Easy now.
Guh, I’m in a right ol’ mood. The weather’s gorgeous and I’d hoped to spend the afternoon with my nephews, but due to road closures and bus diversions, we had to make other plans. Sometimes not being able to drive – due to something not in your control – gets boring.
Anyhoo, I have something that lifted my spirits when I heard it, so I’m offering it up to you now.
It’s a little older than a week so I hope you’ll forgive me, but it was a bit that perfectly captured an example of good storytelling.
In this clip, which starts at 51:51 in my copy (the publisher is one of those companies that likes money more than people so it’s riddled with low-quality ads), Danny Wallace tells a tale of mischief.
Wallace is part of a cadré of writers who spent much of the 90s hitchhiking around Ireland with a fridge or meeting everyone with the same name or saying “yes” to every offer. They were whimsical men-children who showed us that boys didn’t have to grow up right away. (All of that is with affection as I enjoy the genre and its exponents. And some of my best friends are adult babies).
Anyway, Wallace – as interviewed by James O’Brien – is great at telling a story by tugging on feelings we can identify with. He’s saying “you know what it’s like” without saying “you know what it’s like”. He’s bringing him and the listener closer together… which is something of an obsession of mine.
The sign he was putting up was about poop being pumped into our water supply, btw. Something we’re just dealing with here in the UK, in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty four.
FFS.
Anyway, I’m smiling at you as I write this. Not in a creepy way, but a fun, mischievous, and – if you’ll forgive me – boyish kind of way. 😉
I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend and charge headlong into the week with the zeal of the well-rested.
And if you have opinions about who would win in a fight between Dave Gorman, Danny Wallace, and Tony Hawks – no, you’re thinking of Tony Hawk the skater – then I want to hear them.
Love you,
-Mx
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