Unscripted Moment

The Clip That Found Me First

July 10, 2025
by Mish'al K. Samman

Some moments, you don’t plan.
You don’t rehearse.
You don’t even realize they’re happening until later ... when everyone else starts talking about them.

That’s what happened on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
It wasn’t a scheduled bit or some career-launching setup.
It was just… random... I wasn't even supposed to be there.

Audience participation.
A flash of attention.
And then there I was ... years of improv, acting, and knowing how to present myself ... suddenly alive in this unscripted moment.

I didn’t try to be funny.
I didn’t try to impress anyone.
I just let the moment breathe… and I didn’t embarrass myself.
If anything, it was great. I got the attention of everyone afterwards thinking it was scripted, but it wasn't and that was ALL I really needed.

And then ... the following evening ... life spun in a completely different direction.

Something personal.
Something that knocked me completely out of sync with myself.
With life.
It was so devistating I was in hell for three days after that.
A private spiral that made the glow of that moment on TV feel like it belonged to someone else.
I was so focused on the fallout… I forgot the moment ever happened at all.

I couldn’t think about it. But if I did in the moments of solitude,
I figured it aired, a few people saw it, and that was that.
A nice memory from a version of me that felt far away.

Until, suddenly… it wasn’t.

While I was still trying to catch my breath from everything else, and off-line, someone translated the clip ... a Twitter influencer.
They posted it.
I was on my way back to L.A. still off-line.
And it went super viral, and I was still devistated.
...until I finally turned my phone back on, and there it was: a flood of notifications, mentions, tags, like I had stepped into someone else’s story.

And just like that, I was being recognized.
By people who had no idea what I’d been through.
By a whole region that now knew my name.

Not for my struggles.
Not for the low.
But for the one moment I had forgotten to hold onto ... the one that reminded me who I really am.

That’s when it hit me:

The performance didn’t make me feel seen.
Being myself did.

No forced laugh. No forced bit. Just presence.

And maybe that’s what Main Character Syndrome is trying to teach us.

It’s not about commanding the spotlight.
It’s about surviving your private plot twists…
long enough for the world to finally say, “Hey ... that was you, wasn’t it?”

Yeah.
It was.
And I’m still here.

About the Author
Mish’al Samman is a writer, performer, and lifelong fanboy who began his career covering comics, film, and fandom culture for Fanboy Planet in the early 2000s. With a voice rooted in sincerity, humor, and cultural observation, his work blends personal storytelling with pop-culture insight. Whether he’s reflecting on the soul of Star Wars or exploring identity through genre, Mish’al brings a grounded, human perspective to every galaxy he writes about.