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Here’s a talk I did recently at TEDxSalford. A fantastic day with lots of fascinating speakers, a lovely audience, cool organisers, and I got to meet an astronaut. The talk covers the first stages of The Forer Scam research I’ve been doing for the past two years. The research has a number of further stages [...]
Continue Reading →I’m rehearsing a performance version of this poem of mine. I plan to hammer a nail up my nose while reading it aloud. Inferno In the Hell of inanimate objects The guns rust slowly Oxidising in charged brine. Adulterous wedding rings are flattened And hung from the nostrils of bulls For an eternity the scalpels [...]
Continue Reading →This is a poem I used to perform with apologies to Dylan Thomas. An Adult’s Christmas in Wales December 20th – January 3rd 1/4 turkey 1/4 chicken 1lb beef 1/4lb lamb 1/2lb pork 4 fish 12 potatoes 4lb carrots 4lb sprouts 3 tins peas 1/2lb yorkshire pudding 3 loaves bread 1lb cheese (assorted) 2 pints [...]
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“Alice laughed: ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said; ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’” –Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass [...]
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In the 1960, with satire becoming a popular and mainstream TV entertainment, Peter Cook said that, “Britain would slowly slide, giggling, into the sea.” Britain has been slowly sliding ever since and our excessive fondness for ‘avin a laff has shaped every part of our cultural and political life. I was recently talking to an [...]
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There is something that touches the emotions about the Nike Mayfly, a £25 ultra-lightweight, professional running shoe designed to last just 100km. Is it the sad beauty of brevity? Is it the sense of concentrated purpose? Is it the highlighted feeling of time passing? Is it the fun of destroying something slowly through running? (I [...]
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The aged catch their breath, For the nonchalant couple go Waltzing across the tightrope As if there were no death Or hope of falling down; The wounded cry as the clown Doubles his meaning, and O How the dear little children laugh When the drums roll and the lovely Lady is sawn in half. (W. [...]
Continue Reading →I was going to write about humor this week but that will have to wait. I spent Friday at The Story, and quite a few people I met there wanted to talk about what I had written last week about smiling and some valuable points were raised that I thought I should share. The general [...]
Continue Reading →I’m going to The Story tomorrow and I’ve been thinking about some of the best storytellers I’ve met in my life. I’m really glad that I had a hernia operation when I was 23 or I may never have met George Theiner. We were both being treated in Kings College Hospital and George made a [...]
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One of the most interesting ideas in advertising over the last decade has been Jean-Marie Dru’s concept of Disruption. Dru is Chairman of TBWA Worldwide, one of the largest agencies in the world and 24th on Fast Company Magazine’s 2009 list of The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. Dru’s Disruption is easy to describe in [...]
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