I became enamored of this list back when I regularly watched a local public TV show called Inside the Actors Studio. James Lipton, the host, finished each interview with ten rapidfire questions. I've been thinking about these queries this past week as I gathered up the information for my tax return. I remembered how many famous people, in answering Question 9, gave the answer I would give: Accountant.
Here is Lipton's list:
Questionnaire
- What is your favorite word?
- What is your least favorite word?
- What turns you on?
- What turns you off?
- What sound or noise do you love?
- What sound or noise do you hate?
- What is your favorite curse word?
- What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
- What profession would you not like to do?
- If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
These questions are supposed to reveal things about the respondent that don't come out in a normal Q&A. I don't think that's necessarily true, but I like them nonetheless.
Lipton claimed to have based his questions on those of French talk-show host Bernard Pivot. My research reveled that Pivot's list was similar, but included three questions that Lipton left out. I include them here for those who want to earn extra credit:
11. What is your favorite drug?
12. Who would you like to see on a new banknote?
13. If you were reincarnated as some other plant or animal, what would it be?
Here are my answers:
- Yes
- N**ger
- Traveling
- Bigotry
- Happy children playing
- Angry shouting
- Asshole, better yet in Italian Stronzo
- Jazz pianist, not that I could ever attempt it
- Accounting
- "You have to go back. There's been a mistake."
- Italian coffee in the morning, Chassagne Montrachet in the evening, chocolate anytime.
- Ray Charles
- Lioness
Okay. Now it's your turn to take the quiz. Please answer BEFORE you hear the answers of some of Lipton's famous guests here.
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ReplyDelete1 Amazing
ReplyDelete2 But
3 Writing
4 Not writing
5 Rain
6 Polystyrene rubbing against each other
7 Sh..
8 Acting
9 Politician
10 Calories don't exist here
11 Red wine
12 Timeline of human evolution - from Lucy to modern human
13 A hypoallergenic terrier
I love your responses, Leye, 10. Made me laugh out loud. 12. Is brilliant! it should be on the smallest denomination note in every country. Then all the humans on this planet would know that we are ALL African.
ReplyDeleteL, BTW, my older brother always said, “Calories are stuff they put in food to make it taste better.”
DeleteLol lol lol lol
DeleteReady or not..
ReplyDelete1. Love
2. No
3. Life
4. Bigotry
5. Babies laughing
6. Adults griping
7. FUCK
8. Professional Athlete
9. A FOX News Professional
!0. Your long-lost family and friends await you.
11. Advil
12. The current national debt
13. A fly on the wall in The Oval Office
I always knew you were braver than I, Bro. I think all your answers are wonderful, but that fly on the wall would be in such danger. Unless of course that flies are immure of dying from stress.
DeleteI love your answers, Stan, especially the Deity saying, "Howdy, partner," to you. I hope she doesn't get the chance of it for many, many years. And I hope that your birthday dose of your drug of choice was delicious!
ReplyDeleteA condor! What a thought!
Wombat
ReplyDeleteAcop...apoc...that word that means the end of the world. I can't spell it or say it.
Small button at the back of my head
Strong perfume
Silence
Tea spoon being rattled against cup
F !
A wee bit less of my own job.
Call centre
Your dogs are waiting for you.
Amitriptyline
Me
Wombat
Oh, Caro, how I want to see your face on a note of legal tender. But I know that neither one of us thinks it should be Scottish National Pounds.
ReplyDeleteYou must tell us more about your drug of choice. Should I want it to. When it come to real medicine, mine for decades has been Synthroid.
1. Onomatopoeia
ReplyDelete2. Trump
3. African bushveld
4. Traffic
5. Eagle Owl call
6. Screaming for fun
7. S--t
8. Accountant
9. Jazz musician
10.Welcome!
11.Red wine
12.Albert Einstein
13.My ex-wife’s Scottish terrier.
What great answers, Michael. I am beginning to think that these question can be revealing or at least extremely amusing. They didn’t always seem that way in the mouths of actors. And I am learning, both here and with answers from folks on FB, that several novelists—in addition to you and me—are frustrated jazz musicians. There may be some profound meaning behind that. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I was being cheeky. I deliberately switched the order of your wannabe and don't wannabe professions...
DeleteAnswers from John Lawton, who is not able to sign on himself:
ReplyDeleteWhat is your favorite word? — Shed
What is your least favorite word? — Penis
What turns you on? — Wit
What turns you off? — Smoking
What sound or noise do you love? — Steam engines
What sound or noise do you hate? — Metal on metal
What is your favorite curse word? — Bollox
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? — Jazz pianist, but I’d be crap at it
What profession would you not like to do? — Anything with numbers or a uniform
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? — You don’t have to go through that again
What is your favorite drug? — Claret.
Who would you like to see on a new banknote? — Richard Milhaus Nixon
If you were reincarnated as some other plant or animal, what would it be? — A dodo
I love these answers, Lawton. I am beginning to think that the questions are actually as really as they are sometimes cracked up to be. They never seemed that way in the mouths of the actors on the show. Could it be that actors are really empty vessels waiting to come to like with others’ words? You would know more about that than I—your fellow frustrated jazz musician!
DeleteIs hard for me to believe, Michael, that anyone as cool as you would rather be an accountant than a jazz musician. I hope my Accountant—who is actually a very cool guy—is not listening. I think HE would rather be a jazz musician.
ReplyDelete1. Fave word: Hola!
ReplyDelete2. Hate word: trump (a perfectly good word, spoiled)
3. turn on: A smile
4. turn off: assholes
5. love sound: purr
6. hate sound: Trump's voice
7. fav curse: Asshole!
8. other profession: writer
9. ugh! profession: politician
10. God's greeting: What took you so long?
11. drug: wine
12. Who on banknote: Sanger & Pincus (inventors of birth control pill)
13. reincarnate as: Giant Sequoia
Hola! EvKa! I also thought about a Sequoia or a giant redwood. But unable to imagine the social life of such a creature, and loving as I do being on the move, I thought a fierce female was my best bet. Like you, I mourn the ruination of perfectly good verb, and one that has no easy substitute that I can think of. And I can’t even imagine a day far enough in the future that we will be able to take it up again.
ReplyDeleteWhen we go disc golfing, there's one hole that has a hazelnut bush that has a habit of getting in the way... and it STILL bothers me a little bit to call it a 'bush'. But the last two years have somewhat eroded my dislike for using that term.
Delete