A strange minor buzz of excitement on the internet today over an interview I did with Russell Brand four months ago. Yesterday the website gawker.com had picked up on the story of Brand wanking off a man for his 2002 TV show. Apart from it taking them so long to discover the podcast and the fact that Russell wrote about it in his book and the fact that it was on TV in 2002 this is fair enough. Russell told the story well and my podcast is not an international (or even a national) smash. But it was odd to see it being tweeted about so long after any of the events.
And journalists being what they are, a bit lazy, but also able to spot a story that will get clicked on, it was picked up by some more outlets today, including The Daily Mail website. Be warned that that link links to the Daily Mail website, there's a clue in the link. I know some people don't think you should link to the Daily Mail because you're just helping them to make money (well done for spotting it), but the link it there so you can make your own informed decision. The tweet I sent out about this both acknowledged that it was from the Daily Mail and had a Daily Mail url on the link and yet a few people still complained that I hadn't given enough warning - or rather, I suspect, just wanted to show off about how clever they were for having realised something that we all know.
You can spot how lazy journalists are by noting that this one has copy and pasted gawker.com's "work" (it does count as work to have to listen to a converstaion and write down the words) and then didn't even bother going back through to delete the unnecessary American explanation of what crisps are. Good luck to them. I hope the story made the Daily Mail and the journalist who copied the copy some money. As long as somebody profits from my podcasts then that's all good. At least they credited me and put a photo of me in the report, but as RT @Mickontoast said, "Seeing your face on report, I briefly assumed you were the other man." It would certainly explain the smug smile.
But incredible that a several month old conversation about something that happened over a decade ago and was clearly documented in print and film at the time could be considered "news". It hasn't had any effect on downloads.
Let's look to the future and not the past and the podcasts that the newspapers will be writing about in February 2014. I had confirmation today that there will be a second guest for the final podcast recording next Monday. We already have Simon Pegg and the show is sold out (though contact the Leicester Square Theatre for returns or to be placed on the reserve list - they sometimes release standing tickets on the day), but it's going to be a double record with another big name joining us. I am tempted to keep it a secret so it will be a nice surprise for people on the day. But it certainly makes the series pass even better value, not least because you will now be getting eight podcasts for £15.
