The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

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Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to a very  exciting episode of "The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!" Podcast!

The adventure continues with Liverpool Poet Roger McGough, who's enigmatic dulcet Scouse tones and wonderful words of Poetry have been ringing around my head as long as I can remember!

Outright winner of a Bonny Baby Award, Roger McGough was told early on that critics would not always like his poetry and to carry on writing, ignoring all criticism. Thankfully he did and has published umpteen different poetry collections and other books, songs and plays, over the last 60+ years. 

At the time of this recording, Roger McGough‘s latest book ‘Safety in Numbers’ was awaiting an HGV driver somewhere between the UK and China. Or so he claimed! 

The son of a Liverpool dock worker who died aged only 53, war-baby Roger was constantly encouraged to be grateful just to be alive. Constantly shown by his Catholic family that money was definitely not the best way to keep score. Money was so short, his mother read to him from an HP sauce bottle instead of a children’s book. Despite or perhaps because of all this, with his band the Scaffold, he went on to have a number one hit record with ‘Lily the Pink’. 

Today this veteran Barnes-based Mersey beatnik enjoys a jog around the green, a glass or two in the pub and a quiet game of bowls. He continues to write poems and run poetry workshops on a regular basis. 

He is an extraordinarily prolific writer who carries on polishing his work - even after it’s been published! 

This is a quiet giant who really is the "People’s Poet.”

Reg Starkey 

Editor, Health Triangle Magazine.

“The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” is the Show & Podcast series that features “The Clearing”:

Where all good Questions come to be asked - and all good Stories come to be told…

Think 'Desert Island Discs' but in a Clearing - and with Stories rather than Music!

With some lovely juicy Storytelling metaphors to also enjoy along the way:

The Clearing itself - a Tree - a lovely juicy Storytelling exercise called “5-4-3-2-1” - some Alchemy - some Gold - a cheeky bit of Shakespeare - and a CAKE!

So it’s all to play for! 

Hurrah!

(…and indeed Huzzah!)

Enjoy!

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to The Clearing:  Scottish Actor - with the lovely Scottish dulcet tones to match - Cal MacAninch!

Cal is a much respected TV, Theatre & Film Actor. Best known on TV for portraying the character DI John Keenan in BBC's "Holby City" but has been in much much more besides in a long-spanning and impressive career.

Including Downton Abbey, Banished, Mr Selfridge - and even playing the title role back in the day of "Hamlet" at The Glasgow Citizens Theatre, directed by Philip Prowse.

Cal is a warm, wise and wonderful man indeed who I'm very proud to call my friend!

A rich and multi-textured conversation indeed with a recurring theme (I noticed) of Cal as "The Novice" - able to be truly present and able to LISTEN with an acute ability to "watch and learn" as he adventures along in response to the Gifts that "life has to present" for him to unwrap...

Cal and I met way back when - near the very beginning of our careers - doing one of our first ever Film jobs together, appearing in a Tennent's Lager Commercial called "The Wedding"

Cal subsequently read Shakespearean Sonnet Number 116 at my Wedding over 30 years ago!

Cal also agreed be back in my Zoom Hole (!) to re-record the self-same Sonnet 31 years on!

"Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!" 

Cal grew up in a household where the conventional wisdom was that children should be seen and not heard. His father had been a bomber pilot during World War 2 and had lost his own twin brother in that conflict. After the end of the war, his father dreamed  of being a pilot in the King’s flight until his agoraphobic wife knocked that idea on the head, relegating her husband to an unsatisfactory life as a salesman. His mother had also lost a child. No grief counselling was ever available to either parent. What Cal took out of all this was the importance of following your individual dreams. When professional football was no longer an option, the idea of Drama appealed to him. Being on stage meant he would be both seen and heard. Cal taught himself to say “Yes!” rather than No. Because he discovered that Yes leads to adventure…. It ensures that Lifel is not unlived - it is lived to the full! Cal’s first role on stage was as an extra, with no lines to deliver, at  the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. When not on stage, Cal stood in the wings, in awe, watching his heroes perform. He asked for more challenging parts. In due course, he was invited back to play Hamlet! In parallel Cal was still playing amateur football, still running regularly, still learning to climb, still learning to box, still learning to row as a Novice. He was also falling in love with Shauna, getting married, co-creating a family. His multi-talented actress wife, Shauna MacDonald, remains an inspiration to Cal. But births were not easy. Shauna was in labour for 4 days with their first child! The second was born in a birthing pool during an electric storm in South Africa; the third while Cal was appearing on stage - or rather when he wasn’t, giving his understudy a welcome break. Cal was present at every birth and will always remember them as profound spiritual experiences. Now Cal is planning to row the Atlantic, with a hand-picked crew, to raise money for a Charity called Body & Soul whose primary purpose is to help children deal with childhood trauma that might otherwise either shorten or ruin their lives. Body & Soul has been doing this for 25 years in the belief that “It is never too late to heal.” 
Cal once said No to Mel Gibson for a part in Braveheart, a slight regret perhaps - but is comforted by the advice he received from award-winning actress 
Barbara Hershey: “Take your own time. Make your own moment.” Cal likes to surprise people by exceeding their expectations. He certainly achieves that in this conversation.
Reg Starkey 
Editor, Health Triangle Magazine 

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

Ladies n' Genminminimin (er min...) please welcome to The Good Listening to "Clearing" the warm, wise & wonderful "Storysmith" himself with the perfect surname that just keeps on giving Mark Story!

This very special podcast Episode released on this very day - 13th December 2021 - to celebrate Mark Story's 50th Birthday!

How's that for a Story behind a Story?

Hurrah!

"The Good Listening To" Podcast is the Podcast series that sets out to tell the "Story behind the Story":  And who better to best exemplify that than Mark Story himself?! The man with the perfect surname that keeps on giving, to tell the "story behind the story" of being Mark Story! How's that for a Story?

Enjoy his lovely Story!

"Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!" 

The adventure continues!

Marvellous!

“The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” is the Show & Podcast series that features “The Clearing”:

Where all good Questions come to be asked - and all good Stories come to be told…

With some lovely juicy Storytelling metaphors to also enjoy along the way:

The Clearing itself - a Tree - a lovely juicy Storytelling exercise called “5-4-3-2-1” - some Alchemy - some Gold - a cheeky bit of Shakespeare - and a CAKE!

So it’s all to play for! 

Hurrah!

(…and indeed Huzzah!)

Enjoy!

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

In The Clearing 'A Show within A Show within A Show!' with Fellow UK Health Radio Presenter Leaha Mattinson from Master Your Life and Recovery Road, Hurrah!

Please welcome to The Clearing - for a "Show-within a Show -within a Show!" (how very Shakesepearean!) fellow UK Health Radio Presenter and the "fiery-force-of nature" that is Leaha Mattinson.

 Leaha Mattinson the wise and wonderful Curator & Show Founder of not one Show but two Shows on UK Health Radio: "MasterYour Life" & "Recovery Road"

So - pull up a cup of tea and a piece of Cake why don't ya (this is England after all!) and why not give it a Watch/Listen?

"Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!"  The adventure continues!

“The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” is the Show & Podcast series that features “The Clearing”:

Where all good Questions come to be asked - and all good Stories come to be told…

With some lovely juicy Storytelling metaphors to also enjoy along the way:

The Clearing itself - a Tree - a lovely juicy Storytelling exercise called “5-4-3-2-1” - some Alchemy - some Gold - a cheeky bit of Shakespeare - and a CAKE!

So it’s all to play for! 

Hurrah!

(…and indeed Huzzah!)

Enjoy!

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

Ohhhhh yes!

Welcome to my Zoom Hole pleeeease! 

For another delightful Episode of "The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!"

Here "LIVE" on FaceBook - right NOW please - with the very lovely Laurens Nockels - Co Founder of Mangostone.org 

Model & Prop Makers par excellence: A Creative Hub in the centre of Bristol with the "expertise & experience to bring your ideas to life - and to make it happen..."

Hurrah!

A lovely man - AND a co Administrator on the ol' #LolVirus Facebook Group too!

Enjoy!

And here’s The Good Listening To Podcast: “Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” Group too if you’d like to join?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860/

Marvellous!

“The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” is the Show & Podcast series that features “The Clearing”:

Where all good Questions come to be asked - and all good Stories come to be told…

With some lovely juicy Storytelling metaphors to also enjoy along the way:

The Clearing itself - a Tree - a lovely juicy Storytelling exercise called “5-4-3-2-1” - some Alchemy - some Gold - a cheeky bit of Shakespeare - and a CAKE!

So it’s all to play for! 

Hurrah!

(…and indeed Huzzah!)

Enjoy!

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

"The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!" The adventure continues on UK Health Radio & here on Buzzsprout with the enigmatic Pete Bailie!

Actor, Acting Teacher, 6th Dan Aikido Instructor, Expert Communication Skills Trainer, Director at VOX Coaching - and all round enigmatic wise owl!

Here to teach us all about Impact & Presence - how to communicate so that others want to listen - the nature of ensemble and rehearsal - and also to teach us a new word: "interregnum"

And the power of  rehearsal in particular in providing a positive and proactive space in which it's 'safe to fail' - and that that's a good thing...

You're welcome!

Pete Bailie is the Director of Vox Coaching. 

A former professional actor, he now regularly practises and teaches Aikido. Looking back, he describes himself as ‘a rather graceless child’ whose first moment of truth was stepping on stage in a school play aged 17. 

Earlier in his teens, he was also a Junior Chess Player for Surrey but like Adrian Mole, he withdrew when he discovered how few females chose Chess. 
Pete has followed his instincts all his life, actively choosing the more challenging option on every occasion since he turned 50.

His Aikido mantra is ‘Right is Might’ and he attributes his words to live by to the late Humphrey Littleton: “Never lose touch with the silliness.” 

Radio comedy inspires him! Currently he recommends Fags, Mags and Bags on BBC Sounds.

Pete uses meditation to get in touch with his feelings and claims Aikido helps him stay calm under pressure. In addition, like Tony Benn, he is a heavy drinker of tea on a daily basis. A truly brilliant interview within a reliably fascinating series!

A lovely multi-textured conversation with many nuances and interpretations as to what his "Clearing" might be: 'Betwixt' in fact many different 'energetic spaces'.

“The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” is the Show & Podcast series that features “The Clearing”:

Where all good Questions come to be asked - and all good Stories come to be told…

With some lovely juicy Storytelling metaphors to also enjoy along the way:

The Clearing itself - a Tree - a lovely juicy Storytelling exercise called “5-4-3-2-1” - some Alchemy - some Gold - a cheeky bit of Shakespeare - and a CAKE!

So it’s all to play for! 

Hurrah!

(…and indeed Huzzah!)

Enjoy!

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

Ladies n' Genminiminminmin (er, min...) please welcome my lovely and good friend Nik Howden to "The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times with Me Chris Grimes!"  Clearing!

Nik and I have been on stage together in a Comedy Improvisational capacity in INSTANT WIT (a Company which I co-run with Stephanie Weston) for the last many many years - plus we also have The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in common, in that that's where we both trained as Actors - but at different times.

Nik is a lovely Actor and a wonderful Comedy Improvisation performer. He is also a Stan Laurel look-a-likey too! He even got to play my all time comic hero  Stan Laurel in a BBC4 Film about Laurel & Hardy which he also talks about in this Episode too.

As an all round 'versatility pants' Nik is also a DJ and a Funerial Celebrant - as well as being a real dap-hand at DIY!

A lovely, most enjoyable and playful Episode indeed!

Marvellous!

“The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” is the Show & Podcast series that features “The Clearing”:

Where all good Questions come to be asked - and all good Stories come to be told…

With some lovely juicy Storytelling metaphors to also enjoy along the way:

The Clearing itself - a Tree - a lovely juicy Storytelling exercise called “5-4-3-2-1” - some Alchemy - some Gold - a cheeky bit of Shakespeare - and a CAKE!

So it’s all to play for! 

Hurrah!

(…and indeed Huzzah!)

Enjoy!

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

"Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!" The adventure continues!

Please welcome Award Winning Comedy & Theatre Director - Cal McCrystal - Director of many seminal Theatre, Opera, Circus & Film Productions.

"One Man Two Guvnors" +  "Gifford's Circus" to name but two of very many others, which have collectively won him the accolade of being:

"Britain's Funniest Comedy Director" The Guardian.

Hurrah!

A wonderfully warm conversation indeed - with a touching tribute also to Nell Gifford in Cal's talking about his long standing Artistic relationship - as ongoing Resident Director with the glorious institution and Circus phenomenon that is Gifford's Circus.

The founder of England’s Giffords Circus, Nell Gifford (1974-2019) wrote: "A good circus is a sublimely existential thing, living acutely and only for the present moment." She also wrote: "A good circus should make you cry." 

She created a circus conform to these ideas, a circus with a soul, which understands its purpose. In time, Giffords Circus has generated an amazingly faithful and enthusiastic following in the countryside of the south of England—not a large territory, but Nell Gifford wanted hers to be a "village-green circus." And indeed, Giffords Circus has this unique quality: it takes its audience into a nostalgic world of quaint simplicity and tangible wonder.

Marvellous!

“The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” is the Show & Podcast series that features “The Clearing”:

Where all good Questions come to be asked - and all good Stories come to be told…

With some lovely juicy Storytelling metaphors to also enjoy along the way:

The Clearing itself - a Tree - a lovely juicy Storytelling exercise called “5-4-3-2-1” - some Alchemy - some Gold - a cheeky bit of Shakespeare - and a CAKE!

So it’s all to play for! 

Hurrah!

(…and indeed Huzzah!)

Enjoy!

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening! 

Send us Fan Mail

Please welcome to The Clearing - to talk about Improbable's "The Gathering" (amongst other things) Matilda Leyser from Improbable Theatre.

A Special Episode of "The Good Listening To" where Improbable's "The Gathering" meets The Good Listening To's "The Clearing"!

Matilda is Associate Director of the world renowned and much admired Improbable Theatre.

She is a Theatre Maker and Director also of "Mothers Who Make" - which is all about "making work - even in the midsts of mothering..."

Matilda was a Circus Arialist for 10 years before coming down to Earth (with an elaborate flourish I'll wager) to become Associate Director of Improbable.

Her adventure continues in the Quest - alongside her two Co-Directors Phelim McDermott & Lee Simpson -  to find a new Spiritual home and Creative & Artistic Hub for Improbable - in a journey called "The Gathering".

More about Matilda:

"Matilda Leyser, known to one Registrar at least as Linnet McDermott, is a colourful yet complex character, with an endearing hesitation sometimes when she speaks. Let’s consider her complexity. 

Matilda has an MA in European Classical Drama. She has been diagnosed with inter-generational post traumatic stress disorder. Her parents’ ages were a generation apart and their parents’ own stories are truth at least as distressing as fiction. Matilda’s two children have both been identified with diversive neurology. 

Matilda’s mother, the former Oxford student who married a professor old enough to be her father, used to say that Matilda herself was born scared. She used to climb the ewe tree in their garden and then became an aerialist in order to rationalise her fear of a life that other people apparently found so easy. 

Now Matilda writes - and rewrites - as a practice to help her find relief.  Many years ago as the youngest member of an eccentric academic family, Matilda took on the curious role of a tomboy who loved books, a tomboy who asked to do ballet classes - until she discovered a more free form of dance called contact improvisation. Then after 10 years as an aerialist, clinging tightly to the rope, Matilda landed up at the Improbable Theatre in a show called, appropriately, PANIC! Here she played a nymph. Her husband to be was the great God Pan.

The rest, she says, is history. Now an associate director of the Improbable Theatre Company, Matilda is looking for a home for this extraordinary creative enterprise, which has survived and thrived for around a quarter of a century until now, living on the road and on its wits. 

Matilda appreciates the fact that her personal and professional lives are now totally integrated in everything she does - in the Improbable Theatre Company, in the idea of the Gathering, in Mothers Who Make, in her writing - and rewriting. 

She is not constrained by convention but instead inspired by writers like Lynda Barry, Natalie Goldberg and Ursula Le Guin. Once fearful, Matilda Leyser is now demonstrably terrific".

Reg Starkey
Editor - UK Health Triangle Magazine 

"The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!" 

The adventure continues!

Marvellous!

“The Good Listening To: Your Life & Times With Me Chris Grimes!” is the Show & Podcast series that features “The Clearing”:

Where all good Questions come to be asked - and all good Stories come to be told…

With some lovely juicy Storytelling metaphors to also enjoy along the way:

The Clearing itself - a Tree - a lovely juicy Storytelling exercise called “5-4-3-2-1” - some Alchemy - some Gold - a cheeky bit of Shakespeare - and a CAKE!

So it’s all to play for! 

Hurrah!

(…and indeed Huzzah!)

Enjoy!

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'.  If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

• Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
• You can email  me about the Show: [email protected]
• Twitter thatchrisgrimes
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
• FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!