Well... I stuck by my guns: no e-mail interviews with ventriloquists. I asked. They declined. They offered, I giggled and wrote back saying I wished him the best of luck. Meanwhile, without the sound, I scoffed at the idea that a touring ventriloquist saving his voice by not doing the occasional phone interview with the local paper. I piss on the very notion. Chances are when he calls room service at the motel, he doesn't send an e-mail down to the kitchen for his grilled cheese and caviar sandwich. When he hails a cab, he doesn't send smoke signals. He is not going to use ASL to communicate with the crew backstage. It is a bullshit excuse.
Bottom line... what he does is a vocal performance that is very much in line with what an a Capella singer would do, what a stand-up comedian or an impressionist might do. I'd argue he's not doing anything more vocally challenging than what the lead singer of Kitty does when she switches abruptly from a sweet melodic schoolgirl voice to the throat crushing devil voice.
Yeah... I don't think he's so much saving his voice as saving his ass. A lot of comedians just aren't funny when they're not on stage. I appreciate not wanting to look bad. If you suck at interviews, you should practice.
Of course, I don't know the competition will do. I'm actually curious to see.
Showing posts with label dumbass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dumbass. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Lowering the bar
This ranks as a brand new level of silly. A ventriloquist doesn't want to do a phone interview to save his voice (which is fine, though weird and self-indulgent. Somehow, I doubt the guy is texting for room service or for the bus driver to pull over so he can take a leak). The publicist wants to know if I would e-mail the questions?
Say it with me people... No.
E-mail interviews with entertainment types blow goats. They blow goats one after the other while the little, red tractor goes around and around. They're always half-baked, particularly since you only get one try and the other person can pick and choose which questions they answer. There is never a follow-up, so if they say something interesting, you can't ask them to explain... and of course, there is always the very distinct possibility that all of it is getting filtered through handlers. For all you know (and who is to know), you're not writing questions for the talent, but for his publicist or manager to answer.
About the only person I'd happily consent to do an e-mail interview with would be Stephen Hawking and he's not likely to be playing an arena named after a furniture store.
I should have known. His national publicist is the same person who handles Willie Nelson, which, for me, typically means an unusual amount of bullshit, ending with frustration and anger. She's not overseeing the tour, but I'm starting to see a similarity in the kind of artist who hires her on. Maybe she likes crazy.
Say it with me people... No.
E-mail interviews with entertainment types blow goats. They blow goats one after the other while the little, red tractor goes around and around. They're always half-baked, particularly since you only get one try and the other person can pick and choose which questions they answer. There is never a follow-up, so if they say something interesting, you can't ask them to explain... and of course, there is always the very distinct possibility that all of it is getting filtered through handlers. For all you know (and who is to know), you're not writing questions for the talent, but for his publicist or manager to answer.
About the only person I'd happily consent to do an e-mail interview with would be Stephen Hawking and he's not likely to be playing an arena named after a furniture store.
I should have known. His national publicist is the same person who handles Willie Nelson, which, for me, typically means an unusual amount of bullshit, ending with frustration and anger. She's not overseeing the tour, but I'm starting to see a similarity in the kind of artist who hires her on. Maybe she likes crazy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
