Welcome to the very first episode of Jelly Trumpet, the podcast for creatives; tricks, tip and ideas to expand your imagination. Jelly Trumpet is a fun and not too serious podcast which goes way, way beyond the simplistic ‘How to be Creative’ blog post loved by many tired content writers.

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

 

 

Dive in for silly, surreal and odd interludes, o’ and some great music from the house band ‘We Paint Houses.’

Stuff We’ll Hear in this Episode:

• The famous glacier in Watford
• Why we need a fourth traffic light
• What if the United States of America finally invaded the United Kingdom?
• We meet Arthur-Maurice ‘Butcher to the Stars’ (giving the lowdown on Rita Ora)

And I share stuff I’ve done as a creative writer in ‘Stuff I’ve Done’ interlude.

You Are Your Own Medicine

We’ll be tackling the core of this season’s help for creative types and that is ‘You are Your Own Medicine’. We’ll be encouraging you to take the ‘Challenge at Home’ and we have a guest spot in each episode that enquires of each person what makes them tick, where their ideas come from and their one magic tip that makes them the creative person they are.

All this and utter daftness, where, I, yes Jim gets challenged live on air with a creative exercise (spoiler, I may cheat depending on the amount of coffee in my system), we look at a hot topic to do with creativity and we have a ‘List of the Week’ everyone loves lists eh?

In short, in this episode:

01:54 You Are Your Own Medicine
04:53 Challenge at Home, Wildmind
08:33 Creative Hero Time, Michael Bentine
11:31 Guest Spot, with Mr b from ‘We Paint Houses’

Guest Spot: Mr b, from ‘We Paint Houses’

12:23 Logic Pro
13:50 Writing Down the Bones, ‘The Compost Heap’
18:49 Why getting the bass down is important
20:45 ‘What do you do when stuck?’
23:28 ‘What would you tell a 10 year old about how to be creative?

Plus:

24:53 Challenge Jim
26:38 Hot Topic
28:14 List of the Week, Top 10 Animated Movies
29:22 Further Thinking Spot
30:20 Music from ‘We Paint Houses’ play ‘Breathe’

36:36 Ends

Guest Spot – Mr b of ‘We Paint Houses’

Well, this is a pilot and Mr b was around so I thought I’d interview him. Why? He’s highly creative and has a rather unique way of working on his music projects.

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:

Book
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

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 1 – THE PILOT

S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET INTRO MUSIC

WELCOME

JIM:
Welcome to Jelly Trumpet.

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

MR B:
Hang on.

JIM:
What is it Mr b?

MR B:
Sound levels. Just checking.

JIM:
Haven’t you made a podcast before?

MR B:
No. Have you? Aha! Right off you go.

JIM:
You’re going to cut that bit aren’t you?

MR B:
O yes Jim.

JIM:
Welcome to Jelly Trumpet.

You promise?

MR B:
Of course. Cross my heart and hope to be Bulgarian.

JIM:
Making you more creative…

Bulgarian?

MR B:
Yes.

JIM:
Why?

MR B:
Because last time I said that I was Portuguese and THAT is a tricky language.

JIM:
[SOTTO VOCE] One day, one day Mr b, one day.

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

Today we’re in Watford Hertfordshire, if you know Watford we’re on Cassiobury Park, overlooking the glacier. Is that a Polar Bear Mr b?

MR B:
I believe so Jim.

JIM:
What’s that yellow rag around its neck?

MR B:
Looks like a Watford football club scarf.

JIM:
O’ a football fan. He looks rather hot… Wait! And dare I say it, lost.

MR B:
We’re all lost Jim, ships without a compass passing in the…

JIM:
Not NOW!

Let’s do it properly eh? And cut this bit out as well!

MR B:
Certainly Jim. Mr b! The button!

JIM:
That’s my line. YOU are Mr b.

MR B:
O yes. So I am.

JIM:
MR B!

The button.

S/FX: BUTTON

On the show today…

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 our very own Mr b talking about his creative world in music.

S/FX: JELLLY TRUMPET JINGLE

YOU ARE YOUR OWN MEDICINE
[5 MINS]

JIM:
And now a spot called ‘You are your own medicine’

What that means is only you can teach yourself to write or be creative.

It’s being your own creativity coach. Other people can give you ideas but to make progress as a creative you have to work on yourself.

Keep a journal in whatever form you like, can be on a device or in a notebook.

Write up all your creative projects. At the end of the session…

Ask yourself questions.

What worked for me? What am I lacking in? Why was I so creative today and not yesterday?

You now have a benchmark. A starting point that you can improve from.

After a while you’ll see patterns. Patterns to encourage, patterns to avoid.

Every writer or creative is their own medicine.

I write stuff. Creative writing, plays, stories, tv scripts, sitcoms.

Writing down what works for you when you are creative and what troubles you like how to get better means you have a reference, a measuring stick.

That’s what this podcast is all about. It’s creating a way for you. That’s you, to build your own way of working, find out what works for you, build up your tools and learn from yourself.

I keep a database. I know geeky as hell but you can do the same thing with a note taking app or a written journal.

When I started using my own medicine…

I found myself writing down things like: go for a walk, see friends, play a particular piece of music.

Seems obvious doesn’t it? Go for a walk Jim. So what puts you in the mood? For years I used to play ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by the Verve. It always put me in the spot I wanted to be in to write.

If you know that tune, it’s when the violins kick off, just put me in a calm state.

The effect did wear off after years so I would fall back on other things.

What works for me are things like having a window overlooking a busy street. So, being alone but near people is my favourite creative location.

Takeaway: So keep a Journal of how you work. Call it what you like. I call mine ‘Medicine.’

Record every session until you are happy.

I’ve been using mine for years and years. I write in it a lot less BUT I have a library of things to try, things to avoid, writing exercises and tips I’ve made for myself and picked up from others.

S/FX: INTERLUDE MUSIC
[3 – 5 SECS]

RIFF
[1 MIN]

JIM:
MR B? What if there was a fourth traffic light?

MR B:
So, after red, amber and green what would you have?

JIM:
Blue Mr b. A blue traffic light.

MR B:
What for?

JIM:
Chill.

MR B:
Where would it come in the sequence Jim?

JIM:
So, Red. STOP! Amber READY! Blue chilllllllll! Green GO!

MR B:
And the purpose Mr Jim?

JIM:
A more peaceful world Mr b.

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

CHALLENGE AT HOME
[5 MIN]

Now the Challenge for you to try at home later.

S/FX: HOME CHALLENGE RIFF

The Wild Mind

I’ve taken this idea from a book, which we’ll reference at the end of the show.

This is about your energy.

It’s learning to trigger the energy that we all have. For some of us it’s passion, some it’s indignation, for others, like me, it can be pure anger.

It’s also about shaking off the pursuit of ‘The Editor’ who inhabits our head and tells us negative thoughts.

It’s not a permanent way of working. Few of us can maintain great emotions when we write.

So write down in your medicine:

What sets you off?
What brings the fire to your game?
What inspires you in that moment?
That moment before you start a project?

For some it’s doing some mental exercise.
For me it used to be anger. Less now, praise the Lord of Writing!
‘I’ll show them. Nothing like this has ever been written before.’
I used to get into a contained rage.

You know what? Being an animal. You know what? This might not work for you. You know where a writer writes from?
It’s not the head. It’s not the heart.
It’s the gut.

To get to writing or being creative on demand (and this is a hardcore exercise) you could try appointment to write.

Get yourself a lot of paper, I used to use school exercise books. Make an appointment to write. Say 6:30pm. At the second the time hits 6:30pm you start to write and you don’t stop writing for 10 minutes.

O’ boy! When I used to do this exercise and I did it for several months, I would get so angry. You’ll find yourself writing the same words over and over, just so you don’t stop and some of those words, well, they’re were quite rude.

Your handwriting will look like windblown snake trails on a desert dune and you may even find yourself putting so much pressure on the pen that you rip through the paper.

Yes. Hardcore but it will teach you that you can teach yourself to write at the time you want.

Record your successes in Your Medicine.

Don’t give up too soon.

A word of warning, if you are a new writer you may find yourself writing that you can’t write. Let this take its course, it will disappear.

And if you feel despondent after a session embrace ‘The Sweetheart’. The Sweetheart is the voice inside your head that tells you how good you really are, the best bits of you. Embrace ‘The Sweetheart’ for the same length of time.

I worked my way up to an hour. God it was hard. I hurt. Never thought I could write. Like I said. Hardcore. If you feel mentally frail then please don’t attempt this exercise.

Takeaway: So, find what your triggers are to get you in the creative state.

RIFF
[1 MIN]
JIM:
MR B. What if the United States of America invaded the UK?

MR B:
I think they already have Jim. What if there was no US television or film? We’d watch more European stuff and world stuff. You know. Get a lot of varied ideas. New ways of looking at things.

JIM:
I like that. I must watch more european stuff. O’ and Korean and Japanese. We learn the same things with US culture. Nothing wrong with it. Just there is so much more out there which we need for creative ideas and balance.

I’ve been terrible about watching new stuff recently. Watching the same film again and again is a comfort.

I will set myself the goal of watching one world cinema film per week.

And RELAX!

CREATIVE HEROS
[3 MINS]

S/FX” JELLY TRUMPET JINGLE/MUSIC

JIM:
Creative Hero time!

In this episode a real throw back to someone I saw as a kid. I think it was in colour. We were watching like a variety show and on came Michael Bentine.

I love him for many reasons.

Most of all turning a single object into a multitude of different props.

In creative jargon it’s how you can take one thing and use it in a multitude of ways.

Michael will mean nothing to you if you are under 45!

But he still exists on YouTube, don’t we all.

Search ‘Michael Bentine chair back routine. It’s a bit creaky now. But he uses the broken back of a chair to represent different props, a gun, a saw, a door etc.

How did he come to do this sketch? He broke a chair while playing around and started playing with the idea of what the chair back could make.

So an accident PLUS imagination, one thing – many uses made a short and inventive sketch.

Long before Saturday Night Live, The League of Gentlemen and Monty Python there was the Goons.

Before them you had The Marx Brothers, The Ritz Brothers, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Cops.

Michael was an original member of the Goons but thought there was too many in the mix so moved on, made his own shows including Potty Time for kids.

Michael also loved cartoons. There’s a story in his biography, he had a tiny amount of money and he met a friend. Should they get something to eat or go to the cinema to watch cartoons? Yep. Cartoons it was.

He was half Peruvian and a Hertfordshire lad. Born in Watford.

He also wrote novels and he was a member of MI9 during the second world war. Check them out. Fascinating.

Anyway, One of my creative heroes Michael Bentine. Look him up on FaceTube.

S/FX: COMING UP JINGLE/MUSIC

COMING UP

JIM:
• Our guest, Mr b of We Paint Houses
• Challenge Jim, why did I agree to that!
• A Matter of Concern
• Interlude with Jasmine
• Stuff I’ve Done
• And List of the week

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

RIFF
[1 MIN]

JIM:
What if the United States of America REALLY did invade the UK?

MR B:
Are you repeating yourself Jim?

JIM:
No….Wait…Yes.

MR B:
Coffee break?

JIM:
O god yes! Hang on!

MR B:
What?

JIM:
Nothing.

MR B:
O’ we should be doing the podcast shouldn’t we?

JIM:
That’s it. I knew we were up to something.

So, if the United States of America invaded. Do you know what they’d do? That’s right.

They would immediately ban tea, cricket and allotments.

We’d be the solid state aircraft carrier, ripe for the invasion of Russia and of course France, where all cheese will be directed by the US to be made either square or come out of can, only it won’t be real cheese will it, o’ no it will be chemically formed and wrapped in plastic and come with a side arm.

We’d then have cheese barons, an underground market de Fromage, Brie, Camembert and Roquefort would be a hard won treat

DAMN YOU AMERICA!

So please don’t vote for America, we’ll lose all the cheese.

MR B:
And the cricket?

JIM:
O’ well…

GUEST SPOT
[10 MIN]

S/FX: GUEST SPOT MUSIC

JIM:
Welcome to Mr b..

Mr b has a number of musical hats and is also a wizard. Well, not literally, he’s a musician, a composer, an IT guru and software developer o’ and an all round decent multi-talented chap.

Mr b.

RIFF
[1 MIN]

S/FX: NORTHERN MUSIC – PERHAPS NORTHERN SOUL VIBE

JIM:
Just popping into the studio is Arthur-Maurice. How are you doing Arthur?

ARTHUR-MAURICE:
Aye Jim, can’t say fairer than nowt.

JIM:
Is that a leather apron you’re wearing?

ARTHUR-MAURICE:
Aye. I need one for my work.

JIM:
Which is?

ARTHUR-MAURICE:
Butcher. Butcher to the stars.

JIM:
Can you tell us any stories perhaps about your star customers?

ARTHUR-MAURICE:
That Harry Styles, loves to be up to his elbows in offal. Ed Sherran is a sausage mad bitch. He calls them ‘his little bags of meaty mystery.’

Then there’s Rita Ora’s black pudding parties.

Don’t get me started on Little Mix and their beef ribs and pork chop celebration dances…

JIM:
Thank you Arthur-Maurice.

ARTHUR-MAURICE:
Pleasure lad. Pleasure…

CHALLENGE JIM
[1 MIN]

S/FX: CHALLENGE JIM JINGLE/MUSIC

MR B:
It’s Challenge Jim time.
Every episode we challenge Jim to do a creative exercise.

So that he may improve on what he has.

Jim, the challenge this episode is: write a story using only 6 words in one minute.

Your time starts now!

JIM WILL FLOUNDER WHILE MR B WILL COUNT DOWN EVERY 20 SECONDS.

A MATTER OF CONCERN
[2 MIN]

JIM:
This is where I get a bit bothered.

Here’s a post from that great sinkhole of business time, Linkedin.

‘We are all artists in this life and our greatest goal is to create from the space within’ It was promoting a workshop for business people.

Nothing wrong with a workshop about creativity, we’ve all got to make a living.

But there is something wrong in telling people we are all artists. Because we’re not. Raising people’s expectations. Utter cac. We’re not all artists and we don’t have to be artists to be creative. I know a lot of business people who put their creativity into their work.

We have different roles and creativity and imagination play their part but we’re not all artists and we don’t have to be. Stop writing balls!

Mr b The button!

RIFF
[.5 MIN]

S/FX: FUN BIT OF MUSIC FROM MR B

INTERLUDE WITH JASMINE
[1 MIN]

JIM:
Now our interlude spot with Jasmine d’ Bomb. A ‘creative life, a happy life’ Jasmine is an gction 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.

[PUTS ON DEEP VOICE]

Compassion what is it? is an element of the creative.
It’s really, really hard for some of us, wrapped up in our creative worlds but if we try every day then everyone wins.

Be kind. You don’t know what journey the other person is on, what hurt they have or where they are going.

If you don’t like or don’t get on with someone then turn it into something. Turn it into a song, a play, a painting or just let it go.

If you’re being hard on yourself. Try the exercise Jim mentioned earlier.

The Editor and the Sweetheart.

The Editor tells you how bad you are. We all have that voice. Write it down, A half page of A4 max.

Now you’ve done that turn the sheet over and write everything good about yourself. That’s your sweetheart and be your own medicine.

Or…you can watch your favourite movie and eat vegan cakes.

Thank you for having me Jim

STUFF I’VE DONE
[3 MIN]

JIM:
When I was learning to write I used something I called ‘The Frontier Form’.

It was just a Word document with three main columns.

Column 1: Things that are similar
Column 2: The Frontier
Column 3: Things that are opposite

The idea or topic would be written out, say two people in a pub.

Fill in the columns, similar and different.

Say 10 – 25 of each. Then use the Frontier column to list ideas that were potentially funny.

There was also a few other headings at the top of the page to act as reminders: People/places, Things, Events, Language and Notes. These headings were to help focus on particular things I wanted to cover.

So it was listing stuff that would lead to ideas.

Creation is sometimes just holding two opposing ideas or things that don’t normally go together. Anyway, this was a formal process which worked.

Once you learn it you can do it in your head or without the need for the formality of the form.

Hence a butcher to the stars and the meat they love.

Amen!

RIFF
[1 MIN]

S/FX: PHONE RINGING

MR B:
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:
And the reason for your call.

HENK:
I wish to complain about the amount of meat on your show.

JIM:
I see.

HENK:
Yes with climate out of control the promotion of mea…

S/FX: PHONE CUT OFF

JIM:
My bacon-fat-covered fingers must have slipped.

LIST OF THE WEEK
[1 MIN]

S/FX: LIST OF THE WEEK JINGLE/MUSIC

JIM:
I love lists. And I LOVE Animated movies!

Here’s the top 10 animated movies of the 2000s. A list from the IMDb (owned by Amazon, now you know) and what I think of them!

1. Finding Nemo – OK I suppose
2. The Incredibles – Don’t remember much of this one
3. WALL-E – Charming
4. Up – O’ man a great film ‘SQUIRREL’
5. Persepolis – Not seen it, on my list
6. Lilo & Stitch – My daughter thought it was OK
7. Spirited Away – Not seen it. On the list
8. Chicken Run – Not in the same league as Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Werrabbit.
9. Happy Feet – No thank you
10. Mary and Max – Not heard of this one. Gonna give it a go.

S/FX: OUTRO JINGLE

OUTRO
[1 MIN]

JIM:
Further thinking spot
We mentioned ‘Wild Mind’ at the top of the show. This is taken from a book about writing, but it WILL make you more creative, called ‘Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, it’s full of short chapters and writing exercises that you can dip into.

One of my top three books about writing of all time.

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’

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 Mr b playing us Breath by ‘We Paint Houses’ a melodic rock band. Find them on Facebook.

MUSIC
[1.5 MINS]
We Paint House

FADE IN

JIM:
Well I hink hat wen well.

MR B:
Say that again.

JIM:
Well I hink hat wen well.

MR B:
I see. What you need Jim is some tea.

S/FX: Tea being poured.

JIM:
[DRINKING] I said ‘well, I think that went well.’

MR B:
It did. Now about the squirrel.

JIM:
No Mr b! We’re not encouraging a squirrel to play drum solos on our podcast.

MR B:
Not even a couple of cymbal taps?

JIM:
No!

MR B:
Quick tap on the snare drum?

JIM:
My word is final.

S/FX: GUITAR BEING PLAYED BADLY

JIM:
(Cont.) Give him the sticks.

S/FX: TUMBLEWEED BLOWING ACROSS THE PRARIE

FIN