Writer, comedian, filmmaker, actor and cult leader Danny Wallace sat down with Shortlist Media editorial director Phil Hilton at MindShare’s Huddle event to discuss Ghostbusters, video games and MD-40
Wallace started his ‘Join Me’ movement in 2002, with people sending him passport photos. Tens of thousands have joined since, and continue to join, to this day.
“If I tried to do it now, people would respond differently,” said Wallace, who created the cult as “a piece of whimsy”.
But what lessons on growing membership can modern social media channels take from Wallace? “It’s about bringing people together for an aim that might seem pointless – but then finding the point together,” he said.
“Don’t set out to learn a particular lesson,” he added. “You can only do that be getting out amongst them.”
Wallace argued that Ghostbusters is the best film ever, focusing on a message of friendship which he tries to apply to his everyday life. “We never take the piss, but we do take the mickey,” he added.
“Dan Ackroyd is the everyman but you want to be friends with them all,” he said. “Films like this unite a generation and go on to inform their tastes later, when you cynical people are trying to market at us.”
Wallace hosted the Golden Joystick awards last week: “Most people there didn’t actually know what a joystick was!”
He feels that a video game break can actually help with work: “I tell my wife, if I come up against a problem and can’t see where it’s going, I use a different bit of the brain for half an hour – after that, I’ve pretty much solved it, and approach it with a new vigour.”
However, of couples who watch each other play video games, he commented, “I think they’ve got problems.”
With regards to Instagram, he felt people use it to show what a great lifestyle they have, going on to talk about his love of Fosters beer. “Sometimes we have to celebrate the normal – as well as craft beers that are being drawn by monks in an underground sea-fort in Finland,” he added.
Wallace admits to loving WD-40, saying that using it makes him “feel more of a man” in front of his son.
Looking at the colours used for branding, he mused that when male-focussed products dare to move away from the traditional blue, black and grey with splashes of yellow, a focus group of men might say “I see what you’ve done there, but it’s not for me”.
Next week will mark Wallace’s 400th column for Shortlist magazine, featuring more of his adventures and musings on manliness and everyday life.
