Sarah Herman and Lucy York Interview
Rob Savage Meets Sarah Herman and Lucy York
First of all thank you very much to both if you for taking the time out to tell me about your new, off the wall book Do Worms Have Willies?
Sarah
What was the inspiration for this collection of - off the wall and highly entertaining questions and answers?
Being pretty wise we both get asked questions all the time. After the success of my solo project (Does Anything Eat Shit?) those questions increased three-fold and we soon found ourselves united in our cause to answer the world's crazy queries. Oh, and there was a rather embarrassing incident involving, me, a worm and a vacuum cleaner but I don't feel comfortable talking about that at this time.
The section explaining how popcorn became a partner to cinema going is incredible. How did you unearth the fact that it all dates back to films being screened in barns and an accidental fire that set the grain store popping during the main feature?
There's nothing that Lucy and I love more than heading down to our local library with a flask of noodle soup and a packet of Bourbon biscuits to rifle through old reference books. Ah, the smell of bound leather! We happened to be holidaying in Indiana last year, visiting the Yetti Carnivale a notorious travelling circus that includes a chopstick-handling elephant called Burt when we stumbled across the town of Carmel where the original corn-popping incident took place. We just had to drop into the library and find out all about it!
You're stranded on a dessert island for the rest of your life. You have two choices. Eat a diet of chocolate that induces severe flatulence or subsist on highly nutritious, life prolonging Weetabix - dipped in marmite and coated in cocoa powder. You have Brad Pitt for company. What do you choose?
I've seen Seven Years in Tibet and for Brad's torturous: I vant to go to zee Himaliiiiiiyas! Austrian accent alone I'd have to dip him in the Marmite, leave him out in the baking sun to crisp up, and then feast on him like a giant Twiglet. Main course over, I'd chow down on the chocolate, build myself a raft out of the Weetabix and use the wind power of my new-found flatulence problem to blow me off the island back to civilisation. Oh, and as for the cocoa powder Who could resist mixing it with some seawater and indulging in a spot of Rambo-style face painting?
Is there a question that you've never been able to find an answer to?
UmWhy do men have nipples?
To remind them how useless they are.
Lucy
What are your top five books of all time?
- The Witches by Roald Dahl
- The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton
- My Dog is a Carrot by John Hegley
- Does Anything Eat Shit? by Sarah Herman ( a modern-day classic!)
- Diary of an Obese Anteater by I. E. Tants (OK, so I made this last one up - but it's a subject that has long intrigued me)
A favourite Do Worms Have Willies tale for me refers to the community in Vatessville who don't sleep and only need to rest their bodies for one hour a day. Have you ever been to the town and do you think you could ever exist on one hour a night?
Sadly we never got to visit. The people of Vatessville all suffer from a rare genetic sleep disorder and the authorities are pretty stringent about not allowing people without the condition to visit for any length of time. But I did take part in a sponsored wakeathon to raise funds for the Vatessville Research Station last year. I didn't quite make it through the full 23 hours - but I talk in my sleep a lot so I don't think anyone noticed.
Why pick Do Worms Have Willies as the front cover - leader of the pack for this collection of questions and answers?
Our front cover selection came out of our involvement with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty and Ignorance Against Worms. They really were instrumental in aiding our research into the title question. We learned so much about these unique creatures and wanted to help get them back in the limelight. People would respect worms a lot more if they only knew what they have to go through to ensure the survival of their species.
If you could ask the Dalai Lama anything what would it be and what do you think his answer might be?
Me: What do you wear under your robes?
Dalai: That's for me to know, and you to keep guessing [winks].
Finally how do you propose to top this excellent publication next time around?
I think you've just found your answer to question 4
- Rob Savage
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