GOOD TIMING

Good timing is the secret of success.

The greatest comedians used it brilliantly and they turned it into an art form with hilarious results. They held their audiences spellbound. We were picked up and dangled in the air, as we surrendered to them, like play-things to do with whatever they wished. Pushed from pillar to post, we eagerly followed their every move, helplessly devoted to them. The masters teased us, and taunted us, and we loved them all the more for it. We ached with laughter and love for them as they demonstrated their artistry with such skill we were amazed. When they had finished torturing us, they’d deliver the final blow with the punch line that would knock everyone for six. Oh how we missed them when they left the stage and how we longed to see them again. Boy,oh boy, they knew their stuff.
Timing happens in the music world too. If Elvis Presley had come after The Sex Pistols he might have been dismissed as a middle of the road country singer from Hicksville, but he chose his time and became the greatest rock ‘n’ roller of them all, before and after the Sex Pistols.
If The Beatles had tried to make it in the 40’s they would have been eaten alive by the great song smiths of that time. Cole Porter , Irving Berlin and Hoagy Carmichael would have called The Beatles second rate amateurs, and we would never have experienced the greatest band of them all . It was the right time for them.
Politicians rarely have any talent. So they have to learn to cheat. Quickly. In the age of radio their popularity was dependent on their ability to be a good orator, and some of them were excellent. When we think of Churchill we think of his speeches on the radio with admiration. But with the advent of television things became very tricky indeed. It meant that politicians had to learn the same stage skills that the best entertainers had learned gracefully over many years of hard experience. They have neither enough time or the gift. Most of them over act like the worst ham actors on earth. They over gesticulate as if they’ve rehearsed for hours in front of a mirror, but still come across as clowns; or on the close-ups instead of taking instruction from Sean Connery, their eyes don’t back up what they are saying.. They lose the audience within seconds. It’s a case of a big sigh and ‘Hand me the remote darling’.
Entertaining audiences convincingly takes years of training. Otherwise it’s amateur night at the local village hall, and you just have to snigger. They can visit their voice coaches once a week and practice their moves in that mirror but if it doesn’t swing , it doesn’t convince. Bill Clinton was one of the few exceptions because he was a natural, like James Stewart or Gary Cooper were naturals, whilst Ronald Reagan couldn’t act even when he was supposed to be an actor.
But what politicians do know , and know very well, is all about good timing.
Whenever they have let their country down so badly and they know it , something has to be done before there is a riot. The call for their resignation is lurking just around the bend, and their Huckleberry Friend pops up to save them. Some tragedy or devastating drama will unfold on our TV screens and all our attention is suddenly miraculously diverted as we focus on the horror. This hideous, terrifying event will inevitably save their miserable skins as they step piously on to centre-stage and give us the ‘we told you so’ introduction, followed by the slow dance ‘we can beat them together’ routine or ‘it’s only our way of life we’re protecting for you’ reprise. The audience is putty in their hands once again and we come together as one . The show goes on. A few heartfelt short little sentences is all that is needed in our misery and to wind things up he’ll give us a friendly wave. (as he plays the ham) and the audience applauds his pathetic attempt at sincerity. He takes a bow stoicly and leaves the stage., a statesman once again.
It isn’t Tommy Cooper or Max Wall and it makes me feel sick to my stomach . It’s a politician’s gig. But his timing was immaculate.