Maverick artist Marc Horowitz invaded London's Hayward Gallery recently with his bizarre art talk show experiment - the Me & You Show. In addition to cameraman Martin Schnabel's tightly condensed best of clip, Oliver Guy-Watkins, one of the show's scriptwriters, writes for Dazed Digital about the joys and pitfallls they all encountered during its production.
As the calendar began to approach mid February, it brought with it the reminder that the year was already progressing fast before me, aside from a few interviews with bands I don’t really like and deleting five more chapters from the book I have been trying to write for two years it appeared that not much had happened or was about to. Then a link appeared in my inbox to an advert for writers to assist in an exhibition at The Hayward Gallery. Interesting.
At the point of writing to the Hayward I had no idea what the next six weeks would bring with it, even to the point when assistant curator Sherman Sam greeted me in the project space and said that the artist was running slightly late did I have no clearer idea. Thirty minutes later a sweaty and beaming smiled Marc Horowitz appears saying he walked from Soho and may have gone the wrong way at some point. He puts down his black hard top briefcase and shakes my hand, being careful to wipe it first on his jeans to remove some of the moisture. Sweat is something that Marc will endure a little more throughout the next few weeks.
Two days later I arrive back at the Hayward to begin the first day of writing the show, we have three days before the premier episode will run live on Ustream and be witnessed by a number of ‘important’ people invited by the gallery. Two days later we will run the second show, the first week will see four episodes in all, with each of the three weeks following containing a hat-trick. It is not long before the panic sets in. It seems the space does not meet the needs for power and the internet is way too slow for us to stream anything live, Marc is running between a number of people who have come to help design the set and the tech guys at the gallery, then trying to write the show with myself and Zach Ayers who flown over from LA.
The initial problems are not sorted straight away and the first two shows end up being a series of trial and error, with a great deal of sweat pouring of Mr Horowitz under the glare of the stage lighting. Then it happens, on show 3, 'The Future' things just click. It seems like a formula has been discovered all round. The audience are moved closer to the stage and a plan for the guests is drawn up that will stick almost right until the end.
The fourth show also falls greatly into place and Marc is really finding his flow with the guest interviews as well as the opening monologue. It is starting to happen in a good way and the audience reaction is getting better and better. We devise a series of elements to bring the studio crowd into the show more and write each individual an instruction for them to interrupt the show, one lady gracefully climbs onstage and tapes Marc’s arms to the chair in which he sits. Marc is unaware of any interruption that we have written, which causes him to react on his toes and gives the show an injection of life at regular intervals.
Then it happens. The dreaded man-flu invades. By show six Marc and myself are hanging, Marc is unused to our lightweight UK drugs and seeks out a doctor to help him overcome this virus with some serious US imports, eventually he finds a young lady who can help, and who ends up visiting the show on two separate occasions. The bout of illness has caused us to cancel one show, and unfortunately we are unable to feature artist Mark Titchner as planned. However over the shows run we do see author Damian Barr; artists Doug Fishbone, Matthew Stone and Boo Saville; musicians Indigo Moss, A Human, The Zetland Players, Gabby Young and a group of buskers from the south bank; and drag queen Jodie Harsh, as well as others, grace Marc’s yellow picnic bench.
It is however the final show that will stand in the memories of all present for a long time, opening with the enigmatic Sebastian Horsley, who provides a reading from his new book and a debate about failed abortion, the show becomes a bomb site after the arrival of artist Bob And Roberta Smith who writes slogans over every item before destroying the props and throwing them into the audience, marine and actor Brian Van Riper is then interviewed on a semi destroyed stage and seems a little bemused but highly entertained.
And so it ends… Five long weeks, split with illness, internet connections, budget issues, drunken fights, drunken nights and broken pens... Marc Horowitz has indeed courted the line between art and entertainment. This show has given all involved an experience we will never forget, and brought the name Marc Horowitz to the shores of the UK with more than just a small explosion, he has arrived and destroyed in the nicest possible way, always bearing that cheeky smile upon his face.