety Show." Watch it on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on Channel 17. Tell me about "Variety show." W: We picked the name "Variety Show" because you see a lot of Christian shows on TV and you see many other kinds of shows but you rarely see a combination of both. Since there are many people in the church who have other talents besides singing gospel songs, we thought we would combine the different talents people have, like tapping and singing and acting in plays. We feature things like the "New Fogey's Follies" which I am involved in. We try to get seniors involved in the show. We want to involve everybody: Black, White, Native American, Hispanic. What is it that keeps you doing your show? W: I think it's important to see a variety of people from different backgrounds all together on one show. I work on other shows that are only religious shows. But people also have many different qualities; they do things outside of church. I also work on the New Fogey's Follies, which entertains elderly people. Elderly people may not have any other entertainment options. They may not want to see the kinds of things on TV. I've talked with many elderly people who tune into our show. They watch channel 17 because it has more than just hip hop and R & B - they can see some of the things that were going on in their time, and they can identify with that. Young people like it too. Our show is clean; it's not dirty birdy. Anybody can watch "Variety Show." How do you put together an episode of "Variety Show?" G: We have to shoot the raw footage first, and we often do that in the MTN studio. Then we edit the segments together at home; we have an edit system at the house. We put the standard things on that MTN requires, color bars and so forth. Most of my training for editing was done here at MTN. The information and knowledge I learned here I'm able to take home and use on my home computer. I put on titles and so forth, music, at home, but I learned how to do it at MTN. What advice do you have for people interested in starting shows for MTN? G: First of all, you should have an idea for your show that's going to be more than just fly by night: something you can build on, something that has a life to it, something that can grow. Make sure you initially have the equipment you need, and you can either have your own equipment or come to MTN, become a member, use their equipment, learn what they know, and just build on it. You can present your show on MTN. Half hour shows are usually better because they take less footage. Our show is an hour long because my wife wanted it that way. If you really want to get first hand knowledge, and if you really want the opportunity to learn about multiple types of cameras and multiple types of edit suites, MTN is a good place to start. W: It's also important that you learn how to drop things. Sometimes even if the stuff is good, you have to be able to edit it out if it doesn't belong in your show. And it's going to hurt, because sometimes you have to cut out good stuff, but if it will make your show better, take it out. That's one of the things that we learned here in the MTN classes. So if you decide to get any training, I recommend coming to MTN first before you start any adventure in video.