Posts tagged writing

I was mesmerised by the BBC documentary “I Had The X Factor… 25 Years Ago”. It looked at six people who were finalists in the 1986 grand final of the “New Faces” talent show - three singers, two comedians, and a violinist. They all enjoyed instant fame from the show, but with varying amounts of success. And that’s where it got interesting.

It seemed that most of them got work off the initial buzz from the show. But eventually that buzz faded away. Soul singer James Stone got work tour pubs and clubs, but his manager kept his earnings from him. Comedian Vinny Cadman suddenly found himself unable to get the high profile gigs he’d previously had. There are tales of divorce, alcoholism, childlessness, bankruptcy and sleeping in dumpsters.

It seems that for all of these contestants, once they had a taste of fame, of performing in front of an adoring audience, they were hooked, completely unable to go back to normal jobs, even when the showbiz gigs had completely dried up.

Has anything changed today? Are the contestants on X Factor somehow immune to this fate?

Singer James Stone is also revealed to have been a semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent in 2008, his second shot at fame. He impressed the judges, but three years later he is revealed to be penniless but reasonably happy. He seemed like the sort of person who had a lot of personal problems that would always keep him from sustaining a career in showbiz.

I guess that’s what it comes down to. Talent is only one part of the equation. Showbiz is hard. It takes a certain type of personality to survive it, to negotiate the minefield of trends and competition. Maybe that’s the true X factor.

richardrushfield:

1.Toldja

2.Um, no

3. Not so much 

4. Gosling

5. Adorkable

6. Adore

7. Hot Trailer

8. Just saying

9. Meme

10. Fail

The horrible thing is, I follow a person on Twitter who uses about 80% of these terms all the time. I would like a filter to block tweets using this stuff too much.

Vanilla Ice is appearing in a pantomime in the UK this Christmas. He plays Captain Hook in Peter Pan. It sounds quite cool, yeah? So I was tweeting about this and I typed “Vanilla Ice’s panto looks like fun.” However autocorrect decided this was wrong and helpfully changed it to “Vanilla Ice’s pants looks like fun.” I came *this* close to tooting it.

But do you know who actually thought “Vanilla Ice’s pants look like fun!” Madonna, that’s who. They briefly had a thing in the early ’90s, right at the time when Madonna made her notoriious “Sex” book. There are images of them together, sans pants.

Who would be more fun to party with today? Captain Hook Hook Baby or Old Madge?

Everyone who doesn’t have a job - it’s no big deal. Just say you’re freelance.

- E. Grimes.

Ok, then. I’m freelance.

I accidentally started following Justin Bieber on Twitter. [I feel I need to justify this - I followed him to see if he was a mutual follower of someone else I was semi-stalking, but I forgot to unfollow the Bieb.]

Anyway, this just turned up in my timeline:

@justinbieber the blessing is not about being able to receive as much as it is being in a position to give back to others. #blessed

I don’t know what this means. What is the blessing? It reminds me of “Torchwood: Miracle Day”. Will Justin Bieber make us all immortal?

Edit: This is much less perplexing:

@MCHammer oh yea and I’m a proud @justinbieber fan. Any grown man got a problem with that don’t tweet me, meet me and lets do it bully.

@justinbieber @MCHammer my dude

Please, Hammer, don’t hurt ‘em! Or do, if it’s someone being a dick.

Novelist Teddy Wayne recounts a three-month-long dialogue with a Facebook scammer.

Teddy Wayne: but enough about me. how are YOU?

Claire Anrie: 24 and you?

Teddy Wayne: 32. i have had the chronic diarrhea since i was 24, though, so we have something in common!

Claire Anrie: what we have in common is love

Teddy Wayne: yes. love, and your age being the age when i developed chronic diarrhea.

Will true love win out over chronic diarrhoea and the complexities of international Western Union transfers?