A lot of people pushed and pulled my personality over the years. Especially my Dad and boss’s at work. In the public realm, the following 3 guys left a huge impression:
Derren Brown
Showed me that I could be gay and whatever else I wanted to be at the same time. When I found out that Derren was gay I was so happy to hear it – here was a man I already admired for his intelligence, skill and curiosity. His unique charismatic showmanship and what I saw as an unobtainable level of understanding of the human mind. Around this time it still felt like all gay public figures were camp as Christmas. Derren was single handedly carving his own path and I loved it. His books are insightful, relatable and original af. Also he’s the only person in this list who I still admire as much today as ever.
Russell Brand
Russell showed me that I could always take the piss out of myself and there’s never a need to take myself too seriously. I’m not into the born again Christian Brand. Peak Brand for me was circa 2008 – Big Brother’s Big Mouth and his Radio 2 show with Matt Morgan.
Both these things had a chaotic and hilarious energy I’d never seen before, it influenced my personality a lot as a teenager. He showed me how much humour can come from a cheeky jester-like dancing around the line of what would be appropriate.
Jordan Peterson
JBP me that I always have the option to act admirably and make everything better. Again, the 2024 flavour of Peterson feels stuck. Peak JBP for me was before his 2019 illness.
I first saw a video of him around 2016, on an Aberdeen nightshift YouTube binge. He had this amazingly accurate and perceptive way of explaining drug addiction. From then on I was a bit obsessed with the guy.
I remember walking around the streets of Ede, not long after moving to Netherlands in 2017, listening to as many hours of Jordan Peterson YouTube lectures as I could find. I felt like I was learning a lot and felt like I needed to hear it. A key insight for me, for whatever reason was when he walked through how prisoners in the Gulag could be admired. Something clicked when I realised that no matter your circumstances – you can always aim yourself towards being the best person you can.
I love that Peterson joined the dots to explain from a psychological point of view: why we like the stuff we like.
If I was going to continue this list I’d add:
Steve Jobs, David Bowie, Stewart Lee, Adam Curtis and (The Office Era) Ricky Gervais
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