talkmagic.co.uk

My first post on this board was about the 'connection' between comedy and magic
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/sutra75445.php#75445
(probably best that you read that before continuing, to have a vague idea what the hell I'm on about).
So, finally having pulled my finger out (of the myriad other dykes it was plugging), I mentioned it to my film and TV agent yesterday. He liked the idea. He suggested that I approach it by first doing a journo piece. This would mean I had a feature that might get published somewhere - the Grauniad most likely, as I write for that regularly as it is. Its primary purpose, however, would be that the piece could be used as a (ugh) 'pitch', so that TV prod companies would get the thrust.

Fair enough. My first objective, therefore, is to try to contact relevant well-known people, and beg them to talk to me, for nothing. I have some in mind - ranging from the wildly optimistic (Woody Allen, say) to the 'will possibly give me the time of day, at least' (um... Jay Sankey?). But I'd like to expand the list, as the vast majority will not respond, be far to busy to respond, or perhaps respond only to hit me in the face with a trowel. Specifically, I need people who are famously associated with one area, but actually have a keen interest in the other. Examples? OK. Derren Brown: top magician, but (clear from his show, but blatant if you've ever read his books) loves comedy. Or one of the League of Gentlemen who's a keen amateur magician. (I'm sure I read somewhere that this is the case, but I can't remember which one it was: excellently, I was in a pub with Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson recently, as we were doing the same literary festival together, but I forgot to ask about the magic thing and instead we spent the whole evening discussing Deal or No Deal. I am impressively useless, I really am.)

So, any names spring to mind? There are a few clear 'foot in both camps' types - Sankey and Sadowitz, say - but the 'One, but not commonly known, also The Other' bods are most interesting.

Any suggestions you have will be very gratefully received.

Eighty thanks.

That’s not so easy as it sounds – folks we refer to as well-known may not be so well-known by Grauniad readers or TV bods. Derren Brown is a safe choice, Paul Daniels would be another but he has an understandable distrust of Journos. If the brief is magic with comedy then you could certainly pick people like Michael Ammar, Jon Allen and John Lennahan as they’re all excellent magi who use comedy in their acts to great advantage. John Archer is another name where you’d be sure of a chortle or six along with a bit of magical jiggery pokery.

Get the commmission before you approach an interviewee directly, so that you have some form of bona fides they can check. The name and desk number of your commissioning editor will do. Are you in the NUJ, by the way? It helps to scream the threat of a press pass when you approach agents if you want to get some time booked and not get messed about.

Edit: Yes, NUJ. Been watching something about lefties on BBC4.

or NUJ??

Tomo wrote:Get the commmission before you approach an interviewee directly, so that you have some form of bona fides they can check.

It'll be non-com, as I'll be doing it to create a pitch (and, anyway, TV people are all liars and/or chancers so 'Channel 4 is interested' would be risible anyway). If they Google my (real life) name, they'll be able to see that I am genuinely a novellist - and Graun columnist - so that should be enough to confirm that I'm not 'just' a random person bleeding their time on the off chance getting someone interested. I'm OK with lots of dead ends, however, it's simply making the list long enough to end up with a few responses that concerns me right now.

I can write the piece without any input, of course. But - as you know, Tomo - those celeb quotes (even if it's just, "'Get away from me, you vile oik. I just came into Safeway to buy some soup,' said comedian Stephen Fry.") flood commisioning editors' minds with endorphins and thus help no end.

Have you written anything I might have heard of?

You can PM me if you don't want the general public to know who you are

It's Reece Shearsmith (SP?) from the League of Gentlemen who's the ammateur magician, as far as I can remember.

Nice username, Mr Blake. I read "...and the Time Killer" a couple of weeks back. You can't beat that sort of thing.

John Archer, Harry Anderson and Gerry Katzman are the three main responses i get from Google...all classed as comedians and magicians...

i suppose the most unrealistic one i could offer would be Steve Martin...

Danny Buckler is another one....

I think Mark Gattiss and Jeremy Dyson are also avid amateur magicians...

How about Joe Pasquali, he is a comedian that uses magic in his rutines these days (tommy cooper style)

How about Uri Gellar? He's been ongoing with the joke about him being all supernatural for years! I reckon he deserves a place in your work =oP

Jon

Sexton Blake wrote:I can write the piece without any input, of course. But - as you know, Tomo - those celeb quotes (even if it's just, "'Get away from me, you vile oik. I just came into Safeway to buy some soup,' said comedian Stephen Fry.") flood commisioning editors' minds with endorphins and thus help no end.

Yep, a feature with no quotes is unproven. You could always try secondary attributions, of course: "Speaking earlier this year on Radio 4, Brown claimed that mentalism is in fact rubbish and that he plans on retiring and opening a tea shop in Hastings instead."

But I've said too much. If the non-scribbling readers would just like to stand against this blood splattered wall for a moment...

Symtal wrote:How about Uri Gellar? He's been ongoing with the joke about him being all supernatural for years! I reckon he deserves a place in your work =oP

Jon

Yeah, but don't try to gain favour the Jerry Sadowitz way: "I'm a big fan of yours! I've got all your spoons!"

I much prefer the traditional way of introducing complete fabrications, ' A source close to Mr.Brown said earlier today.....' - it could be the bloke standing next to him in the bus queue but it's still 'a source close to'. [Apologies if this infers anything untoward about the Journalistic fraternity, it obviously wouldn't apply to Grauniad writers. (Geez that's such an old word - reminds me of the Wislon Diaries, 'The Grocer' etc as well!)]

Wayne Dobson is deffinatly my favourite comedy magician. Iv seen him do several shows now. Anyone who has his 'unclamped' dvd will know what im on about! He does shows with joe pasquale sometimes

Thanks for all that. (And take this as an interjection, not an, 'OK - stop now.': I'm happy to hear any further suggestions.

Mandrake: "I much prefer the traditional way of introducing complete fabrications."
Bless. Many a journo nowadays will just lie. Outright. It's awfully off-topic, but let me demonstrate what I mean.
I was in Sweden promoting a book, and a journo from their biggest morning daily came to interview me. For uninteresting logistic reasons, the journo wasn't the paper's literary, or entertainment, bod: she was, in fact, the chief political correspondent. Anyway, during the interview she said, 'So, you must be a millionaire now, yes?'
I guffawed. 'Nothing like.'
'But the novel, and the film rights. The film rights alone must have earned you a million.'
To demonstrate just how wrong she was, I actually took her pen and precisely detailed on her pad all my earnings. This showed that I wasn't a millionaire. Nor rich. Nor well off. I was certainly on less money that a teacher or a nurse, and - as it happened - less than half of what she was being paid.
She nodded, and the interview continued.
The next morning the piece appeared in the paper. The headline began, 'British author becomes millionaire...'
That's how it works.

EckoZero: 'Have you written anything I might have heard of?'
Logic dictates that it's not entirely impossible, but probably not. I'm a vanishingly minor novelist. Not, as I know you'll be dearly hoping, Anne Rice.

Right - many thanks, everyone. I'm off now to attempt to hunt down David Renwick.