In conversation with Michael Palin

Interview as performance: lessons learnt (part one)

‘It’s been emotional’ as one of The Husband’s friends is keen on saying after a few pints with the chaps at The Curfew, our local micropub .

Being ‘in conversation’ with Michael Palin last weekend, in front of two packed houses at the Maltings Theatre in Berwick, was not just an amazing privilege, it was definitely emotional - a thrilling experience.

What an honour to be entrusted with Sir Michael Palin - cherished and respected by so many over so many years - by Berwick Literary Festival. How intense to know that the first session sold out so quickly that a second show was scheduled and the rush for tickets was such that it crashed the Malting’s website.

As well as nerves and excitement, I definitely felt the weight of people’s expectations and their anticipation of a good night (or afternoon) out. It felt important to curate a wonderful experience for Michael Palin, for our audiences, and to showcase Berwick as a hub of creativity, culture and history. Not to mention to do a good job for the sake of my own pride, sanity and ego. No pressure.

The time I spent with Michael (I feel I can call him that now!) both on and off stage did not disappoint. Of course, I knew I was in safe hands - he’s done a few gigs in his time, after all. However, I also know how easy it is in an interview to accidentally offend or wrongfoot someone, or to get facts or questions muddled in the intensity of a show. And that can be difficult to recover from. Also, a person’s public persona is not necessarily the person you meet off stage. In fact, Michael was every bit as charming, humble and generous in ‘real life’ as I think we all hoped he would be.

I thought it might be useful (and hopefully interesting) to set out a few things I’ve learnt over the years about interviewing as performance and specifically from my two shows with Michael.

As I wrote the points below, I realised that there’s quite a lot to say about this topic. So, unless you tell me otherwise, I’m going to write two posts using the conversations with Michael Palin as a springboard to explore these thoughts and share them. Here are the first five:

• Preparation, preparation, preparation - reading and background research

  There’s absolutely no substitute for the hard graft of background research and reading your interviewee’s output. That’s daunting with someone who has a massive back catalogue and has been interviewed over many years by just about everyone on every show that ever existed. So, you need a plan.

  I set about gathering as many hard copies of Michael’s work as I could find from local sources: charity shops; Slightly Foxed Books; Berrydin Books; Berwick Library (my main supplier and so brilliant at endlessly renewing all my loans!) and, of course, friends. I also subscribed to Audible to listen to books while I was at the gym, walking, gardening, sleeping…

  I couldn’t possibly read them all (yes, I had a good long run up to the event but I do have other things on my to do list!). However, it was a huge comfort blanket to just have those books. Seeing my Palinalia daily, stacked on the stairs to my office made me feel as if I was doing something just by looking at them.

  My action plan was to read as much of the three volumes of his published diaries as I could (his fourth volume of diaries is published in September 2024 (There and Back: 1999-2009). In fact he’s doing a tour so, if you missed him in Berwick, he’ll be in Edinburgh in October (information here). I figured his diaries would simultaneously tick off personal life, working life and miscellania. I also aimed to listen to/read his most recent books: Erebus and Great Uncle Harry (both brilliant reads, by the way), watch his most recent Channel 5 series: Michael Palin in Nigeria, read his first travelogue Around the World in 80 Days (1989) and Michael Palin’s New Europe (2007), and dip into other travelogues currently available on various channels.

  As I do for all interviews and ‘conversations with’, I checked out articles he’d written and those written about him. I listened to interviews ranging from his Desert Island Discs appearance with Roy Plomley in 1979 to his conversation this year with John Wilson on Radio 4’s This Cultural Life. Many Monty Python sketches are available on YouTube as are Ripping Yarns so I refreshed my memory on a few of those. I also checked out what other Pythons had gone on to once the Flying Circus stopped and if and how Michael continued to work with them.

  Of course, friends made suggestions and supplied information they came across.

  Listed here, it sounds like an insane amount of preparation and, inevitably, if I hadn’t had the luxury of time, I simply would not have been able to indulge myself in that level of Palin-saturation. Do I regret the time spent? Not one moment of it. It was absolutely fascinating.

  Former TV political correspondent and current interviewer on the literary/book festival circuit, Gerry Foley, gave me a brilliant suggestion for getting through the huge diary tomes: pick a month in each year to read. Great tip. In the end I read all three volumes in full, spanning the years 1969-1998.

  I do know I’m not alone in obsessive interview prep. My friend and fellow Berwick Literary Festival interviewer, Scott Sherrard, chatted with Vera and Shetland author Ann Cleeves a while back. He and his wife read every single Vera book (and probably other series too) between them while they were on holiday. Scott’s wife gave him notes on her share of the Cleeves book bonanza.

  I was also very lucky that Michael’s website has a superb biography timeline which kept me straight on timings in his extensive career (it’s here if you’re interested).

• Preparation, preparation, preparation - take notes on everything.

  I have learnt the hard way that my memory of what I’ve read is not focused enough to structure questions and thoughts on a writer’s work. This may seem obvious, but it wasn’t to me when I started out.

  From the moment you start reading (listening/viewing), start note-taking. For me that’s small memory jogs of points of interest, dates, names, locations, short quotes, unusual moments, cross references and, vitally, page numbers or references.

  It’s amazing how many of these seemingly incidental jottings make it through to the final question stage.

  I think the other essential element of note-taking is to find a method that you enjoy to collate and order. I always have the good intention of writing all my notes clearly and tidily in the beautiful journal I’ve bought/was given for Christmas. I so want to be that person who neatly underlines headings and groups thematically from the get-go. Usually I scribble on scraps of paper, paper serviettes, bookmarks etc. This scruffy approach is not something I love about myself but, over the years, I’ve accepted that it is the way I work best. I do transfer the notes to OneNote, which I find flexible and practical, partly because you can box items together and move them around easily, aligning them with relevant other notes etc. You can also include accessible hyperlinks and pictures in your notes which makes checking and following up quick and easy.

  

  A page from my OneNote file

• Develop a structure

  The more you firm up the areas you want to cover in your conversation, the more flexible you’re likely to be when you’re ‘live’ and the more you’ll be able to go on a diversion and return to your structure. My approach is to consider how the conversation might flow: what the audience might want to hear about, what the interviewee will most want to talk about, and how to knit that together coherently. In Michael Palin’s case, the conversation was to be an hour and half plus interval. That’s a long chat! It’s important to remember that both you and your guest are likely to start flagging in concentration at some point.

  Personally, I think it’s also worth thinking about how, in such a long conversation, you can change the pace and differentiate between the first and second halves. With Michael Palin, we focused on travel in the first half and writing, comedy and acting in the second. There were crossovers, of course. Knowing his joy of performing and interacting with an audience, I also looked for opportunities to include the audience.

• Mental preparation

  Just like reading your writing out loud helps you spot difficulties or glitches in flow, practising questions aloud helps with phrasing and with considering potential responses and connections that might crop up.

  It’s also worth thinking about your role in a conversation/interview. With an author interview, for example, I aim to enable them to speak engagingly about their work and sell it, if you like. I’m not the star but I am the guide, the prompt, the door-opener. With Michael Palin, I needed to open doors for him to step through with anecdotes, memories and insights. Yes, I want to ask interesting questions, probe even, but I’m not there to skewer my co-conversationalist or uncover the one thing they’ve never told anyone else. Maybe they might share that if they’re comfortable enough, but it’s certainly not in the contract!

  What was in the blurb about the Palin gig, was that it would be entertaining. And entertainment does not usually involve unsettling your guest (unless, perhaps, you’re Mrs Merton aka the genius that was Caroline Aherne). However, it can take a guest a while to settle - however experienced they are - that’s where your preparation enables you to remain unflustered as they find their feet.

• Select your outfit

  I’m going to end this first post on interviewing as performance with what might seem a slightly frivolous point. Personally, I think it’s vital. How tempting is it to have a brand new ’do, a brand new outfit… a brand new you for an interview? Somehow your protective mind tells you that if you can hide behind a fab outfit, everything will be easier. However, the art of inteviewing well and encouraging an interviewee to be themselves, starts with you being authentic and at ease. I honestly think you need to be so comfortable and confident in what you’re wearing that you’re not even thinking about it. You’ve already got so much going on in your head, do you really want to be worrying if you can walk properly in these heels? Or if your blouse is going to slip further than you want it to? Also, if possible (and it’s not always) you want your choice of clothes to be empathetic to that of your guest.

  Coming up next time:

  Know the brief

  Questions & notes

  Beginnings & ends

  Time keeping

  Read the room - body language and audience vibe

  Don’t try to out smart an intellectual or out-gag a comic

  What to do when things go wrong

  Maybe it’s looking like three posts?!

  Till next time