005 One Hilarious Chat with Adrian Plass

Picture credit: Greenbelt

I’m often asked to name a favourite interview that I’ve done and, having been in radio for a while now, it’s a question I find extremely difficult to answer. But this chat with British author and poet Adrian Plass from over a decade ago is certainly high up the list. However, I never knew back then just what this interview would lead to.

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About Adrian

Adrian Plass‘s many books include the legendary Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation, Seriously Funny, Seriously Funny 2, Silences and Nonsenses, and the new Adrian Plass and the Church Weekend. Adrian has the capacity to make you laugh one moment and cry the next. Such is his power with words.

But there is something else I should tell you about Adrian.

A Personal Story

The interview you’re about to hear was recorded in 2001 while I was the morning show host at 98.5 Sonshine FM in Perth, Western Australia. It was my first time interviewing Adrian, who came into the studio live that morning ahead of a show that evening. As you’ll hear, the interview was a hoot.

So taken was I by Adrian and his wisdom that I quoted from that interview in the first edition of Unseen Footprints in 2005.

I moved to Sydney in 2006 to start the Open House radio show, and got to have my second interview with Adrian on that show in 2007. That conversation was so insightful the transcript was included in Open House Volume 1.

When Adrian released a book of his collected poems called Silences and Nonsenses in late 2010 I took the opportunity to have him on Open House again.

But this time something else happened.

After the interview Adrian and I chatted off-air. We had done that each time we’d spoken in the past but this time the conversation got personal. Merryn and I were in the latter months of what would be the toughest season of our lives. Adrian showed a genuine interest in the story, so I told him a little about our journey and how Merryn and I were desperately hoping to start 2011 afresh.

After listening carefully, Adrian said this:

‘In the Christian scheme of things, new beginnings come after the death of something, just as Jesus’ resurrection followed his crucifixion. After what you’ve just told me, I think a Resurrection Year is just what you need.’

A Resurrection Year.

Now you know who is responsible for the title of the book that changed everything for me.

Adrian Plass.

Adrian and his wife Bridget have another important role to play in the Resurrection Year story – but I’ll leave you to read the book to find out what that is. (Truly, it would be giving too much away to tell you now!)

But I’ll never forget going home and telling Merryn what Adrian had said. She burst into tears – tears of relief. A Resurrection Year is just what she needed.

In the Interview

So, take a listen to the interview that started it all – an interview I never realised the significance of at the time. In it Adrian and I cover:

• How we can find the ‘funny’ in life
• If there are any people who just who don’t ‘get’ his humour
• What Adrian finds most humorous about church-goers
• The touching story behind his book The Horizontal Epistles of Andromeda Veal
• The importance of being ‘child-like’
• What God laughs at
• Whether the Plass household is just one long laugh-fest

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