Last Weds I slapped my forehead & said “Doh! Of course!” 3 times.
I am going to share those thoughts with you in the hope you don’t say “God, you’re stupid – Everyone knows that”
They are a bit trivial if I’m honest….
It’s going well.
It’s the second week & thanks to a big poster ad campaign on the London Underground (click here to see it) we have totally sold out all 14 nights - 1st show to do that at that theatre for 17yrs so I’m feeling pretty good about it.
My friend Luke Jermay (this is Luke: LUKE’S SHOW ON THE STRIP IN VEGAS He has very, very, very many excellent tat’s) called my to ask if I could let him have some ticket for that evening but there wasn’t a seat left.
The theatre is sorta “in the round” (well, 3 sides) & every evening I would come out to centre stage, nod & say “good evening” to the stage left, then centre, then stage right.
That evening I walk out and this happens: “Good evening” turn, “Good evening” turn, “Good Evening Derren Brown”.
Luke had turned up with Derren & a 3rd guy I didn’t know & got 3 returns.
I was told afterwards that Derren walked in wearing a hat, scarf & overcoat in the middle of a scorching August day, walked to his seat, then stood up & took them off.
Not conspicuous at all then.
They didn’t stick around after the show as they were filming on the other side of London
Anyway…. What occurred to me today was that when I spoke to Luke (who was writing Derren’s matireal at the time – Trick of the Mind seasons 2, 3 & 4) the next day & asked him who the 3rd guys was he was really cagy, wouldn’t tell me & fobbed me off with “he’s a friend of ours”.
It occurs to me now – That was probably Derren’s well hidden boyfriend.
And I couldn’t describe him if my life depended on it.
2. Bob Kane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_kane) always claimed the visual inspiration for The Joker was Gwynplaine the character hideously mutilated as a boy as a punishment for his fathers crimes so that his face was perminatly disfigured into a rictus grin (picture of Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine here: http://bit.ly/6zHgX) from the 1928 silent film The Man Who Laughs. Much of the storyline is about his love for a blind girl who, alone, isn’t repelled by his face.
This film by the way is wonderful & freely available, in episode format, on youtube so you should watch it.
Anyways…..
Up until the movie The Dark Knight Returns all of the origin stories for the Joker run something like this:
Small time villain called the Red Hood steal diamonds (in some versions he is blackmailed into this by the mob holding his family hostage), pursed by Batman into a chemical factory, falls into a vat of acid/unknown chemical and emerges with his skin bleached white, his hair turned green, his facial muscles stretched into a permanent smile. This, not unreasonable turns him totally psychotic & he fixates on Batman being the cause of his disfigurement.
Chris Nolan however introduces facial scars & some sort of uncertain act of violence as the cause (The Joker tells two conflicting stories but either or neither could be true).
Can you say “homage” people…… Can’t believe I’ve only just worked that out…..
3. and most mundane of all….How cool would a traditional style tattoo of Golden Age Wonder Woman look?:
This all seemed so interesting when I started…. Sorry.
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