Ohhhh yes!
It's the Life & Times of Mr Slapstick himself!
Chris Daniels - Director of the Bristol Slapstick Festival in The Good Listening To Clearing on UK Health Radio!
A lovely, rich conversation indeed: Talking the simplicity and shared admiration for 'Stoicism' - the love (obviously!) of Silent Film Comedy - the Bristol Slapstick Festival itself - and a joy of all things Stan Laurel!
Hurrah and indeed Huzzah!
Enjoy!
And if you’d prefer to Watch/Listen to Chris Daniels’ time in the Clearing it’s here:
https://vimeo.com/573567043
Slapstick Festival Director, Chris Daniels, has been doing his level best to bring Laughter to Bristol for the last umpteen years.
So far the Festival has been a regular success. Indeed Michael Palin described it as a ‘a complete delight’. The Festival Director is a silent film fanatic, marketing perfectionist and wannabe Stoic, while the younger version of Chris Daniels was amazed and delighted to discover Film Studies as a legitimate A level subject. Like his teenage contemporaries, Jurassic Park he knew, Jaws he’d enjoyed, the Godfather he’d admired but now at last he discovered the peculiar brilliance of Silent Film.
One particular pre-talkies masterpiece was the French marathon epic ‘Napoleon’ which runs for 5 and one half hours and takes, apparently, 8 hours to enjoy properly, in full. Chris Daniels is so obsessed with the medium that he really could ask the projectionist to “Play it again, Sam” and sit through it all again, right from where he came in.
Chris’s mission is simply to ensure that Silent Film immortals remain immortal in the eyes of future generations. Chris believes that the best silent films are every bit as good in their own way as the latest Hollywood blockbuster. That creativity and ingenuity are timeless. CGI is not necessarily better than earlier techniques, it is just different.
As Shakespeare expressed it in ‘Hamlet’: “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Chris credits his father for his entrepreneurial spirit and acknowledges his wife and children for the joy they bring to his life.
He never wanted to be just another brick in the wall, or even another Truman in his own Truman Show. Chris always w
Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
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