Making us smile

Senior foreign correspondent Jim Sciutto shares his memories of CBS News soundman James Brolan, who was killed in an IED attack in Iraq today: In television news, we meet people who are professional and who are fun, but I have never met someone who combined both so well, adding in a one-of-a-kind flair for performance. James was, simply, hilarious. He made you laugh out loud — and I’m talking gut-wrenching, painful laughter — in the worst situations: an endless stint in Kabul, a dusty embed in the Kuwaiti desert, a long nerve-wracking stay in Baghdad. (At left, James in an undated photo.)  
He was at his best with children. Along with his audio mixer, he carried a repertoire of silly tricks wherever he travelled: the missing thumb trick, the faked high-five and — my favorite — the gorilla walk. I have a picture somewhere — I’m kicking myself that I can’t find it — of James performing the gorilla walk for dozens of enthralled Afghan kids on a desolate road somewhere between Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. In their faces, I remember seeing pure enjoyment and certainty they were watching their first certifiably insane white man. He made them and us happy, when it was truly difficult. James was a self-proclaimed master of useless information. I still find myself quoting cocktail party facts, and then quietly remembering I heard them from James first. Obscure things, like the origin of marmalade (a curative treatment developed when Marie Antoinette was sick, or in French ‘Marie malade’) or the way his old military unit the Royal Green Jackets was the first British unit to give up bright red uniforms for more camouflaged green. He was also absolutely unbeatable at Scrabble. Silly stuff, but when you’re riding in a military convoy or killing time in Baghdad, it is priceless entertainment. I can assure you that the world of news is less warm, less happy, and less fun without James.