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Re: How much truth?

Messages in this topic: 6 View All
DeanDec 12, 2011

> How often have say Paul Merton or Tony Hawks or Graham Norton

mentioned their partners, for example?
These days if anyone utters the slightest snippet of personal information on-air or at a recording it will enter the Twitter-Sphere and be updated within Wikipedia within hours.

There is enough of Paul's personal life already laid bare on-line why would anyone in such a situation choose to use those people emotionally close to them within their personal lives for the the entertainment of others, IMHO it would be a 'cheap'.

Dean here: This isn’t the sort of thing I was thinking about. I just think that if the subject was something like “"breakfast”, Peter Jones would almost certainly refer to his wife, in a totally harmless way, while Paul wouldn’t. I think the difference is less that Paul is worried about personal material being spread – there would be no harm in saying Suki likes eggs on toast – than that Paul is a genuine improviser whose first instinct is to create a fantasy, while Peter and the others are more raconteurs whose first instinct is to think of an anecdote from their life.

Gyles Brandreth regularly refers to his wife, indeed she is the regular target of his jokes. Jenny Eclair also often refers to her personal life. I think this is because they are not really improvisers either. Jenny uses her life as a major subject for her stand-up routines.

I think if you and I were on the show, our instinct too would be to think about our own lives. That’s not Paul’s instinct and of course that’s part of what makes him special. He’s wired differently.

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