Welcome to the second episode of Jelly Trumpet, the podcast making you more creative. Tips, tricks and ideas for expanding your imagination.

We’re not too serious and we have a fun show like an old-time radio programme. This episode we meet Nigel, the squirrel who loves drum solos.

You can listen to the sample on this page or click on the ’Subscribe’ button below.

Stuff We’ll Hear in this Episode:

• How to use a red flag for argument’s sake
• An award ceremony for award ceremonies.
• 3 fabulous tweets from the Swansea branch of Waterstones

And I share stuff I’ve done as a creative writer. This episode I talk about my first stage play and about the regret of working with a friend.

You Are Your Own Medicine

‘You are Your Own Medicine’ is all about keeping a journal. The journal becomes your coach. You record what works for you and what doesn’t. Only you can make yourself as creative as a doughnut and pretty as a Victoria Sponge.

In this interlude I cover the power of the humble index card and the pleasure of using a scale on each journal entry.

How to be creative is all down to you. Finding your own time and space, the tools that make you creative AND productive, plus finding ideas you wouldn’t have got to without ‘being your own medicine.’

In short, in this episode:

01:52 You Are Your Own Medicine
05:29 Challenge at Home, ‘What if?’ Plus a quota.
07:41 Creative Hero Time, Edward de Bono, 6 Thinking Hats
10:01 Guest Spot, with Adam Hunt, White Label Comedy

Guest Spot: Adam Hunt from White Label Comedy:

11:02 Combining comedy with marketing
12:09 Knocking it [the brief] into shape
12:13 Accessing the Campaign
14:18 ‘I can do anything I want’
15:37 Innocent Drinks
17:01 ‘Different sizes of paper’
20:15 The One Show, Jeremy Vine and All Saints

Plus:

24:12 Challenge Jim
25:01 Hot Topic, ‘Saying NO!’, Owning your own work
27:03 List of the week, Waterstones Swansea and tweets ‘…the thesaurus leak’
28:24 Further Thinking Spot, Tony Buzan and mind-mapping
29:19 Music from ‘We Paint Houses’, ‘One of a Kind’

32:14 Ends

Guest Spot – Adam Hunt, White Label Comedy

Adam Hunt runs a creative agency powered by the UK’s best comedy writers and copywriters. Adam is an ex tv producer and is now a copywriter running his successful agency helping brands succeed online with funny content marketing.

Thank you for reading and if you would like some more info or have some questions drop us a line, details on our Contact Us page.

Useful Stuff from This Episode:

Our guest:
Adam Hunt, White Label Comedy
Website: whitelablecomedy.com
Linkedin: Adam Hunt

Book:
Edward de Bono

Book:
Tony Buzan

Our Sponsors:
Conversion Detectives

Our Band:
We Paint Houses

Happy creating,

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About Jelly Trumpet
We’re a podcast all about creativity. Every episode is aimed at stimulating your imagination and making you laugh with silly, surreal bits & bobs.

Sign up to the newsletter for sporadic creativity tips you can use every day, o’ and some rather silly jokes.

Sponsored by Conversion Detectives, the creative digital marketing agency

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Read the Script

EPISODE 02 – GOING WRONG IS GREAT

S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET INTRO MUSIC

WELCOME
[1 MIN]

JIM:
Welcome to Jelly Trumpet.

Making you more creative. Tips, tricks and ideas for expanding your imagination.

MR B:
Just a moment.

JIM:
What is it Mr b?

MR B:
I need to close the window.

JIM:
O’ because of the possible noise.

MR B:
No. We’ve had a problem with squirrels.

JIM:
Pesky little things aren’t they?

MR B:
They’ve taken to being very judgmental about the music on the show.

JIM:
How so?

MR B:
Better start again Jim

JIM:
Welcome to Jelly Trumpet.

S/FX: DRUMMING SOUND

Making you more creative. Tips, tricks and ideas for expanding your imagination.

S/FX: DRUMMING SOUND
Ahem! What was that?

MR B:
O’ the squirrels like the drum kit.

JIM:
Can you get them out?

MR B:
Well, I usually let them have their solo.

S/FX: DRUM SOLO

JIM:
[TRIES TO TALK OVER THE DRUM SOLO]

Mr B. Mr B! MR B!

MR B:
Yes Jim?

JIM:
No more squirrel drum solos.

MR B:
OK. I’ll get the cat.

JIM:
Thank you Mr b. Today we’re in St Albans Hertfordshire if you know St Albans we’re in the Roman Theatre of Verulamium. The place is packed with sunbathers.

MR B:
Ahem!

JIM:
What Mr B?

MR B:
Those aren’t sunbathers.

JIM:
O’ I see. Just another day in St Albans.

Mr b! The button!

S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET JINGLE

JIM:
In this episode

• You are your own medicine
• A challenge for you to try at home
• Silly, silly, silly things
• Challenge Jim
• Creative Heroes
• AND
• Our guest is Adam Hunt, White Label Comedy

S/FX: JELLLY TRUMPET JINGLE

YOU ARE YOUR OWN MEDICINE
[5 MINS]

JIM:
We talked about this in our last episode ‘You are your own medicine’

It’s keeping a journal. You keep a record of your creative projects so you learn how YOU work and accelerate your creativity. Write up each creative session you have on a device or in a book.

And we’ll keep coming back to it as I say it is the single most powerful action you can take to expanding your creative being.

So this is about finding your own way of working.
I started using this idea years ago for writing scripts for TV competitions and plays.

The humble Index Card
I use one index card per scene for a tv script or play.

This is for mapping.

This is after collecting some ideas, some of the story, perhaps the ending, some character notes and more.

On one side I write what happens only. Just bare facts. The character goes into the lounge. He meets a friend. They have a cup of coffee.

I might give the scene a name but in pencil.

As I work on the script I’ll write ideas on the other side. Just a collection point really.

When you map out a creative project like this you can be ruthless.

What happens if I take this scene/index card away? Does the plot still make sense?

Going back to You Are Your Own Medicine. Your creativity journal.

I give each entry in my medicine diary a mark 1 – to 5 for how successful each is in terms of helping me write. So I can quickly look for the best things to try.

Some tips or tools or notes will get repeated, some not used for years and some others, never again, as I’ve learnt something.

Here’s an entry made while writing a trilogy of plays based on movie genres.

‘One thing I’ve found important, is to let the first thought come but not be attached to it, think beyond the first thought.

Now as I write I relax and more possibilities come to me.

Simple eh?

Now this was a while ago but I can go back to entries like this that helped me create.

It’s also very important when you get stuck. You have a way of getting unstuck.

Not long ago I finished the third play in a trilogy based on movie genres. The third play had a disaster movie vibe.

Set on an overturned cruise liner during a zombie apocalypse in the Caribbean and it features two groups who are smuggling gold bullion, plus some chimps trained as assassins by the FBI.

Anyway, I got to a point where the different groups had to escape over a YAWNING chasm. And I wanted to use something simple to make the scene funny, I decided on a simple wood plank.

O’ and the performers in this play all played a variety of different characters. So, I kept trying to work out which characters could meet which characters.

I spent many Saturdays, my writing day, trying to work that out.

Then I realised, from looking at My Medicine, I was asking the wrong question. The question should have been ‘How can I make this scene with a plank funny?’

Duh Jim! Soon as I had that the scene was written.

Takeaway: if you’re stuck on a project; are you asking the right questions?

S/FX: INTERLUDE MUSIC
[3 – 5 SECS]

RIFF
[1 MIN]

JIM:
Mr b? Mr b!

MR B:
Yes Jim?

JIM:
I’m waving the red flag.

MR B:
Yes.

JIM:
Well, we agreed. The red flag means start an argument.

MR B:
No it doesn’t

JIM:
Yes it does.

MR B:
No it doesn’t.

A BEAT

JIM:
Yes it does.

S/FX: DRUM ROLL

MR B:
Sorry. Thought I’d got rid of all the squirrels.

S/FX: SQUEAKY TOY OR A.N.OTHER PHYSICAL EFFECT

CHALLENGE AT HOME
[5 MIN]

Try this at home
How do you go about finding your way of working, of being creative?

You collect tools. Some will work often. Some less often.

There isn’t a process for creativity. It’s not linear. You could look at creativity as having the universe in your head.

You can pop from one planet to another planet on different planes for different ideas or different tools.

What if?
This is such a simple tool for any creative person. so simple so effective. Possibly the two most powerfully creative words you can use.

You’re probably using this anyway. But you can formalize it’s use. Ask yourself ‘What if?’

That’s half of this technique.

The other half is to combine it with setting a quota.

So, you need ideas? Ask yourself what if? Not five or ten times but fifty to one hundred times.

It’s mad. Mad in a very special way. You’ll get some good ideas in the first few goes, then the ideas become silly, ridiculous, even banal. Keep going.

When you look back you’ll find a handful that have potential. But you wouldn’t have had them without setting that quota.

Now, take your top five ideas you’ve generated. Expand them a bit. Which ones have the most energy?

To make this technique even more powerful set a time limit.

Time discipline is another element to creativity that we’ll chat about in further episodes. It works especially well with performers doing group exercises.

Why? Well you cut through the conscious mind and hit ground zero, the unconscious where you are free, alive and spontaneous.

Takeaway: Generate more ideas then you think you need.

RIFF
[1 MIN]

JIM:
I was wondering why aren’t there any award ceremonies for award ceremonies?

MR B:
An award for an award? Is that what you mean?

JIM:
I do.

Just a thought. The Awards for Awards. Best Award for an Award that no one cares about. Best up and coming Award for an Up and Coming Award Ceremony. And the award goes to the award for awarding awards…

S/FX: SILLY NOISE

CREATIVE HEROS
[3 MINS]

S/FX” JELLY TRUMPET JINGLE/MUSIC

JIM:
This is a shout out to Edward do Bono, the inventor of ‘Lateral Thinking.’

I remember going to check out schools for my daughter. We walked down the corridor of this school in WGC and on the walls the children had made posters for Edward de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats.

He’s a hero of mine because of this simple tool for moving between different forms of thinking. I thought thinking was just, you know thinking.

So each hat is a different colour and you metaphorically put them on to change your style of thinking. It was an eye opener for my creative world.

So, the different hat colours and their particular form of thinking are:

Blue – The Big Picture
White – Facts and Information
Red – Feelings & Emotions
Black – Critical Judgment
Yellow – Positive
Green – New Ideas

Yes it is a formal process. But isn’t it smart? I mean you can see, with these hats, how your thinking comes in many forms.

Edward de Bono is from Malta, a psychologist an author and a thinker about thinking. Check out his books. How to Have Creative Ideas: 62 exercises to Develop the Mind is a goody. Pick the ones that work for you and add to your medicine journal.

S/FX: COMING UP JINGLE/MUSIC

COMING UP

JIM:
• Our guest, Adam Hunt
• Challenge Jim, Mr b will issue me a challenge
• A Matter of Concern
• Interlude with Jasmine
• Stuff I’ve Done
• List of the week

Sponsored by Conversion Detectives, the really creative digital marketing agency. Search Conversion Detectives.

RIFF
[1 MIN]

JIM:
Hello Arthur-Maurice.

AM:
Aye lad.

JIM:
Would you care to describe yourself to the listeners?

AM:
Certainly Jim lad. I’m two feet two, long red hair and I have a very stiff neck.

JIM:
And you are…

AM:
A butcher by trade, a ventriloquist dummy by design. I’m here to keep you and Mr b on the straight and narrow so you don’t get above thy self. I’ve seen it before. Talking about creativity and saying nowt. People want action thy knows and not from just any stereotypical mechanism.

You haven’t thought this through have you lad?

JIM:
I think I have Arthur-Maurice. I’ve created you.

AM:
O’ I see what thee means. Carry on! I’m just going to pop out for a tobacco latte.

S/FX: SILLY SOUND

GUEST SPOT WITH ADAM HUNT OF WHITE LABEL COMEDY
[10 MIN]

JIM:
Welcome to Adam.

Adam is…

Thank you Adam for sharing your imagination.

RIFF
[1 MIN]

S/FX: QUAINT ENGLISH TEA PARTY MUSIC

S/FX: IDEALLY WE SAMPLE THE FRY AND LAURIE HEDGE SKETCH – FIRST MINUTE OTHERWISE WE’LL READ IT

HUGH:
Hello. I’d like to buy a hedge, please.

STEPHEN:
Good morning, sir. Can I help you?

HUGH:
Well, what sorts have you got?

STEPHEN:
A hedge! Well, we have three sorts, sir.
(realises something’s wrong)
What sort of hedge would you like?

HUGH:
Could I have a look at the Imperial, please?

STEPHEN:
We have the Royal, the Imperial and the Standard hedge.

HUGH:
(very worried) No – it’s a present.

STEPHEN:
(equally worried) Certainly, sir. May I ask is the hedge for you?

HUGH:
Erm – I’m not married.

STEPHEN:
Ah! For your wife perhaps?

HUGH:
Not at all – I’m in no hurry.

STEPHEN:
Well, if you wouldn’t mind waiting I’ll just ring down…
start again, start again…

JIM:
Great comedy created by something going wrong. What about you? Have you ever created something from something that went wrong?

We’d love to hear from you. Email us jelly@jellytrumpet.com

S/FX: DRUM ROLL AND SQUIRREL NOISE

JIM:
He’s at it again!

MR B:
He’s going through his John Bonham phase.

JIM:
And those two?

MR B:
Eh?

JIM:
The other two squirrels with their paws in the air.

MR B:
Groupies.

JIM:
Groupies? Groupies? That red tail has GROUPIES!

MR B:
Yes. It is rather flattering isn’t it?

JIM:
Why haven’t I got groupies Mr b? Mr b? MR B?

MR B:
I’ll just get the squirrel.

JIM:
Thank you.

CHALLENGE JIM
[1 MIN]

S/FX: CHALLENGE JIM JINGLE/MUSIC

MR B:
Jim your challenge this episode is…

You have thirty seconds to write a story starting ‘I woke up this morning and…’

JIM HAS A GO AT IT WHILE MR B COUNTS DOWN THE SECONDS AT RANDOM

S/FX: HOT TOPIC MUSIC

A MATTER OF CONCERN
[2 MIN]

JIM:
Where we talk about something recently creative that we liked or a trend. If you use Linkedin you’ll see people label themselves in all manner of ways.

You’ll see name and then something like ‘Disruptive Trail-Blazer,’ ‘Thought Leader’ and even ‘Leader of the Rebellion.’

I love it ‘Leader of the Rebellion’ means ‘I’ve watched Braveheart one hundred and seven times.

Do you label yourself? If you label yourself you’ll lose out. It’s a bit like why I rarely give characters a name when I start a writing project. Why? Well, a name suggests something and it’s hard to shake off what that name means to you. For example ‘Gary’ Gary is going to be a Gary I’ve met or seen on the screen instead of an original character.

Mr b. A musical burst if you please.

RIFF
[.5 MIN]

S/FX: FUN BIT OF MUSIC FROM MR B

INTERLUDE WITH JASMINE
[1 MIN]
JIM:
Now our creative interlude with Jasmine d’ Bomb. Jasmine is a lovely person and a ‘creative life, happy life’ Action coach guru, disruptor, disruptor-tail-blazer, Ninja, thought leader, Firestarter, chief maverick, catalyst, [YAWNS], evangelist, Rockstar and millennial pod cast host.

Over to you Jasmine.

JIM:
[DEEP VOICE]
Now. If you’re feeling blue try listening to a podcast of others who struggle with low mood. Search for ‘happy and you know it podcast’.

It’s comedians talking about ‘the black dog’ and it’s insightful and also funny.

S/FX: JINGLE OR MUSIC FOR STUFF I’VE DONE

STUFF I’VE DONE
[3 MIN]

JIM:
The first play I wrote and saw on stage was called ‘Dream Duel’. A man steps into his own head and has an argument with two sides of his personality. The sweetheart who just wants to have fun and the editor who just critics.

Simplistic idea, which I loved. When you get a simple idea, you love then that is going to give you energy as a writer.

But it was a highly enjoyable experience because I had three performers, friends who brought their ideas to the piece and made it funnier and sadder.

Co-operating with people isn’t always easy when you like creating something from scratch.

The second time I did a play. It was with another friend and I didn’t know how to say no. So, the idea got diluted.

I must confess this as a regret. I had to learn that lesson. Even when working with friends you HAVE to keep the core of your idea and yes vision under control. It’s your idea and others, who are trying to be helpful, can take it far away from what you saw in it at the start and not for the better.

I suppose it came about because I wasn’t confident in my ability and also because I usually listen more than I talk. O’ and I want people to like me.

Now. Still not easy but I can explain this when a suggestion comes from a friend or acquaintance. ‘I like it, but it doesn’t fit with where this is going.’

So, co-operate but always OWN your work.

RIFF
[1 MIN]

S/FX: PHONE RINGING

JIM:
Go ahead caller.

HENK VAN MANN:
Is that Jim?

JIM:
Yes it is.

HENK:
It’s Henk Jim! Remember? Professor of Liquid Creativity at the University of Groningen.

JIM:
Didn’t you call in the last episode?

HENK:
That is correct.

JIM:
Why are you calling?

HENK:
I have a quote about creativity just for you Jim. There are many fish but they all cannot fly.

JIM:
Thank you Henk.

S’FX: PHONE CUTTING OFF

JIM:
(cont.) O’. Finger slipped, too much ketchup on my sausage sandwich again.

LIST OF THE WEEK
[1 MIN]

S/FX: LIST OF THE WEEK JINGLE/MUSIC

JIM:
I love lists.

This Episode it’s a short list, 3 Tweets from the Swansea branch of Waterstones.

Tweet 1
Doors closed 2.5 hours ago. We are, as ever, staying late. There have been reports of a thesaurus leak, and we are worried, bothered, concerned, apprehensive, fraught, fretful and nervous about it. You never know when it may strike. Or transpire. Be vigilant. And wary.

Tweet 2
Doors open in 5 minutes. The thesaurus leak yesterday has resulted in a minor synonym overload, so please be aware that you may notice some abnormal repetition today. You may also experience a bit of unusual reiteration.

Then Belmont Books got involved
So much better than the slang dictionary leak we had at @belmontbooks last week. Didn’t know whether to mop it up, censor it, or wash entire store’s mouth out with soap. (Still a few little cusses loose here and there.)

And finally

Tweet 3
That sounds a little challenging. We had an ‘Oxford Dictionary of Physics’ leak in ’97. For days all we could talk about was absolute expansivity and palaeomagnetism. We are still finding the odd quark behind the shelves, too.

S/FX: OUTRO JINGLE

OUTRO
[1 MIN]

JIM:
Further thinking spot
Here’s something we’ll touch on in the next episode. Mind Mapping. A great way to gather thoughts. So, search for Mind Mapping Tony Buzan.

Tony is no longer with us but he left a lot of great books about thinking and memories.

Why not create a mind map about you and creativity?

S/FX: MUSIC TO PLAY UNDER THIS

Join us in further episodes and:

• Be more creative
• Pick up tips and tricks you can put into play instantly
• Try exercises to boost your imagination
• Listen to creative guests
• And a whole lot of what we call ‘fun’

If you have any questions or ideas for Jelly Trumpet
Email us jelly@jellytrumpet.com

IDENT
That was Jelly Trumpet ‘Making you more creative’ with Jim Kinloch and Mr b.

Sponsored by Conversion Detectives, the creative digital agency. Search Conversion Detectives.

Now here’s Mr b playing us with Xxxxx by ‘We Paint Houses’ Find them on Facebook.

MUSIC
[1.5 MINS]
We Paint House

FADE IN

JIM:
Well that went very well.

MR B:
I also think it went very well.

JIM:
Shall we do another one?

MR B:
I would say yes Jim.

JIM:
[SIGHING] What’s he doing now?

MR B:
The squirrel? He’s laying down some tracks on Logic Pro for the next episode.

JIM:
You’ll be out of a job.

MR B:
I think not Jim He can’t make coffee. His paws are just so very tiny.

JIM:
Cute.

MR B:
Thank you.

JIM:
You’re welcome.

FIN