Talking to Myself

Talking to myself ©

By Michael Casey

Well its freezing here sat in my North facing chair, it’s the coldest day of the year too, Totoro our cat poked her nose out into the back yard and decided it was too cold outside, so she dashed into the house and up the stairs to hide under the duvet, she is not stupid after all. As for me I had to brave the weather to hang out the washing, a hausfrau’s work is never done.

So what will I talk about today, I’m going to talk about talking to myself. If you have read any of my words then you will have noticed that I write so that you hear me, words for radio if you like. This is because I grew up listened to BBC Radio 4, which is Speech Radio, intelligent speech radio not Howard Stern like radio or the thousands of speech radio programmes that thrive on argument as their speciality subject. I have even recorded 200+ of my stories in the vain hope that one day I can break into Radio, though having just said what I’ve said they might never give me a chance.

So what is Writing and what is Radio, you might get that as an essay topic someday. In a way it is talking to yourself, it’s just you and a microphone shooting the breeze. Or in my case I write the piece, the story and only when I’m finished do I read it back to myself, and to my girls if they are around, and then I can judge have I hit the subject on the nail or not.

Then in the past I’ll record what I’ve written. When recording the written word I have to get the feel of the written word into my voice, as the writer I know the Timing and Punch Lines, if I were to ask somebody else to record it they could miss the Qs if you like. We have a comedy show here in England which is very well written and the show is/was much loved, but do you know what the problem is? The Timing is out by half a second so I just cannot watch it, and do you know what my Lawyer sister-in-law agrees with me, and she knows a thing or two about words.

When you are talking to yourself on the Radio, the flow does make a big difference, and so if the flow of words stops and starts like the pages of the script stuck together then the overall result is bad. Style does make a difference, do you let the words flow, do you let the Music Speak as the old Abba song says. Or do you stick the roadblock of your “personality” in the way of the flow. Here in England we’ve been spoilt by the BBC in my opinion, and if you love words like me, then if you hear a jabbering idiot talk over the music to tell you what he’s going to have for dinner or who his latest girlfriend is then all you want to do is scream, or if you are in America shoot the radio.

You do need a plan or an idea in your head before you start to talk to people, but once the ice is broken you can slide along without falling on on your ar ar, well on your lack of ideas. This is where reading and listening comes in, if you have talked to many people then some of them has rubbed off on you, so you have a greater awareness of life. That’s why working in a hotel is such fun, as well as incredible hard work.

Radio brings you straight into people’s private space, people listen with their cat, in their bath, in bed, holding hands, or just cosy in front of the fire. So if you make a little effort, then you soon become a friend, it should be about sharing something, then Radio is at its best. I know this as I started as a Radio listener maybe 50 years ago. Radio is a Conspiracy, of laughter or even of Music with David Mellor, a conspiracy of many many things. 

As we all know con spire, is Latin for breath together, so we should be having a close relationship with our radio, almost making love to it, though making love to a person with the radio on is even better. Radio is not some shouty  person you would gladly let drown at the bottom of your bath, radio is intimate, that’s why you hide under the bedclothes with it.