10-22-2008, 12:26 AM
Hello!
Over the summers of 2005 and 2006 I helped out a friend who had been asked by Martin Burton (aka Zippo) to run a booking line for him. I did a few hours a week. Believe it or not, we worked in an upstairs conservatory (really!) attached to a cottage in a remote Herefordshire village about 3 miles from my home.
In '06 I was the first to get a call from Vishka - this was the one which they finally used, with the bear. At first I thought it was real; although we were only supposed to be a booking line, we were naturally used by all and sundry as the first point of contact. Acts looking for work were quite common, also all sorts of nutter calls.
After a short while it became clear that this was a spoof; I then assumed right to the end that it was someone on the Circus winding me up. I guessed Martin or the Canadian clown who was with them that year. This is why I was consistently polite and tried not to laugh.
Several other people then got different calls from Vishka - we kept a list taped to the desk. I later got another in which he said his act was juggling with live poodles. Much later the office was told what was really going on and they called me at home to get permission to use the recording
Dave
Over the summers of 2005 and 2006 I helped out a friend who had been asked by Martin Burton (aka Zippo) to run a booking line for him. I did a few hours a week. Believe it or not, we worked in an upstairs conservatory (really!) attached to a cottage in a remote Herefordshire village about 3 miles from my home.
In '06 I was the first to get a call from Vishka - this was the one which they finally used, with the bear. At first I thought it was real; although we were only supposed to be a booking line, we were naturally used by all and sundry as the first point of contact. Acts looking for work were quite common, also all sorts of nutter calls.
After a short while it became clear that this was a spoof; I then assumed right to the end that it was someone on the Circus winding me up. I guessed Martin or the Canadian clown who was with them that year. This is why I was consistently polite and tried not to laugh.
Several other people then got different calls from Vishka - we kept a list taped to the desk. I later got another in which he said his act was juggling with live poodles. Much later the office was told what was really going on and they called me at home to get permission to use the recording
Dave