Here we are at episode 6 and it’s the last in Season 1 of our attempts to promote creativity for all and to make you in particular the most creative you can possibly be dear reader.
Reincorporation looks easy at first understanding. What does it mean to you? It’s the familiar, the familiar reworded by referring as to what went before. We like it because we recognise that the creator of the work knows what they are doing.
In your field what can you use more than once? Have you listened to the audience? What do they like? It’s where character traits lead to catchphrases and something even more important, anticipation.
When you watch a comedy and a situation crops up and you know the character and how they are going to react, then that’s anticipation, which comes from (character writing first) reincorporation.
Do subscribe to Jelly Trumpet for future ways of expanding your imagination. O’ and leave as a thrilling review, well, if you think Jelly Trumpet is of merit…
This is my favourite episode so far because I can look back and reuse ideas that went before.
You can listen to the sample on this page or click on the ’Subscribe’ button below.
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Acast
Stitcher
Google PodcastsStuff We’ll Hear in this Episode:
- David Mamet’s three questions
- Cutting down on thinking
- The famous Emperor Haile Selassie impersonation
- The Bible Redux, with director’s commentary from Jacob Rees-Mogg
I’ve done a lot of workshops in my time, clown, physical theatre, improv, writing and I’ve enjoyed and learnt from everyone. I remember one for stand up comedians. We were given this line to finish and make into a routine: ‘I woke up this morning and…’ Wrote a lovely piece which went on ‘…decided to rid the world of evil.’
Give yourself stating lines when you are stuck, just do an exercise and set yourself a time limit. When time is up and you are still not firing. Stop. Stop immediately otherwise you will do yourself mental harm. Record it and how you eventually got past it (because you will).
That’s being ‘Your Own Medicine’.
You Are Your Own Medicine
‘You are Your Own Medicine’ is being your own coach, you can read books, you can go on courses but only you are going to make the difference for yourself. Sounds easy doesn’t it. Well, it isn’t you are going to work at it and keep going with the journal even when you are at a low point. The reward is huge.
Think of the expectations you create for your piece. How can you break, subvert or misdirect? Now you can have fun.
In short, in this episode:
02:31 You Are Your Own Medicine, setting up anticipation
06:47 Challenge at Home, David Mamet’s 3 Magic Questions
09:28 Creative Hero Time, Russell Lewis
12:49 Guest Spot, with Claire Millins, copywriter / Blurbologist
Guest Spot: Claire Millins, Kook Content
13:35 Writing for a mental health app
14:29 The ‘Blurbologist’
15:49 Setting up a company
16:30 Earliest memory of being creative
17:16 Becoming an actor
18:01 Writing about creativity for a client
18:50 We are all born creative
19:50 My sister and my Mum, the most creative people I know
21:09 What’s the best thing someone has said to you about being creative?
24:45 What would you tell a 10-year old on how to be creative?
Plus:
26:41 Challenge Jim, what can Jim hear?
29:36 List of The Week, Best movie dialogue and best movies for visuals
30:55 Hot Topic, transmedia storytelling
31:55 Music from ‘We Paint Houses’, ‘One Minute’
34:14 Ends
Guest Spot – Claire Millins, Kook Content
We talk to Claire Millins of Kook Content, a copywriter, an actor, a trained journalist and a lot more. Claire is an all round creative who runs her own company and has a fondness for F1 motor racing.
Please leave us a review on your streaming platform of choice. Well, if you like Jelly Trumpet. If you don’t then please keep schtum and forget this every happened.
Useful Stuff from This Episode:
Our guest:
Claire Millins, copywriter
Linkedin: Claire Millins
Website: Kook DIgital Content
Happy creating,
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
Read the Script
EPISODE 06 – Reincorporation
S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET MUSIC
WELCOME
[1 MIN]
JIM:
Welcome to Jelly Trumpet.
Making you more creative. Tips, tricks and ideas for expanding your imagination.
BARRY:
Didn’t you just say that?
JIM:
No.
BARRY:
Could have sworn I’d heard it before.
JIM:
Well Barry. That’s because this is episode six. Welcome to Jelly Trum..
BARRY:
Nope.
JIM:
It is.
BARRY:
No. It’s not because this is episode six. You said it twice.
JIM:
Didn’t.
BARRY:
Did.
JIM:
Didn’t.
BARRY:
Did.
JIM:
Didn’t! Welcome to…Now WHAT?
S/FX: SOUND OF A TAPE MACHINE REWINDING
BARRY:
Listen to the tape.
JIM:
Tepmurt yllej ot emoclew…
BARRY:
See [A BEAT] Mind you it is in reverse.
JIM:
[SIGHING] Have you been recording my brain again?
BARRY:
Yes.
A BEAT
JIM:
Moving on. Welcome to Jelly Trumpet.
S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET MUSIC
Making you more creative. Tips, tricks and ideas for expanding your imagination.
S/FX: GOING BACK IN TIME HARP LIKE MUSIC
Today we’re going to talking about.
S/FX: REBOOT! REBOOT! REBOOT!
JIM:
What’s that?
BARRY:
IT’S A FLASHBACK JIM.
JIM:
Flashbacks are all very well Mr b as long as you don’t bring back eight-track Jazz.
BARRY:
Perish the thought Jim. No. This was alluding to our time doing technical support for Apple Computer.
JIM:
Those were the days [A BEAT] No they weren’t. I got an ulcer. Anyway, today we ARE talking about reboots, reincorporation and An…t…….ici….p….ation.
S/FX: LASER MISSLES
Mr b. We’re getting laser missiles from the previous episode.
Mr b. why are we getting laser missiles from our last episode effort?
BARRY:
Because a good gamer, very much like me never sleeps. O’ and Elite Dangerous is always live.
JIM:
I see. Well, let’s get on with the show. Today we are bringing you Jelly Trumpet live from sunny Berkhamsted…
BARRY:
Overlooking the missile silo on Castle Street.
JIM:
Yes. Who’d have thought Berkhamsted would have it’s own nuclear deterrent.
BARRY:
I believe it’s to keep people from Hemel Hempstead out of Waitrose.
JIM:
And of course satisfy the local council tax obligation.
BARRY:
What’s that?
JIM:
To make sure no one without a 4 x 4 can enter the town.
BARRY:
Gotta love them [A BEAT] or not…
S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET JINGLE
JIM:
In this episode
• You are your own medicine
• An exercise for you to try at home
• Silly, silly, silly things
• Challenge Jim
• Creative Heroes
• AND
• Our guest is Claire Millins talking about her creative world in…
S/FX: JELLLY TRUMPET JINGLE
YOU ARE YOUR OWN MEDICINE
[5 MINS]
JIM:
Being your own medicine is currently a regular slot on Jelly Trumpet. Because it is so vital to refining your creative world.
Your own medicine is writing in a journal all about your creative sessions. Feedback for yourself, self coaching. Write in it after every session. The journal will build into your creative library.
The reason is that you and ONLY you can make yourself as creative and as imaginative as you desire.
Courses, books, videos are great for harvesting tools BUT creativity and the usage of it to further your work, your business or just your pleasure is solely down to you.
So, the answer is to keep a journal of what works for you, a paper one or a notes app. Apps and documents on your computer are going to work better because you can search them.
Reincorporation. This works well…well what it means is to make something a part of something else once more.
Why?
Because of familiarity and one other aspect in creative writing. It leads to anticipation.
What makes a character funny? Well, lots of things, it can be what they say, they are spouting funny lines, they could be clumsy and you have slapstick humour.
They can think very differently and you are surprised by their solutions to everyday problems.
But in the main you want to get to that point where an audience starts to laugh BEFORE the character responds. They are anticipating the character’s reaction.
Watch your favourite sitcom or film, find the part you found yourself laughing and ask yourself is it because you knew how they were going to react?
The character is made. The character will react ‘reincorporate’ what you know about them.
When I write I often look to plant something early on. That’s a lie. What usually happens is I come up with a funny idea much later in the process and work backwards.
I look to add a ‘plant’, a sign that an audience can look back to (not consciously) that has set the laugh up, long time in the future.
Reincorporation is a story device. We want the familiar, we want to have references to where we are now and we love to make a connection. It makes us as an audience feel good, comfortable, satisfied.
Sometimes in creative pieces, the set up or plant is too overt. Think 1970’s US cop series. CAMERA PANS TO A DISCARDED GLOVE.
The plant should be subtle but more than that. It should be disguised or used differently from the expectation. When you do that, you have surprises and audience satisfaction.
That expression. ‘Leading someone up the garden path.’ Which actually refers to some, er adult imagery is one way of looking in creating that anticipation.
Up the garden path is a pattern isn’t it? I’ taking you here up the garden path to this place and along the way everything that adds to that picture happens so you will expect THIS result.
Now you’ve noticed the pattern you can break it. So much tv, Netflix, Amazon Prime are just brilliant at this now.
Takeaway: Think of the expectation of your piece, theatre, prose, marketing campaign, whatever. What is the expectation? How can you break that expectation for a satisfying emotion for your audience?
What is your audience going to anticipate?
What do you have to plant earlier to make this satisfying result? O’ and don’t make it bleed’in obvious.
Don’t forget to record all this in your medicine journal.
S/FX: INTERLUDE MUSIC
[3 – 5 SECS]
RIFF
[1 MIN]
S/FX: SAMPLE SUPER DRAMATIC MUSIC (FOR THE BIBLE)
JIM:
Now. A quick word about reboots. What’s your favourite reboot Mr b?
BARRY:
Well, that would be The Bible 2.0 Redux edition with a director’s commentary from Jacob Rees-Mogg.
JIM:
O’ the one where all the characters are really positive and say not to worry.
BARRY:
That’s the one. No need for guilt, love your neighbour’s ox or coveting their knives. I like the bit that says ‘don’t worry be happy.’
JIM:
We know a song about that.
BARRY:
We do. O’ and The Ten Suggestions. That’s a great piece.
JIM:
O’ yes, where you can take a suggestion or not.
BARRY:
I like that..
JIM:
Bit like a menu.
BARRY:
Where you choose your favourite dishes or…
JIM:
Not.
BARRY:
I hope it catches on.
JIM:
Me too Mr b.
Things are never written in stone are they?
S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET TUNE
BARRY:
Jim. Have another coffee mate and cut down on the thinking.
JIM:
Thank you Mr b.
S/FX: SQUEAKY TOY OR A.N.OTHER PHYSICAL EFFECT
CHALLENGE AT HOME
[5 MIN]
This episode Mr David Mamet, one of the great playwrights and screen writers.
David Mamet’s Three Magic Questions
I am and always will be a lover of the creative. I’m happy to improve very slightly every day and I admire anyone that manages to make me think.
David Mamet is part hero and part virtual mentor, although he doesn’t know that!
If you ever want to see a real play on film and understand people then check out Glengarry Glen Ross. Al Pacino, Jack Lemon, Alan Arkin and for a brief scene Alec Baldwin.
Also check out The Edge with Antony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin.
Why am I going on about him? Well, in one of his books he sets out three magic questions:
1. Who wants what from whom?
2. What happens if they don’t get it?
3. Why now?
This is why I love David Mamet. Man with a brain the size of the planet can produce wonderful seemingly simple films, each containing a universe.
This is in my Medicine. I use the questions as a proof of story ideas. If you don’t like these three then find questions that make you think.
Can you use those three questions outside writing stories. Of COURSE YOU CAN!!!
If you are a song writer, they’re stories in song, if you are an artist, painter, does your picture answer these questions?
A performer? Well how does your character answer these questions?
If you are in business you can ask this of your buying persona /avatars or your audience. A great starting point for creating conversion type copy.
Takeaway: You are thinking AS your audience. Not yourself when you ask these questions. If you have a prose work or script you can ask it of all your characters, not just the main protagonists but the minor ones too.
RIFF
[1 MIN]
JIM:
Mr b, what am I thinking now?
BARRY:
Erm…more coffee?
JIM:
Nope.
BARRY:
Sausage roll?
JIM:
Well, yes. But something else too.
BARRY:
Could it be ridding the world of evil?
JIM:
Spot on Mr b.
BARRY:
And how, pray tell, will you achieve that?
JIM:
All I need Mr b is a tube of super glue. I will superglue all Instagram influencers to their own mirror, well, some to their iPhones, I will also superglue an American president to his own hair, all people wearing sunglasses indoors to two pint pots of cheap cider, one for each hand, All Premiership footballers to a Honda e-car and the majority of MP’s to a council house in Wigan.
Brothers and sisters Amen!
CREATIVE HEROS
[3 MINS]
S/FX” JELLY TRUMPET JINGLE/MUSIC
JIM:
My creative hero in this episode is a little-known name, Russell Lewis.
Russell is a former child actor, he was in Young Winston amongst other 70’s movies. He took to writing and is the main writer and also the developer behind the tv series Endeavor.
If you don’t know the series, do check it out. Russell was also a writer on Inspector Morse, the grumpy highly educated Oxford policeman.
Endeavor is the first name of Inspector Morse and Endeavor takes us back to the early days of his life in Oxford during the 60s and 70s.
Why is Russell a hero?
Layers. Layer upon layer of creativity. It’s not all down to him of course, the technical aspects of the show are all detailed, the props, the locations, the costumes, the lighting, everything real creatives need. Other people being their best. Not to mention the actors, all superb.
What I thrill at is.
Taking a known character and fleshing him out.
Using the period, things like council bribery, children’s homes scandals.
The dynamics between the status of the characters along with making them real.
The depth of the main character. You never really know the why or how he is like the way he is.
Reincorporation is here but backwards. They take character verbal tics like Jim Strange’s “matey” and reuse it again and again. So you get this forward rush of what he is like in Inspector Morse only he is more so as you follow him and the crew in the past.
Status is something that we go on about in theatre especially and we also want to capture what the best and worst of something is, whether it is the person or the society.
When you combine that with a great actor and I mean a world class one like Anton Lesser you get Chief Superintendent Bright. An ex colonial policeman, a stickler, the boss, seemingly. Old Britannia.
Yet he moves with the time, he rides the flow of politics but he achieves two things. He will always do the right thing for people and he will never let his people down.
All done in that emotions are difficult way. Then you add a terminally ill wife and they both adore each other. A love match.
Great work comes with detail, with the support of others and an awareness of what life is like (in a dramatic tv sort of way).
Anyway check it out and find out more about reincorporation or let us know your favourite usage on tv or film or even music!
S/FX: COMING UP JINGLE/MUSIC
COMING UP
JIM:
• Our guest, Claire Millins of Kook Media.
• 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]
S/FX: MUSIC HALL TYPE MUSIC
JIM:
Mr b it’s impression time! Mr b THE SCREENS!
BARRY:
There you go.
JIM:
TARAAAAAAA!
BARRY:
Who is that supposed to be?
JIM:
The Emperor Haile Selassie.
BARRY:
What is going on inside you head?
JIM:
At the moment a desperate need for acceptance.
BARRY:
Try another one.
JIM:
Could I have a drum roll?
BARRY:
Certainly.
S/FX: DRUM ROLL
JIM:
This is…
BARRY:
Don’t tell me…William Wallace.
JIM:
How did you…
BARRY:
The massive sword you’re cradling along with the crushed blueberries running down your cheek.
JIM:
I see. Was that that squirrel doing the drum?
BARRY:
I’ve told you before. His name is Nigel.
JIM:
He’s very good.
BARRY:
His heroes are [BARRY NAMES TWO DRUMMERS]
JIM:
And how do you explain Nigel’s braided hair?
BARRY:
He’s a fan of [BARRY NAMES SOME POPULAR SINGER]
S/FX: MUSIC CHOSEN BY BARRY
GUEST SPOT
[10 MIN]
JIM:
Welcome to Claire.
Claire is a copywriter.
Thank you Claire for sharing your imagination.
RIFF
[1 MIN]
BARRY:
I was wondering what you are currently working on Jim?
JIM:
This. It’s hard work you know!
BARRY:
Tell Nigel about it.
JIM:
I’m working on expanding the stories in my book ‘Story Wars.’
BARRY:
Available from all good Amazon websites.
JIM:
Thank you for the plug Mr b.
BARRY:
No. Thank you Mr Jim for the plug.
JIM:
O’ your band ‘We Paint Houses?’ Available from all good music services?
BARRY:
That’s the one. So, what are you expanding?
JIM:
Well, I wrote the book to encourage story telling and…
BARRY:
To make money.
JIM:
That’s right, one more sale and I can buy a pretty decent bottle of wine.
BARRY:
Go on…
JIM:
So, I wrote these three young adults telling stories. Each of their stories has the scope to become a full blown storyworld.
BARRY:
A storyworld?
JIM:
A shared universe that can be told across multiple media, a transmedia approach to story telling.
BARRY:
Which are you going to expand?
JIM:
Not sure, Kevin the talking cat, the time travelling hotel or my favourite the 19th century pirates that live in the present day.
BARRY:
Have you ever thought of taking up fishing?
JIM:
No.
BARRY:
You should. You really should Jim.
CHALLENGE JIM
[1 MIN]
S/FX: CHALLENGE JIM JINGLE/MUSIC
BARRY:
Up for a challenge are you Mr Jim? Close your eyes and tell us what you can hear. You have a full minute.
JIM EXPLAINS WHAT HE CAN HEAR, VARIATIONS OF NOTHING THEN THE VOICES INSIDE HIS HEAD
A MATTER OF COCERN
[2 MIN]
JIM:
And now the use of the word ‘Brainstorming.’
I saw a post on Linkedin the other say asking ‘How can you brain storm’ on your own?
You’re better off doing it yourself a lot of the time. Or working with people you trust.
There’s so much corporate-training-companies-excrescence, bulges-of-stupid-cocked-up-ideas-that-make-me-want-to-shout-shut-the-BLEEP-up!
If you want to come up with ideas and you are in a group situation. Do some trust exercises, O’ like the people and NEVER say no OR treat anyone with disrespect by even inferring scorn on an idea.
Ideas can be used like stepping stones. You jump from one to the next till you reach the peak. The thing is you almost always never hit peak first time AND if you didn’t have that half-thought stepping stone you wouldn’t reach that peak.
Brainstorming isn’t just a word, a really awful word, but it still counts as a word. It’s a profound experience, hey you can do it with a light heart and lacking pomposity but it is an experience not just shouting out ideas to impress.
S/FX: AMEN [AS DONE BY ANGELS]
RIFF
[.5 MIN]
S/FX: FUN BIT OF MUSIC FROM MR B
INTERLUDE WITH JASMINE
[1 MIN]
JIM:
Now our creative interlude spot with Jasmine d’ Bomb. A ‘creative life, happy life’ Action coach guru and all around guru to other gurus.
Over to you Jasmine.
[PUTS ON DEEP VOICE]
JIM:
I find it hard to be kind. I really do when it comes to the creative world. If you are not onboard with me then I’ll bid you a farewell and go my own way.
Time and again I’m wrong. Being humble when you have a prejudice is hard. We all have them. Owning up to them relaxes you. The more relaxed you are the easier the creative urge becomes. That and laughing at yourself.
So, even if you notice your prejudice making you less than humble one time in five, you have something to work on and somewhere to go.
S/FX: AMEN [AS DONE BY ANGELS]
STUFF I’VE DONE
[3 MIN]
JIM:
Years ago. I mean another world. I wanted to be a stand up comedian. O’ I did it, wasn’t for me, blah, blah, blah.
I went to a workshop for budding comedians. One of the exercises was to be given the start of a sentence. Then we’d come back next week with a routine starting with that part sentence.
The teacher (I use that word so loosely his trousers were constantly falling down) gave us ‘I woke up this morning and…’
The first thought that came into my head was: ‘I woke up this morning and decided to rid the world of evil.’
Well, we all have our little quirks.
I went on: ‘I woke up this morning and decided to rid the world of evil. My method? Superglue.
The routine went on with me on an open topped bus driving down The Mall pointing out people I’d super glued to mirrors…
Now, where have I heard that before?
BARRY:
Page eight.
JIM:
I did the routine live a few times. It went OK.
But the other part of reincorporation is reusing stuff. How can you rework stuff you’ve already done for a new purpose?
EXPAND
RIFF
[1 MIN]
S/FX: PHONE RINGING
JIM:
Who’s that?
KARL:
[MOCK GERMAN ACCENT] It is I!
JIM:
You being?
KARL:
Karl. Karl Zeuss.
JIM:
And you are?
KARL:
A cliché, a well established cliché.
JIM:
I see. And where are you calling from?
KARL:
1968.
JIM:
How about coming to join us here in the present day?
KARL:
Nein danke!
JIM:
Why’s that?
KARL:
Because I would be out of place.
S’FX: PHONE CUTTING OFF
BARRY:
He’s right you know.
JIM:
No place for that kind of chap here.
LIST OF THE WEEK
[1 MIN]
S/FX: LIST OF THE WEEK JINGLE/MUSIC
JIM:
UND NOW!
BARRY:
Stop it Jim. This isn’t 1968. O’’ see what we’ve done there.
JIM & BARRY:
Reincorporation!
It’s my list of the week. This week it’s an alternating film list, Best dialogue movies alternating with best movies for visuals, no particular order we have:
His Girl Friday – Sharp dialogue, strong male and female leads
The Searchers – Opening and closing shots, perfection
Casablanca – ‘Round up the usual suspects!’
Lawrence of Arabia – a match cut with a match, sheer class and shimmering
Juno – smug but strong zippy wording
Master and Commander – That’s what a storm looks like
Reservoir dogs – trying substituting the f-word with Labrador, hours of fun
The Duelists – An oil painting come to life, Ridley Scott trained at the Royal College of Art
Glengarry Glen Ross – See what I did there?
The Fall (2006) – Odd and beautiful to watch
Bonus Movie That Has Both
Armageddon, I know bit like a pantomime in a glass. Bit like a bottle of Port at Christmas, take a sip and then you finish the bottle don’t you!
In your line of work can you make an alternating list of factors you love?
S/FX: OUTRO JINGLE
OUTRO
[1 MIN]
JIM:
Further thinking spot
This further thinking is a web search. Search transmedia storytelling. Write up what you find. Keep to a set amount of time.
What or how can you use this rather obscure idea in your work?
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 can ‘fun’
Thank you for listening
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 Barry playing us Xxxxx by ‘We Paint Houses’ Find them on Facebook.
MUSIC
[1.5 MINS]
We Paint House
FADE IN
JIM:
Broken cup, yesterday’s newspaper, cigarette butts, empty plastic bottle, some dust, a cork, a well used sponge, potato peelings.
BARRY:
What are you doing?
JIM:
I know. I’m talking rubbish.
BARRY:
Well try something else.
JIM:
A tartan blanket, a map app, thermos flask, cucumber sandwiches, a small rucksack, a kissing gate, a haystack, some horses in a field, a country pub…
BARRY:
Stop it.
JIM:
Sorry I was rambling.
FIN