Jelly Trumpet

S0211 Combine Part I

April 13, 2023 Jim Kinloch & Mr b Season 2 Episode 11
Jelly Trumpet
S0211 Combine Part I
Show Notes Transcript

The podcast is in trouble. Nope. Not from the usual things like Japanese Anime characters or Victorian villains, this is far worse.

We join the podcast as Mr b is typing his list of favourite Quentin Tarantino movies.

Jim is trying very hard to get Jelly Trumpet, the podcast back to…well, being a podcast about creativity.

This is just as well as Jelly Trumpet faces being shut down!

Why does Tony, the voice-over guy, keep referring to Sharon?

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:

  • A knock on the podcast door
  • Why Jelly Trumpet should be a ‘proper podcast’
  • A gentle hum
  • Some reservoir dogs

Thank you for listening to the Jelly Trumpet Podcast!

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Stay fab,

Mr Jim & Mr b

Season 2 Episode 11 – Combine Part I

RIFF 1

S/FX: FADE IN

MR B:
How’s the script going Jim?

JIM:
It’s going well. Second draft.

MR B:
No volcanoes? No Japanese anime games? No abandoned Victorian gothic houses?

JIM:
No Mr b. This episode is strictly about creativity and not about making fantasies come true.

S/FX: SOUND OF RAPID TYPING

JIM:
What you typing Mr b?

MR B:
My favourite Quentin Tarantino movies. At number three is; Kill Bill II, at number two Reservoir Dogs and number one is Pulp Fiction.

JIM:
Good choice!

MR B:
You realise that the podcast has picked up Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, Sherlock Holmes, a drunk Doctor Watson and we are in possession of a bongo playing squirrel the size of a St Bernard dog? Amongst other things.

JIM:
We’ll put them back. You have to fix the podcast buttons and then all will be fine. The straight and narrow for us.

MR B:
We won’t mention JB the vocalist in the cupboard under my mixing desk or the fact we have a guitarist living behind the sofa? Do you think fantasies can ever come true?

JIM:
I promise. Just sound advice and tips on creativity this episode. I believe a fantasy is our new reality Mr b.

MR B:
Fine. Excellent! Buttons are almost fixed. Just waiting to get steam up and then we can put everyone back where we found them. Coffee or fantasy?

JIM:
Coffee. Your majesty.?

ELEANOR:
Oui.

MR B:
Your majesty. The usual? I’ll get the chocolate powder.

JIM:
[READING] In this episode we will talk about using combinations in our creative endeavours.

MR B:
Perfect Jim. Factual and interesting.

JIM:
Thank you Mr b.

S/FX: SQUEAKY CUPBOARD DOOR OPENING

MR B:
No JB. Stay!

JIM:
Isn’t it time for his milk?

MR B:
He’s just had some. Can’t give him too much. I mean do you want to burp him?

ELEANOR:
He burps in tune.

S/FX: A FEW NOTES ON AN OBOE

JIM:
Nigel. Please refrain from playing your pink oboe. Instead, play with your nuts.

S/FX: A GUITAR RIFF

ELEANOR:
In a minute mon cher Spen.

S/FX: COFFEE BEING POURED

MR B:
Ahhh! Bliss.

JIM:
[SIPPING] Bliss.

S/FX: LOUD AND CONTINUOUS KNOCKING ON THE PODCAST DOOR

MR B:
What the…?

JIM:
Are we expecting a guest?

MR B:
Not till this evening.

S/FX: KNOCKING GETS EVEN LOUDER

MR STICK:
[MUFFLED THROUGH DOOR] Open up. This is the P.A.!

JIM:
P.A.?

MR B:
P.A.?

JIM:
Well, best let him in. We’ll find out what the P.A. is?

S/FX: AIRLOCK OPENING

MR B:
Can I…

MR STICK:
P.A.! Podcast Authority.

JIM:
Podcast Authority?

MR STICK:
Correct. I am Mr Stick, MA, MSc, MBA. And this is our re-trainer Miss Bit.

MR B:
Re-trainer?

ELEANOR:
Merde.

JIM:
Shhh! Your maj…er Eleanor. Well, delighted to meet you Mr Stick, Miss Bit. This is Mr b, NB, GD, MT.

MR STICK:
NB? GD? MT?

JIM:
Nice Bloke. Great Dad. Magic Technician and I am Jim MH, WD, M & S. That is Mot Homme, Wine Drinker and lover of Percy Pigs.

ELEANOR:
They are satisfying.

S/FX: SOUND OF A SQUIRREL CHIRPING

MR STICK:
What was that?

JIM:
That’s Nigel, erm, he’s a St Bernard.

MR STICK:
He looks like a giant squirrel to me.

JIM:
He’s malting. How can we help?

MR B:
We were just about to start…

MR STICK:
It has come to the Podcast Authority’s attention that you are keeping a disorderly podcast.

MR B:
Well, a bit rough around the edges…

JIM:
We’ve only just started broadcasting. Give us a break.

MR STICK:
Furthermore, you are not taking podcasting seriously. That’s a crime in our book and it’s a big book.

ELEANOR:
Merde!

MR B:
Shhh! Eleanor!

JIM:
Thank you for letting us know. We’re on it. As I was informing Mr b, this episode is…

MR STICK:
We’re going to retrain you so you both make a proper podcast. One where people talk about interesting real things. Informative, educational and delightful.

JIM:
That’s IED isn’t it?

MR B:
I’ll press the start button.

ELEANOR:
Please do.

MR STICK:
You will not! I have to go and break up a comedy podcast about comic books now, for taking Michael Mcintyre’s name in vain. Miss Bit will supervise this episode and report back to me.

MR B:
And if we don’t take podcasting seriously?

MR STICK:
Things will get very sticky with Miss Stick and me. We’ll take away your license, ban you from podcasting indefinitely and confiscate your socks. Miss Bit! Carry on.

S/FX: AIRLOCK CLOSING

MR B:
Can I push the button?

MISS BIT:
Carry on as if I’m not here.

S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET JINGLE

TRAILER

TONY:
Welcome to Jelly Trumpet. The world’s only comedy podcast about creativity.

Jelly Trumpet makes you more creative with tips, tricks and ideas for expanding your imagination. Especially good for business people wanting to be creative online!

In this episode:

• A checklist for being more creative called ‘The Nine Trumpets of Creativity’, our eighth Trumpet is: ‘Combine’.

• Challenge at Home. A creative exercise for you to try at home

• Challenge Jim, where Mr b challenges Jim with an exercise in creativity

Plus

• A brand-new micro sitcom called ‘The Start up’ with our hero Mary ‘The Entrepreneur’ starring in an episode titled: ‘The Emperor’s Podcast’, Part 1. Part 2 later.

AND

• Our very special guest is Xxxx Xxxxx will take part in ‘Interview Countdown, 12 questions in 12 minutes!

[SOTTO VOCE] Ode to Sharon…

JIM:
Not now Tony eh?

MISS BIT:
Who was that?

MR B:
My friend and voice over guy, Tony. Tony try and think of something apart from Sharon eh?

S/FX: JELLLY TRUMPET JINGLE

9 TRUMPETS OF CREATIVITY

JIM:
This season on Jelly Trumpet we’re talking about the ‘9 Trumpets of Creativity’.

It’s a list of nine ways of being more creative. In our last episode we talked about the joy of the reverse.

This episode: Trumpet 8, ‘Combine.’

Download the PDF of all ‘9 Trumpets of Creativity’ from the Jelly Trumpet website.

This list of creative tools is rearranged from Osbourne’s Checklist also known as SCAMPER.

If you’ve listened to the first season of Jelly Trumpet, you’ll know we talked a lot about keeping a journal. A journal of how you worked on each creative project. We called this journal ‘Your Medicine’. The idea to build up your own toolkit of ideas, the journal becoming your creative self-coach.

So, here we go with No. 8 in our ‘9 Trumpets of Creativity’.

Combine
One of my favourite ways of working on a writing project after the idea comes, an idea with energy. One that puts ‘fire in my belly’. O’, and remember it’s best not to talk about a project until it is set in your mind and created a significant amount of focus. If you talk about it too much the idea can be diluted and the spark lost and therefore the project is also lost.

So, one of the things I do is build lists. When I wrote a trilogy of plays each based on a movie genre, I had lists like: Top 10 Westerns, Top Heist Movies, Best Disaster movies, the names and character types of ‘The Magnificent Seven’, daft stuff like The Four Humours (as a starting point for character creation), favourite visual moments from movies. And song lyrics like Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.

So, creativity and originality can be combining disparate things. You rub two ideas together and see what you get. So, I would run my eyes down these lists, pick something that interested me. Held that idea in my head and ‘rubbed’ it with another idea. So, my main characters in one play were based each on a different one of Hippocrates’s humours, that is; blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, as a starting point.

The lists act like a safety net. In all I had twenty-three lists to play with. More of a foundation from which the real creative sparks fly upward.

The Takeaway:
What different combinations can you come up with in your work? Would building lists help?

S/FX: INTERLUDE MUSIC

RIFF 2

S/FX: A GENTLE HUM

MISS BIT:
Good. Well done.

JIM:
Well, Miss Bit, that’s what we do. Reality not fantasy. Mr b what’s that gentle humming?

MR B:
Well, I think it’s the flux capacitor warming up.

MISS BIT:
What?

ELEANOR:
Anyone seen my orb?

JIM:
It’s in the bathroom

ELEANOR:
Merci. Spen ici.

S/FX: QUICK HIGH ENERGY GUITAR RIFF

S/FX: HUMMING GETS A LITTLE BIT LOUDER

MR B:
It’s not real Miss Bit. It’s purely a fictional flux capacitor. I mean what would we do with a real one [HE LAUGHS IN A FAKE MANNER]?

JIM:
Yes. Where indeed would we get a real flux capacitor. [HE LAUGHS IN A FAKE MANNER].

S/FX: A JUDDERING OF METAL

MISS BIT:
I hope not. Otherwise I would have to commit you to seventy hours of online retraining for disorderly podcasting. Podcasts are reality not make-believe.

MR B:
Well, erm…everything is under control. It is isn’t it?

MISS BIT:
Where would podcasting be if they all went off into some imaginary world…? What is that outside the window? Smoke?

S/FX: A GENTLE THUD AS THE PODCAST LANDS

MR B:
No. No. No. No. Erm, that’s steam. I just put the kettle on. Jim. Can I borrow you for a minute?

JIM:
Of course, Mr b. Well it’s all going well. A nice, sensible podcast episode.

MR B:
[WHISPERING] Not quite.

JIM:
[WHISPERING] What do you mean?

MR B:
[WHISPERING] I think I’ve landed the podcast somewhere, erm…

JIM:
Erm? Where’s that? Turkey?

S/FX: SOUND OF AIR BEING RELEASED FROM A VALVE

MR B:
[WHISPERING] Shh! I think I may have, inadvertently landed Jelly Trumpet in, well, my fantasy world of Quentin Tarantino.

JIM:
[WHISPERING] What makes you think that?

ELEANOR:
Found it! Thank you Spen [SHE SIGHS IN DELIGHT] Now where’s my sceptre?

MR B:
[WHISPERING] Something to do with that five-foot ten lady in the yellow tracksuit swinging a Katana at that flock of Japanese Hench-girls.

JIM:
B…[INSERT CENSORING BLEEP]

MR B:
[WHISPERING] Not sure how that happened.

ELEANOR:
Found it!

JIM:
[WHISPERING] Could be auto-suggestion when you were setting the dials for the episode, you know talking Tarantino movies. Unless the podcast is becoming even more self-aware. Perhaps you manifested this fantasy world. Doesn’t matter. Put the podcast back where it belongs, [NORMAL VOICE] in St Albans!

ELEANOR:
Are we going to the market? I shall put on my shopping crown.

MISS BIT:
Shopping crown?

JIM:
Figure of speech Miss Bit. Eleanor meant, erm, her hat.

MISS BIT:
[NOT CONVINCED] Mmmm! Reality, that’s what I want to see!

S/FX: JELLY TRUMPET THEME

MR B:
[WHISPERING] I’ll tweak the flux capacitor and give it a go.

JIM:
[WHISPERING] Good man. [NORMAL VOICE] Well, we must get on with the creativity stuff.

MR B:
[SPELLING IT OUT] Yes. Let us do creativity stuff.

[TWO BEATS]

JIM:
HaHa! Yes. Great.

S/FX: THE SCREAM OF A SAMURAI

MISS BIT:
What is going on? Who are all those people outside? I’m warning you. Any more shenanigans and we’ll take your license away and you’ll end up doing online training for the rest of your life! [INTRIGUED] Who is that woman in the yellow tracksuit, she’s…?

JIM:
Don’t know her.

MR B:
Never seen her before.

MISS BIT:
Wait a moment. Isn’t that ‘The Bride’ from ‘Kill Bill.’

JIM:
Could be an impersonator…

MR B:
Fancy dress. She’s in fancy dress.

JIM:
That’s it! A real fancy dress party.

MISS BIT:
I would have believed you. But she’s just sliced off that man’s ear. She’s…

MR B:
Look. We’re very sorry. I mean really, really, really sorry. It’s just the podcast tech is a bit outdated. We need a firmware update, a PHP update and fresher steam.

JIM:
Sorry. Won’t happen again Miss Bit. Promise.

ELEANOR:
Nigel! Time to shop.

JIM:
O’ no.

MR B:
O’ no.

JIM:
Your maj…Eleanor?

ELEANOR:
Did you want some more Mini Cheddars Jim?

JIM:
Yes. Lovely and a triple cheese sandwich with red onion.

ELEANOR:
Come Nigel! We ride!

MR B:
[WHISPERING] We should have told her not to saddle Nigel.

JIM:
Miss Bit. We are very sorry.

MR B:
Very, very sorry.

MISS BIT:
That, that’s Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine riding a giant squirrel.

MR B:
Yes. I mean stranger thing happen in other podcasts.

JIM:
Yes, stranger things happen in other podcasts all the time.

MISS BIT:
Well, no. No, they don’t.

S/FX; SOUND OF AN AIRLOCK OPENING

ELEANOR:
To the shops mon brave garçon.

JIM:
She’s gone! We’ll have to go after her.

MR B:
Yes. I’ll get cMac.

MISS BIT:
I will be revoking your license forthwith.

MR B:
OK. But first we have to stop the Queen and Nigel. I’m cooking their favourite meal tonight.

MISS BIT:
Stranger things definitely do not happen on other podcasts.

S/FX: TANK TRACKS.

MR B:
Setting cMac to run tape!

JIM:
Wait here. We’ll be back. Forward Mr b. FOR ALL MANKIND!

S/FX: BUTTON BEING PRESSED

S/FX: CLICK, CLICK, CLICK

TONY:
Challenge at home!

[SOTTO VOCE] O’ Sharon.

CHALLENGE AT HOME

JIM:
What can you combine in your own work? If you are in a business or the creative arts what is something you’ve never tried but thought of giving a go?

Try this for a fun combination exercise. Take a sheet of A4. Create three columns. At the top of the first column write ‘Noun’ at the top of the second column write adjective and on the third Adverb. Now fill in the columns with the first appropriate words you can think of. At least twenty of each.

Now run your eye down your lists and pick a phrase using one word from each column. See if you can find five good phrases and put each into a sentence.

The Takeaway:
Combination exercises like this are great for giving your neural pathways a jolt. Making you think in different ways. With this exercise you’ll have fun and you may spark a different direction for a current project.

Auto-suggestion eh?

Do let us know which wonderful phrases you came up with. Email us, jelly@jellytrumpet.com or leave a post on our social feeds.

RIFF 3

S/FX: A WHIRLING SOUND LIKE TANK TRACKS

JIM:
Which way did Eleanor go?

MR B:
There she goes!

MISS BIT:
This is not acceptable!

MR B:
We can’t leave her.

JIM:
The queen doesn’t belong in a Tarantino movie. Please go back to the podcast Miss Bit, you’ll be much safer.

MISS BIT:
[SHOUTING IN THE DISTANCE] I’m having your podcast license revoked!

MR B:
Whatever.

JIM:
Yes. Whatever. Wait. One moment.

S/FX; SOUND OF WHISPERING

MR B:
Setting cMac to stun.

JIM:
Wait! No. We’d better not. A stunned Miss Bit would cause us trouble.

MR B:
You’re right Mr Jim

S/FX: FRENZIED MUSIC IN A TARANTINO FASHION

MR B:
I like this bit.

JIM:
Yes. It’s a great scene. The way Gogo Yubari uses the Meteor Hammer.

S/FX: BREAKING FURNITURE

ELEANOR:
Did I miss anything?

JIM:
Best look away your majesty.

MR B:
Yes. It’s for the best.

ELEANOR:
Very well. Nigel ferme les yeux.

MR B:
It’s the table leg bit.

JIM:
Clever idea this.

S/FX: BODY HITTING THE FLOOR

MISS BIT:
I wasn’t expecting that. She’s…she’s…she’s wonderful.

JIM:
What?

ELEANOR:
Can I open my eyes?

JIM:
Yes.

MR B:
Better get back to the podcast your majesty. You too, Miss Bit.

MISS BIT:
What is her real name?

MR B:
Beatrix. Also known as ‘The Bride.’

MISS BIT:
[SOMEWHAT EMOTIONALLY] Beatrix.

S/FX: AIRLOCK BEING OPENED

JIM:
Right. Everyone back in the podcast.

MISS BIT:
[IN WONDER] I’ve never experienced anything like that.

MR B:
Stuff like that’s always happening on Jelly Trumpet. We think…

JIM:
Not now Mr b. We’re on the straight and narrow now Miss Bit.

MR B:
Yes we are. No more shenanigans Miss Bit.

JIM:
Mr b would you kindly close the airlock and set course for St Albans?

MR B:
Certainly Mr Jim. Might take a moment or two to feed in the co-ordinates.

JIM:
Very well Mr b.

MR B:
I shall ask cMac…

MISS BIT:
[DREAMY] The way she walked…

MR B:
…to run the micro sitcom.

S/FX: BUTTON BEING PUSHED

MISS BIT:
She is so…so…so…

S/FX: THE STARTUP THEME TUNE

THE START UP: THE EMPEROR’S PODCAST
PART 1

TONY:
The Start up! A micro sitcom.

Meet Mary ‘The Entrepreneur’ who is promoting her new product, makeup for babies on a popular podcast called ‘The Emperor’s Podcast’.

[SOTTO VOCE] O’ Sharon, why?

S/FX: TWO PAIRS OF HIGH HEELS WALKING ON A WOODEN FLOOR

MARY:
[MUTTERING UNDER HER BREATH] Be the business plan, be the business plan.

BEV:
[SPITTING CRUMBS EVERYWHERE] What hun’?

MARY:
Erm, nothing. Watch the crumbs from your mega bacon baguette and don’t spill any more of that super-sized cappuccino with THREE extra shots. Well, here we are.

THEY STOP OUTSIDE A DOOR MARKED ‘EMPEROR OF PODCASTS’

BEV:
Fancy sign for a cheap door. Emperor of Podcasts? Who’s he thinks he is then? Mark Zucker- borg.

S/FX: KNOCKING ON DOOR

MARY:
Behave Bev’!

BEV:
Do you want a bite BABE?

MARY:
No thank you. This is John’s podcast studio.

BEV:
‘Emperor of Podcasts?’

MARY:
It’s just a brand name Bev.

S/FX: DOOR OPENING

MARY:
Hi! I’m Mary.

JOHN:
And this is?

MARY:
That’s Bev’.

JOHN:
We’ll be live in two minutes. You’ve cut it very fine.

MARY:
Sorry. Bev needed feeding, otherwise she blacks out.

JOHN:
Well, take a care with the coffee and that…

S/FX: BURBLE LIKE WATER DRAINING THROUGH A PIPE

MARY:
WHAT’S THAT NOISE?

BEV:
Fuc…[BEEP CENSOR]

MARY:
Bev!

JOHN:
[POINTING] That’s our coffee machine the ‘Maximus Arabica V6. A beaut’. Runs off the best quality coffee, just slot in the pods. We’ve had a bit of trouble with her though.

MARY:
Her?

SULTRY VOICE:
Americano for one.

S/F: BURBLING.

JOHN:
That’s my girl…

BEV’ MAKES TO SAY SOMETHING BUT MARY ELBOWS HER AS THEY BOTH SIT DOWN

MARY:
So, how does the “Emperor’s Podcast” work?

JOHN:
[LAUGHING] You can call me John

BEV:
[SOTTO VOCE] Or knob fac…[BEEP CENSOR]

JOHN:
What?

MARY:
Nothing. Most likely got some bacon stuck in her throat.

JOHN:
We’re rare in that our podcast is always live. The ‘Emperor’s Podcast’ is dedicated to promoting new brands such as yours, er…

SULTRY VOICE:
Warning!

BEV:
What’s that on the Maximus display?

JOHN:
We’ve got to go live in thirty seconds!

MARY:
[HURRIEDLY] My new brand is Babymaker, makeup for babies, make them cuter, hide the dribble stains…still working on the tag line.

JOHN:
O’ NO!

S/FX: A VARIETY OF BUTTONS BEING CLICKED

S/FX: A CHAIR SCRAPPING A WOODEN FLOOR AS BEV’ GETS UP

JOHN:
WAIT!

S/FX: LIQUID BEING SPLASHING [JOHN HAS KNOCKED OVER BEV’S COFFEE]

BEV:
You’ve knocked my coffee all over the keyboard!

S/FX: WARNING BUZZER

MARY:
What’s that red light?

JOHN:
We’re live! [TO MICROPHONE].
Welcome to the ‘Emperor’s New Podcast’ and we’re live with Mary, er…the founder of BabyMaker, the makeup brand for babies…

THE START UP: THE EMPEROR’S PODCAST
END OF PART 1

S/FX: THE STARTUP THEME TUNE

TONY:
Part 2 of the Startup later!

CREATIVE RITUALS

TONY:
Creative Rituals!

JIM:
In season 2 we’re highlighting a book called ‘Daily Rituals’ by Mason Currey. It’s full of short essays about the rituals creative people have used in their lives.

John Updike, the novelist once told an interviewer that he was careful to give at least three hours a day to his writing. Otherwise, he said he might forget what it’s about. He added ‘A solid routine saves you from giving up.’

The Takeaway
For a lot of us, we’re being creative as a side-hustle. We hope on hope for our creative work to find a market. I work on my business during the week and write at the weekend and on holidays. It is difficult because even though your project will be thought about during the week you are not being consistent like a full-time writer. If you are in full time working and creating as a sideline how do you keep the project alive? Well, having the fire in your belly and being stubborn helps. Keep going, never give up.

S/FX: COMING UP JINGLE/MUSIC

COMING UP

TONY:
Coming up!

• Our guest, Xxxx Xxxx of …
• Challenge Jim, Mr b will issue Jim a challenge
• And List of the week

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

RIFF 4

S/FX: TARANTINO MUSIC BLAST

MISS BIT:
Who is she again?

JIM:
‘The Bride’, she’s Tarantino wish-fulfillment, now let’s get back into the podcast. Everyone!

MR B:
I don’t believe it?

ELEANOR:
Quelle petits pieds?

S/FX: NIGEL CHIRPS

JIM:
O’ no.

MR B:
It’s the Reservoir Dogs.

ELEANOR:
They look, dangerous…

S/FX: NIGEL CHIRPS

MR B:
They’re doing the breakfast scene! Fantastic!

JIM:
We have to go Mr b.

MR B:
Can’t we watch?

JIM:
Erm.

MR B:
Just a little bit.

MISS BIT:
Where did ‘The Bride’ go? She’s so…so…so…so…

TONY:
Another fine mess for our two amateur podcasters. Will the Podcasting Authority really ban them? What is that Jim has about coffee machines. What is happening to Miss Bit?

Listen to Jelly Trumpet Episode 8, Part II to find out.

S/FX: TUMBLEWEED BEING BLOWN ACROSS A DESERT LANDSCAPE

END OF PART I