Danny Wallace Articles/Reviews

[Beckslee]

An article about Danny Wallace as in "Are You Dave Gorman?" Danny Wallace

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...449349974.html

http://www.join-me.co.uk/

Official site of the movement *g*

I like the idea, except that there are some Fridays when I don't feel like being nice to ANYONE, let alone a total stranger *G*

Might make a bit of an effort, though, see how I do *g*

[Beckslee]

This is a fucking good book, I've just finished it today, very funny, you keep expecting a Dave Gorman to pop up.

It's a bit sad at the end though

[Fiona Rohana]

Yeah, i read it a few weeks ago. Poor Danny

[aussiechica]

Omg thats such a cute idea! I reallly love that breed of optimism, it just makes the world a better place.
This is the first Ive heard of this book--- it looks ace!
I really wanna know what happens at the end thats so sad (dont tell, I wanna read it)

Im joining the day after tom too yay

[VAxwell]

Originally Posted by aussiechica

Im joining the day after tom too yay

When's Tom getting it?

[aussiechica]

Originally Posted by VAxwell

When's Tom getting it?

lol smart arse

[unfrufru]

An agreeable chap

July 2, 2005





Danny Wallace … identifies five levels of yes, but is now quite pleased that he has reclaimed the power of no.




The world opened up for a London author when he took a vow to say yes to every favour, suggestion and invitation that came his way. Valerie Lawson reports.

Just say no, yes? That's what the self-help books tell you. No, I can't see you later. No, I can't meet that deadline, no, I can't come to that pub on the other side of town, and as for lunch, well, we must do it one day. Danny Wallace was as adept at saying no as the rest of us and just as quick with the white lie. Until one day, on a London bus, an Indian bloke with a beard said three compelling words: "Say yes more."

That was all it took to turn Wallace's life on its head, not to mention the spark of an idea that led to Yes Man, a book about the power of yes, and now a Warner Bros film adaptation of the book, starring Jack Black.

At 28 Wallace was already a successful author and broadcaster in Britain, with a worldwide band of enthusiastic fans of his book, Join Me, the story of a cult about nothing that he formed just for the hell of it.

But Yes Man has the potential for a much wider sale, already being compared to the 1970s book The Dice Man, in which the author, Luke Rhinehart, allowed dice to govern his decisions, with each throw bringing him more risk and more freedom.

Rhinehart gave himself a range of options for every throw, but Wallace just gave himself one option: yes, convinced by the words of the man on the bus that "the people without passion are the ones who always say no. But the happiest people are the ones who understand that good things occur when one allows them to."
Back home, Wallace wrote his affirmation: "I swear that I will live my life taking every available chance. I swear I will be more open to opportunity. I swear I will say yes to every favour, request, suggestion and invitation."

Within a year, living life in the affirmative led him to winning and losing £25,000 ($58,870), becoming a minister, drinking in a gay leather bar in Amsterdam's red light district, taking an LSD-like mind bomb, agreeing to internet banking scams and penis patch offers, taking every leaflet pushed into his hand on the street, meeting alien obsessives and the world's only dog with the power to hypnotise, and flying to Melbourne from London to spend Christmas with TV producer Lizzie (he won't reveal her full name), the woman he is to marry next January.

In the beginning, Wallace said this week, he would agree to everything. "If you said to me in the first week, 'Are you a pregnant mother of two?' I would have gone 'Yes, yes I am', but to live your life that way is ridiculous and you won't learn anything from it, just get beaten up.

"If you hone it to something achievable, where you pick out the little things that come in every day, the opportunities, requests, favours, suggestions, then it becomes achievable. You get two or three a day, some of them are completely inconsequential, some of them lead to much more. It's a cumulative effect as well."

Wallace identifies five levels of yes:

Level one: saying yes to such questions as "would you like some free money?" or "why don't you take the rest of the day off?"

Level two, slightly trickier. For example, "saying yes to that hilarious impression you do, or yes, 'I'll make you a coffee and I don't necessarily expect a coffee back one day, either'."

Level three, the making-an-effort level. "Saying yes to a drink after work when really what you want to do is watch The Weakest Link and eat a samosa, yes to agreeing to accompany an elderly aunt to the toilet and not running off when she shouts 'I'm finished!"'

Level four, the much-too-much-effort level. "Saying yes to attending a christening, any christening, yes to anything that involves modern dance or having to make and bring your own canapes. Saying yes when you really want to say absolutely not."

Level five, which most of us never attain. "Yes to going to a dinner party at the other side of town that you know you're not welcome at because last time you were there you insulted someone's wife and were sick in the host's shoes. Anything that you totally, utterly, wholeheartedly can't, won't or mustn't say yes to - that, my friend, is level five."

Wallace reached a level five in his dealings with an internet fraudster who urgently wanted his bank account details. He also went to Holland to collect an obviously phoney Spanish lottery prize.

Of course he knew they were scams, "but you had to trust in yes in a sense. Every instinct and fibre in your body goes 'that's a no', but when I said yes, in a roundabout way I ended up having a good time and finding positives in a pretty big negative. The only way stuff's going to happen to you is if you say yes."

Instead of getting stung in Holland, he met two gay guys, and took that psychotropic mind bomb. "I've never been one for drugs," Wallace said, "and taking that was unusual but that was only risking myself. I think I would have to have stopped if it was going to hurt someone else."

His book is like a tale told to his mates in a pub, with more laughs than worrying issues, but he acknowledges how many downsides there could be in saying yes.

Ridiculous or really dangerous propositions were unlikely, though, because Wallace told only one mate of his yes game.

"If I told everyone they would have all gone give me your bank account details, kill that fellow there, let's all move to Paraguay and it would have been a nightmare."

He acknowledges that it would be harder for a woman to take the yes option. "I agree it's a tricky thing.

"Luckily, because I'm a fellow with, at that stage, not many responsibilities, I can get away with stuff like that and my mates are used to slightly odd behaviour."

How hard was it to let go of yes? When the experiment ended, "my life was a bit more colourful. I could almost see the questions when people asked them, as if they were sub-titled.

"I started thinking things like 'yes, I will go and see that slightly odd band in an inconveniently located place in London' and I'm much more open to realising that little opportunities can lead to the biggest and best things, and it taught me this weird philosophy," Wallace says.

"I'm quite pleased now I've reclaimed the power of no but I think my life was unbalanced before and I tried to balance it in an extreme way. I say yes a lot more, but I also value my noes." Rather than learning the power of positive thinking, Wallace says, he learnt the power of positive doing, which in turn helped his broadcasting career.

His colleagues saw him as an optimist rather than a cynic and he has a new project ready to air next month called How To Start Your Own Country, a series in which "two little cameras follow me around as I try to start the biggest little country in the world … with its own laws, its own government, international relations, flag, currency, stamps and king.

''I've delivered a declaration of independence to No. 10, said if you've got any problems with it let me know. Tony's still not been in touch."

Yes Man, The Amazing Tale of What Happens When You Decide to Say Yes (Random House, $32.95), will be published in September.

[unfrufru]

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100n...name_page.html


Reality TV show to chart reality of fatherhood Aug 20 2005




Aled Blake, Western Mail

IT IS a life-changing event to which many men have difficulty in adjusting.

Fatherhood, when your common-or-garden Dave becomes the very important Dad, is something that is looked forward to with both fear and excitement.

Now a BBC series will follow eight young men on their journeys to becoming first-time dads, each struggling to cope with the challenges parenthood brings.

The couples' babies will be born throughout the 10-part series He's Having A Baby, which starts tonight on BBC1, and their lives will be under the microscope over the coming weeks.

To help prepare for fatherhood, writer and comedian Danny Wallace will also challenge them to a series of dad assignments, aimed at giving them a taste of things to expect in the coming years.

Host Davina McCall, pictured, said, "Men largely get ignored when it comes to pregnancy, birth and becoming a parent, so it's time to give them a much-needed helping hand.

"I really can't wait to do this programme. It's a well known fact I'm evangelical about birth and I'm really looking forward to helping prepare these dads for the best journey of their lives."

Their lives as fathers may hinge on what kind of role they play in the lives of their children, according to psychologist Dr Richard Woolfson. He suggests fathers-to-be focus their minds on whether they take an active part in bringing up baby and warned of the massive changes in the lives of new dads.

Dr Woolfson, the author of Factfile For First Time Fathers, said, "In the first instance there is a huge upheaval to life. They are in a relationship where there are two people and there is going to be a third player and they are going to be very heavily dependent on both parents.

"Essentially, the couple now have to function as a family rather than two individuals in a relationship.

"A lot of attention needs to be devoted to the baby. There is less flexibility and there always needs to be consideration of the baby.

"The fact the mother herself is likely to change is also something to prepare for, there may be a more maternal side which they have not seen before.

"The key thing for the man is to adjust to his changing role and the changing nature of the family. It can come as an abrupt shock and it depends what type of man you are and what role you are having."

The run-up to fatherhood is crucial, he adds. "It's time to decide what sort of father you are going to be. Are you going to be an involved father, are you going to say 'this is part of my life I want to be involved in and make decisions on my child's care', or will you leave that kind of thing to your wife or partner?

"It comes to down to what role you want to play in your child's life. Everybody has a fantasy before their baby arrives about what they think being a parent will be like and sometimes men's fantasies are a bit idealistic.

"But if you get involved with your child, the rewards are unlimited. I look at every baby and look into the baby's eyes and in an ideal world that baby will go on to be a grandparent themselves one day. They will contribute to the world so why shouldn't you be a part of that process, why should you stand by?

"One of the wonderful things about being a parent is that you develop new skills and you learn about new things.

"You get so much back from your child and there is so much to be gained from that. The father who takes a step back tends to be lacking in self confidence and maybe had quite an arid upbringing and they don't see the potential rewards in being an involved parent."

He's Having A Baby, BBC1, tonight at 6.40pm.

[Lou_uk]

DAMN!! Didn't know Danny was involved in that show! I heard the ad for it, and thought 'urgh, hosted by Davina McCall? Missing that one!!' I would have put up with it if I knew Danny was on!

How To Start A New Country is absolutely BRILLIANT. I just watch it with a big silly grin on my face, Danny's so crazy, I love him!

And his new book Yes Man is DEFINITELY worth a read. I don't know when it's out in Oz though... boo... buy it off the internet!

Danny ROCKS. Really nice guy

[unfrufru]

http://money.independent.co.uk/prope...icle320452.ece

Danny Wallace: The monarch of all he surveys


The comedian runs his own country from his London flat. But it's a tight squeeze accommodating his subjects

By Joey Canessa

Published: 19 October 2005



Danny Wallace: The monarch of all he surveys other pics 1 2 3

Danny Wallace, author, comedian, cult leader and king of his own country, lives with his girlfriend in a one-bedroom flat in Bow, in London's East End.

I've lived here for about five years, arriving from Harrow-on-the-Hill. I had lots of friends in the East End but had always assumed that it was 1,000 miles away. It's actually a very short journey from central London, Tube-wise, and my flat is a seven-minute walk from the Tube station.

When I first moved here, I joined the Bow Quarter website where residents can post messages to each other. I was alarmed to find that most of the messages took the form of warnings about local areas to avoid after dark and unpleasant anecdotes relating to muggings. After that, I became aware of figures lurking in the shadows during the walk home, which now felt a lot longer than seven minutes, and noticed the look of relief on the faces of fellow commuters as they lurched through the gates into the safety of the Bow Quarter. I don't look at the website any more. But the area has undeniably beautiful parts. Then you go round the next corner and it's horrid.

As the ruler of my own country, which is contained within the walls of the flat, I wear my uniform on special occasions. It was made for me by Dege & Skinner, who also produced vestments for the Sultan of Brunei. I used to fly a flag from the window but some of my over-enthusiastic subjects became a nuisance and I had to take it down. The flat itself is open plan, with a galleried bedroom above, reached by a spiral staircase. The gallery forms a useful raised podium from which to address my subjects, who can form a riotous crowd below in the sitting room. There is space for about 60 of them at a time, but as there are now more than 50,000, I will need to look for somewhere bigger quite soon.

The sitting room is made up of two distinct areas; the area at the far end is where I conduct most of my personal life, and is ordered and minimalist. There is a row of DVDs along the window sill, the size of which confounds me. Two years ago I had four films and now I own more than 200. I bought most of them for research purposes, and I conduct my research on a large and comfy brown leather sofa. The other end, nearer the kitchen, is my work area, containing my desk. I spend a lot of time reading and answering e-mails generated by the cult that I formed, "Join Me", where everyone is obliged to carry out a "random act of kindness" every Friday - such as putting money into a vending machine and leaving the packet of crisps for the next person.

My desk becomes cluttered very easily and I have amassed a collection of thousands of passport photographs, sent to me by the Join Me members, kept in boxes by my desk, awaiting reply. I have hundreds of them covering the walls of the hallway. In the past I worried that a burglar would form a very dodgy impression of me at the sight of my pervy-looking wallpaper, but then it occurred to me that I don't care what he thinks, since he's burgling my flat!

The windows here are about 15ft high and, being on the fourth floor, I have a fantastic view, overlooking the Millennium Dome and Canary Wharf. It's particularly beautiful at night when the panorama is imbued with an orange industrial glow. I love lying in bed, comforted by the sounds of the trains chugging gently by and pondering the marvellous cityscape before me. In the branches of the tall plane trees outside lives a tiny fluffy owl who peeps in at me and makes weird noises.

My dining table is a proper Sixties piece, from my family home, made of white Formica with metal legs. There's a photo of me as a baby in my carry-cot on this table, somewhere. The shaggy rug on the floor is also genuine vintage Sixties, and I had it in my playroom when I was little. I don't buy much for the flat, as there's not much room to put anything, but we do go down to Spitalfields market at weekends, where we sometimes buy bits of art.

On the wall in the sitting room is a giant, life-sized cut-out of me that I was given after a publicity thing in America. I got quite scared the first time I saw it at night. People must think I'm an egomaniac, but it's only here because I've got nowhere else to hide it.

I'm considering moving on soon, and Islington is tempting. I just fancy it, somehow. Islington knows it's cool and I like the buzz. It would be good to be able to take friends for a pint somewhere that isn't grotty. Round here, good drinking spots are hard to come by; it's all old men's boxing pubs - atmospheric but depressing. This is the only fully double-glazed country in the world, with 100 per cent employment and a 0 per cent crime rate, the first physical territory of my expanding empire. I'm not sure about the legalities of moving it to Islington.

'How to Start Your Own Country' is available on DVD from 24 October, £19.99

[Lou_uk]

Boo, I can't get the photos to work!

Very excited about the DVD being available!! Thanks for the article, fru

[Lou_uk]

*posted by Danny on the Join Me forum, at 1am this morning, about that article*

I have to say, that feature was a bit odd.

She didn't take notes, so all my 'quotes' have been... well... made up a bit. I don't go to Spitalfields every Sunday to buy art, for a start!

*posted by Danny on the Join Me forum, about a minute later*

Sorry, I mean she didn't *record* the chat, just took notes.

I'm off to bed.