Do me a favor and go read this story from the Sunday Post magazine. It's about a guy who calls himself The Great Zucchini and makes six figures doing kids' birthday parties. I apologize for the Post's lame policy of making you jump through five frickin' pages to finish the story; get around it by clicking on "Print This Article" at the top left. (I would've just linked to that, but I wanted you to see the picture of TGZ, who is kind of hot.) Anyway, the hoops are worth it. It is one hell of a story.
If it raises journalistic questions in your head like it did in mind - along the lines of, holy cow, did that guy know millions of people were going to read about his personal issues this weekend? - then also read this discussion with the dude who wrote the story. If you read far enough down in the discussion, you'll find a question I sent in. See if you can tell which one it is.
I would also link to The Great Zucchini's website, but I gather (from said discussion) that it installs spyware on your machine. So I recommend not going to it. And if he's reading, I recommend hiring a new web designer.
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8 comments:
I gleaned from the online chat that the reporter is an arrogant ass who's quite proud of his abilities. That, and the sense that he didn't really get that maybe the GZ wasn't all that capable of making decisions in his own best interest.
Wow. I read the article and discussion COMPLETELY differently than Spice. I LOVED them both (and thanks for pointing them out, scientific one).
As for which question was yours, I hope it was the "Does God laugh?" one but I fear it might be the "Why five pages?" techie one.
The reporter is indeed quite impressed with himself, but I think he's generally right - he's an amazing writer and a darn good reporter. (He's not as funny as he thinks he is, though.) It didn't occur to me TGZ might be incapable of judging his self interest.
OleN, wrong on both guesses. And I also loooooved the story, while at the same time being like oh my god did this guy know what he was getting into. The discussion reassured me that he did, or at least that the reporter did all he could to make sure the guy was clear on the process. And it's not like he's developmentally disabled, he's just majorly ADD or something.
I feel like the reporter was using TGZ to demonstrate to everyone how brilliant he is. But I have to admit, I found the article really damn gripping.
I read some of the questions (a bit lengthy, couldn't get through the whole thing), and I found this horrific quote from the writer:
"My main message was that the central goal of handling geniuses is to coax the best out of them without upsetting the delicate mix of qualities that seems to give them their inspiration. Geniuses are often eccentric... The key is not to go in and try to "civilize" them or modify their antisocial or self-destructive behavior... Vincent Van Gogh would have been ruined by Prozac."
What a fuckhead. Being tortured by a gambling addiction or any other kind of self-destructive behavior is not a "delicate mix of qualities," and it just burns me that people still make the whole absurd "Van Gogh would have been ruined by Prozac" argument. The reporter would willingly deny urgent medical care to an artist, just so that he could enjoy art borne of someone else's horrific mental anguish. Asshole.
Yes, what Sophist said. I read it when I was pretty tired, so that pretty much captures what I thought - only in coherent sentences. Also, I felt like the article dragged a bit - by the end, I kept thinking "Okay, I _know_ this guy needs some professional help!"
Here you are:
Anyway, here's my question for you: could you write a profile of me next so all those organized single men out there can get in touch? I'm a reporter, which is a little duller than a kids' entertainer, but you could make it into something, right?
I love towwas.
ding ding ding ding diiiinngggg! Miss Shirley wins the prize!
Yay! What's the prize? Don't tell me, it's a bird.
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