Pap at a price
I was puzzled, even amazed, and truthfully disappointed when I saw an ad on a page of NYTimes.com touting Bill Clinton speaking at something called The Power Within. Is Clinton turning into a motivational speaker? In a manner of speaking, yes. President Bill meets Dr. Phil.
I was even more amazed when I saw the cost and the cast of players at the Power Within site, with all kinds of well-known names ready to stand up on a stage and tell you how to run your lives. A New York event includes Clinton (who can teach you — what? — how to redefine nothing less than the verb ‘to be’?), Michael Eisner (how to piss off an entire industry and lose your job), Mark Burnett (how to make the tackiest entertainment in decades and redefine reality), plus Lance Armstrong (insert your punchlines here), Jonathan Tisch, and Peter Guber. At least Donald Trump tells you how to get rich.
Sorry to be cynical. But I am. I can’t stand this crap. I spent too many years in San Francisco covering the likes of Werner Erhard’s est and the self-centered babble fad of the moment. I wonder whether these guys are doing this for the ego or the money.
Well, pap pays. The New York event at Javits — a damned big hall — costs up to $1,078.33 (don’t forget the .33) for “VIP executive,” down to $644.83 for the merely desperate to have has-beens tell you the secrets to their former success. I have no idea how many will buy tickets, but Trump says his last event at Javits lured 20,000 people. Figure an average $750 per ticket. That’s $15 million. Split — unevenly — among six speakers; it would seem that they’ll each get $1-3 million for a day’s “work.”
Hey, more power to them: Make a buck anyway you can. But make this much from the poor shlubs who are spending this fortune only because they can’t figure out what to do with their lives? The only thing more pathetic is exploiting the same void in people’s lives with the same sort of motivational speakers hauled out during PBS pledge weeks, in Yanni breaks.
I’m a big an of Clinton’s. But can he be this desperate for money and/or attention?
Oh, but he’s hardly alone. The list of people who want to tell you how to live is stunning. It includes:
* Cherie Booth, British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife.
* Gooshy book writer Mitch Albom (no surprise).
* Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benezir Bhutto (surprise).
* Gooshy goosh seller Deepak Chopra (no surprise).
* Singer Naomi Judd.
* Celebrity something-or-other Bianca Jagger.
* Sir Richard Branson (is he not rich enough yet?).
* Les Brown, “one of the nation’s leading authorities in understanding and stimulating human potential” (huh?);
* The Freakonomics boys (big surprise; so much for their hard-edged analyses).
* John Edwards (who speaks on, what, how to lose?).
* Gloria Estefan (no surprise whatsoever, if you’ve ever heard her low-oxygen monologues).
* Tim Sanders, author of “Love is the Killer App” (doesn’t title make you want to puke?).
* John Gray, author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and He’s from Pluto.
* Suzanne Somers (thinner thighs and fatter souls in 30 days, I suppose).
* Jack Welch (miss that expense account, fella?).
* Irshad Manji (a very disappointing personal surprise).
* Dr. Phil McGraw (of course!).
Mind you, I’m all for people making money speaking. Believe it or not, I very occasionally make a buck (not much more) that way. That’s not my issue. What amazes me is the company they all keep. These leaders of industry, government, entertainment, and publishing selling their — what? spiels? souls? — right next to:
* Rosemary Altea “an internationally renowned spiritual medium” who “gives the world a new ’soul system’ for understanding our relationships, our successes and failures, and ultimately our most fundamental selves.” She has even been on Oprah (no surprise).
* Crystal Andrus “a leader in the field of self-discovery and personal power.” (Who are the runners-up?)
* Sylvia Browne, “a world-renowned psychic.”
* Debbie Ford, “internationally recognized expert in the field of personal transformation.”
* Carolyn Myss who says she can “see” illnesses in patients’ bodies. Uh-huh.
If these people are internationally recognized, world-renowned leaders, why have I never heard of them? Guess I hang out with the wrong crowd. Thank goodness.
September 6th, 2006 at 11:00 am
Breaking news everyone! Rich and powerfull people give overpriced speeches! Next thing you’ll know is that they’ll tell you it’s pretty much just for the money.
And why haven’t you heard of them Jeff? It’s really no different when we watch the news and someone we’ve never seen nor heard get the pretty little title of “Terrorism expert” and some of us actually believe it. Which is more outrageous, people who you never heard of giving speeches no one will ever remember or having a “expert” on tv telling us what’s happening?
September 6th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Jeff, I am a bit confused, are the A-list speakers on the same event schedule as the B-list? It seems like two different categories of event. For all I know, Bill Clinton can bend spoons around a corner, but somehow I can’t see him sharing the stage with some one who does it for a living.
And as to ‘* Sir Richard Branson (is he not rich enough yet?).’ - what do expect from some one named after Branson, MO?
I prefer the whole bunch of the above to any televangelist offering to sell you a pre-blessed prayer rug for, say, $50, that will give you undying faith in whatever else he offers for $ and oh, by the way, prosperity.
September 6th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
ABC set to air a mockumentary about 9/11 which is full of inaccuarcies and was put together by friends of Rush Limbaugh and Jarvis has nothing to say. (No surprise! Nope none at all.)
ABC sends preview copies to right-wing blogheads in hopes of spreading lies and Jarvis has nothing to say. (No surprise! Nope none at all!)
ABC denies request by the ex-president to see this mockumentary which contains scenes “shameful” “straight out of disneyland” about his presidency and Jarvis has nothing to say. (No surprise. Nope none at all.)
Saint Rudy Guiliani has been a frequent shill for these kinds of motivational shows ever since he became a “hero” on 9/11 and Jarvis has failed to say one negative thing about it but he jumps at the chance to bash the ex-president for doing a similar thing. (No surprise. NONE AT ALL.)
September 6th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Lance Armstrong creeps me out.
September 6th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Are you sure John Edwards isn’t the con artist who claims to speak to the dead on his Crossing Over show? From the looks of the rest of the list, it might be.
John Gray is not from Pluto. He’s from the circus - He wears more makeup than a clown and uses an even foggier lens filter than Barbara Walters. What a freak.
And Dr. Phil is just an idiot. I wonder if Oprah is rueing the day…
September 6th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
i’m no fan of organized relion , but it really makes me feel pissed off and horribly sad that celebrity idol worship has taken the place in people’s lives where faith in a divine spirit used to be (yes, even though i don’t believe in any divine spirit.)
i don’t even care if people worship the almighty dollar — at least in theory they are trying to achieve material comfort. but the endless reinforcement of the primacy of the arisctracy of celebrity — and the endless success of that reinforcment — makes me despair, profoundly.
jeff — still wonder why we can’t seem to recognize truly evil bad guys when they blow themselves up in our faces? maybe because we have traded in our souls (or spirits or whatever) for a dollop of pseudo proximity to celebrity, and so have disabled our moral compasses
September 6th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Nobody personally pays to attend these things. Their companies pay to have them all get riled up and go out and SELL SELL SELL! Minor distinction, I know, but it is one.
September 6th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Thanks for clarifying the point Mike G.
I was wondering who the hell would pay these exorbitant prices. How could anyone so obviously lacking in anything resembling a life, have enough money, or the will to spend it, on this stuff.
But I sense a meta agenda.
Hold a glitzed up event like this, get a list of all the companies stupid enough to pay this kind of money for nothing worth having; then make a bundle shorting them all.
September 7th, 2006 at 12:43 am
Jeff, is it just that you felt they may have lost your invite in the mail?
September 7th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Jeff:
I say it’s the attention Clinton craves not the money. He can’t stand being irrelevant.
September 7th, 2006 at 11:09 am
It seems close to the Hindu idea of “Darshan” - that an audience with a great soul can help the seeker along his path. I’m not going - I don’t want any of Bianca Jagger to rub off on me.
September 7th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
The misconception:
These people “stand up on a stage and tell you how to run your lives”
The reality:
Most of these people stand up on stage and share something from their lives. A story, a bit of philosophy, something that made a lasting impression on them.
In lieu of an actual day-in, day-out mentor, I can see the clear value in understanding what drives people who have achieved great success (they can say what they will about Clinton, but in many ways he’s the poster child for the American Dream) or have been in situations you’ll never find yourself in (that’d be your Bianca Jagger).
I could do without the John Grays or the psychics, but I’d view them as the “bad” you take so you can get the “good.”
That said, I probably wouldn’t attend something like this myself, but I can understand the value.
September 8th, 2006 at 11:18 am
“Split — unevenly — among six speakers; it would seem that they’ll each get $1-3 million for a day’s “work.—
A bit less, as the Javitz center gets some of the money too, there are promoters and organizers, advertising expenses…. I’d guess the bigger names are getting more like one million than three. Still, not bad.
“I’m a big fan of Clinton’s. But can he be this desperate for money and/or attention?”
You have to be not merely “not desparate” but pretty astoundingly blase about money to turn down $1,000,000 for one night’s work. I’m sure Clinton’s well off, but even at the Bill Gates level $1,000,000 isn’t pocket change.