Thank you and (possibly) goodbye

Jan 06, 2013 19:16

Well, I'm very flattered.

Thank you to the people who have asked after me since I stopped writing stuff here. I am doing fine, but I am not missing the ridiculous mission I'd set myself to write a daily blog. Now that I'm not doing it any more, I realise what a burden it was for me. I now have more time to do important stuff, such as sleeping. It's good. I'm not saying that I'll never write here ever again, but I'm not saying that I definitely will write here again either. Maybe I will and maybe I won't. But don't go holding your breath waiting for an update or anything.

I know some of you are already unfortunate enough to follow me on that there Twitter thing, but if you're not and you'd like to then you can see my boring #dealornodeal related ramblings at @ImMisterAl. I don't do Facebook because Facebook is evil.

You might have seen me on Channel 4 a couple of days ago being insulted by Jimmy Carr. This came about after I went to sit in the audience for the 8 Out of 10 Cats does Deal or No Deal so-called 'mash-up' programme, recorded just before Christmas. Mr Carr was hosting it and the comedians known as Jon Richardson and Sean Lock were playing for charity. At one point the audience was asked what they thought the players should do, and I stuck my hand up to say deal. This was mainly because Jon Richardson was clearly uncomfortable with risking the £9000 that had been offered at the time and the odds were against them having a favourable round if they carried on. However, since the vast majority of the rest of the audience really couldn't care less about such matters I was in a minority and my hand was noticed by a certain Mr Mark Olver on the wings, who decided to get me involved in the game and asked me to explain myself. I blathered on about percentages and maths for a bit and a joke was made at my expense. Not that I minded that; it was quite a funny joke.

What didn't make the final edit was the part, later in the game, where Jimmy Carr asked me for another probability, namely the chance of the largest remaining amount still being in play after the final round of the game. I duly supplied the correct answer, 40%. Jon Richardson then suggested that this would depend on whether that particular amount was on the table in front of him, which I then tried to explain wasn't important because that was all taken into account. Mindful of the fact that I suspected the Channel 4 audience hadn't tuned in for a maths lesson, I didn't really want to go into too much detail, but the interesting thing was that Oxford graduate of mathematics Rachel Riley (the numbers woman from off of Countdown) then started disagreeing with me. But she was wrong. Clearly it's been some time since she's studied combinatorics.

Also, the transatlantic woman on the wings, called Katherine and wearing the yellow top didn't like me much. "Do you want to be the guy who goes on about percentages, or do you want to be happy?" she said at one point, with some disdain in her voice. I have decided that I dislike her so much that I cannot be bothered to research her last name for this entry.

After the recording was over Jimmy Carr had another chat with me in front of the assembled audience. That conversation went something like this.

Jimmy Carr: So, maths geek, have you ever thought about playing this game for real? You should do it!
Maths geek (played by me): Yeah, but I don't think they'd have me. I know too much.
Jimmy Carr: You don't know what's in the boxes.

I had no response to that.

When it was all over and people were filing out of the studio, I was approached by a tall man who I recognised as senior producer Glenn Hugill. That name may not mean a lot to you if you're not a Deal or No Deal nerd like I am, but suffice to say that this chap has a huge influence on the content of the show, and in my opinion is one of the biggest reasons why the show is such a success. He chatted with me for a few minutes, thanking me for my contribution to that particular show and for my continued support over the years. He even asked me whether I still had the miniature box I'd been given nearly three years ago! (Like I was going to throw it out or anything.) To be honest, him taking the time to come up and speak to me was the highlight of the entire evening for me!

That concludes my report of the 191st game of Deal or No Deal I've seen recorded at the Bristol studios. See you all around, hopefully.
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