Nine years ago today, Steve Chapman took a heap of books to the South Bank for a ‘Busking Book Launch’. (And I went along to film him.)
As people approached, Steve sang songs that he invented right there and then – in the moment. The songs were variously frenetic, comic and hauntingly lyrical. People either stopped to find out more or kept walking.
Most who stopped looked both delighted and baffled. Quite a few took away a free copy of Steve’s book.
Steve is a one-off – a creative weirdo, in the best sense, and a great friend. He’s got a new book coming out soon. I don’t think he’s planning to busk for this one but I may be wrong – I often am.
***
I wrote about Steve’s Busking Book launch in A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech, and will be using it as a case study in my month-long online course on that topic.
It might seem like a quirky thing to include, but what more difficult specimen of public speaking can there be than to catch and hold the attention of passing strangers? We can all learn from Steve’s example.
The course starts at the end of April.
More details soon. If you don’t want to miss out, subscribe to my newsletter below. (If you subscribe already, you still need to fill in form for news about this course.)
Subscribe Now: