David Simon at the GFT

I had intended to blog this a couple of weeks ago, but I waited until the GFT had it online. Fraser and I went to see David Simon, creator of The Wire at the GFT a few weeks ago.

The sold out evening began with a screening of episode two of the fifth and final season. This caused a few murmurs of complaints from people in the crowd who a) Didn't expect an episode they hadn't seen and b) Didn't like the fact it was episode two and not episode one. It was a great episode though and has a brilliantly dramatic ending.

The talk itself was alternatively amazing and annoying. The Sunday Herald sponsored the event and their journalist Alan Taylor was the man in the chair to interview Simon. He gave off the air of a guy who had speed-watched a couple of seasons on DVD. He wasn't quite sure what character was who and wasted Mr. Simon's time and ours with inane chatter like asking if Avon Barksdale was named after 'Avon calling.' He also made jokey references to Taggart. All of this going straight over David Simon's head as he had no frame of reference.

The questions were the usual mix of quite good and timewasting clowns mistaking a public Q & A for a chance meeting at a party. When the man was allowed to talk he was very entertaining. An interesting and intelligent guy who gave us a lot of the background as to how the show came about, the writing process and of the real life people the characters on the show are based on.

Seven minutes of the talk are down below.