TV talent shows like “Opportunity Knocks” and “New Faces” gave novice performers a chance to ‘get on the telly’ and although they discovered future stars like Joe Pasquale, Les Dawson, Lenny Henry and Victoria Wood, they were mainly designed to entertain viewers for an hour.
From 1999 to 2004, Owen Money hosted the highly successful BBC Wales talent show “Just Up Your Street” which (full disclosure) I appeared on.
I have 500 VHS copies of that show for sale at £4.99 each if anyone’s interested.
Then Simon Cowell re-invented the TV talent show on a massive scale, coincidentally not long after “Just Up Your Street” had finished its first run.
You don’t think he…? Nah!
As “The X Factor” had huge budgets and was given a primetime Saturday night slot, a generation of viewers has grown up believing that TV talent shows are the only way to make a career in showbusiness.
Unfortunately, there have been many instances of performers winning talent shows and achieving a Christmas No1, then quickly fading back into obscurity for reasons I’d need a lot more space than this to explain.
I think it’s unfair that performers on “The X Factor” and the more recent “Walk The Line” are only given 90 seconds to impress the judges, who appear to think – quite mistakenly – these shows are all about them. Probably because they’re on camera more than the acts.
In my experience, both as a stand-up comedian and an audience member, it often takes a performer a couple of minutes to establish their personality and create a rapport with the audience.
For comedians, even a minute on stage without hearing any laughs can be excruciating. When that first laugh comes, their racing heartbeat slows down sufficiently to enable both them and the audience to relax and have fun.
On “Just Up Your Street” I was given nine minutes, which I knew would be edited down to five. That’s absolute luxury compared to the ridiculously short time today’s talent show performers are allowed.
You can judge for yourself how well I did by purchasing one of my VHS tapes at £4.99.
Okay. £1.99?