Yesterday, a friend of mine was having an operation, so I was at Blackheath Hospital.
This meant I was hanging around in a room waiting for most of the day and saw most of the live coverage from the House of Commons where the Culture, Media and Sport Committee were questioning Rupert and James Murdoch.
But, inevitably – Sod’s Law – because my friend came out of the operating theatre at the same time, I missed Jonnie Marbles aka Jonathan May-Bowles trying to ‘flan’ Rupert with a shaving foam pie.
I saw it later.
My friend is fine.
I am not so sure about Jonnie Marbles.
This piece of desperate self-publicity would normally make him worthy of being nominated for – and possibly winning – the annual Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award but, alas, young Jonnie appears to have fallen at the first hurdle in the process. He does not seem have a show at the Edinburgh Fringe and, if he does, he failed to plug it.
Yesterday, the Free Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe suddenly had two cancellations, so my advice to him is Forget that free phone call to the lawyer. Get on the blower to the Free Festival, get a show booked at the Edinburgh Fringe sharpish and pray for a Cunning Stunt Award nomination/win.
Being imprisoned and unable to perform in Edinburgh might interfere with the show but might actually boost his chances of getting a Cunning Stunt Award.
Our House of Commons pie-flinger whom the Chortle comedy website calls “an occasional comic” seems to be a serial stunt-publicist and I can only presume he was jointly influenced by two things.
The first influence would obviously be self-proclaimed ‘comedy terrorist’ Aaron Barschak who gate-crashed Prince William’s 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle in 2003 dressed as Osama bin Laden in a pink dress. His subsequent Edinburgh Fringe show failed to live up to this pre-publicity boost and the Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award had not yet started, so Aaron tragically failed to build his career on the stunt.
Jonnie’s second influence might well have been the cultural effect of large numbers of a previous generation of Brits watching the cult children’s TV show Tiswas, on which I worked as a researcher.
It was known for its slapstick outbreaks of gunge and custard pies.
In a selfless spirit of public service, I print below the ‘official’ recipe for a Tiswas custard pie, copied from an alleged official recipe sheet which I half-inched when the show ended. Tiswas ‘custard pies’ were made not of custard but of whipped shaving foam.
Custard would have slid down the target’s clothes, could have stained them and might have involved the programme in laundry costs and complaints. Shaving foam stuck where it hit and wiped off with no significant after-effects.
The main custard pie flinger on Tiswas was a Ninja-like character called The Phantom Flan Flinger.
Far be it from me to try and get blatant publicity out of the wanton, appalling and unprovoked attack on defenceless media tycoon Rupert Murdoch by saying that the Tiswas tradition continues this year at the Edinburgh Fringe with the first Malcolm Hardee Spaghetti-Juggling Contest.
But can I point out that the Tiswas tradition continues this year at the Edinburgh Fringe with the first Malcolm Hardee Spaghetti-Juggling Contest?
This is the somewhat vague Tiswas recipe:
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TISWAS CUSTARD PIE RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
– Economy Size Gillette Shaving Foam **
– Vegetable dye. The Phantom Flan Flinger suggests green or blue dye but advises against red dye as this tends to cause irritation and blotches.
– Paper plate(s)
– Palette knife. – Mixing bowl or large bowl/bucket (depending on the amount needed)
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Spray shaving foam into mixing bowl remembering to keep enough spare for decoration.
Add vegetable dye and mix together.
Smooth over paper plate(s) with palette knife.
Finally decorate around the edges with white shaving foam.
Before use, this should be left for a few hours to eliminate the sting that the shaving foam has.
Then proceed with flanning!
Old T-shirts and such like to be worn during flan matches in case of stains. Clothes washed afterwards to be soaked in cold water first.
HAPPY CUSTARD PIES!
** Alternative: Crazy Foam from local joke shop. Or Instant Whip available from most supermarkets.
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SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 
I sat and watched the entire performance from 2-00pm from start till when Flan Flinger did his stuff on Rup, uncalled for at his age by the way, to The Witch from Wapping who ran her lines through and what a joy it all was – certainly made all those Nazi’s at the end of the last, real war who maintained they were only ‘achtung under orders’ look a bit silly compared – who said the Music Hall as dead?… (no, ITV – its not the format for a series of ‘comedy’ shows..)