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Stephen Fry Stage Mishap · Mark and Pete

• 0:06
  Stephen Fry stage mishap. Welcome to Mark and Pete.
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  Yes, a national treasure trip's over and suddenly the floor
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  itself is in the dock. Yes, this is Mark and Pete's two
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  blokes with half an opinion. Now here's our first thought.
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  Clumsy performance. All the world's a stage and all
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  the men and women are merely players.
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  They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his
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  time plays many parts. But if he falls off the stage,
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  his credibility soon departs. Well indeed.
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  Yes, Sir. Stephen Fry has sued the
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  organisers of a tech conference where he was injured when he
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  fell off the stage after making a speech.
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  Now, this extraordinary incident has meant that Mister Frye
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  himself has actually broken many, many bones.
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  Now, Mr. Pete, I know that you've been a man who has
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  somebody who who's been very familiar with speaking in
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  public, but you haven't fallen from grace in this way.
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  What say you about this incident?
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  Well, Mr. Bark, no, I normally manage to make myself onto and
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  off the platform or the pulpit without any mishap.
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  In effect. I've been in up the steps of
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  some quite rickety pulpits in my time and.
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  With your rickety legs. Indeed.
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  But you know, I do recognise, however, that when you're in the
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  moment, you know, you're focusing on the performance of
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  your or presentation of your, of your ACT or lecture, whatever
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  you're doing or sermon and you're not focusing on, you
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  know, make going down the steps properly.
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  I understand that problem. But but I think you do need to
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  be aware of your surroundings and just train yourself to be to
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  be aware. Having done a little bit of
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  acting as Stephen Fry has himself.
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  Stage acting gives you that necessity of being able to focus
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  on both. So you would have thought I'm
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  surprised that Stephen Fry. I would be surprised rather if
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  Stephen Fry were thoughtful this it may well be then that been
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  the case that he is he has done quite a bit of acting.
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  I was underplaying it when I said earlier on stages.
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  In fact, I've been to see him. He was in that.
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  He was in a performance in the West End a few years back and he
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  didn't fall off the stage once. Not even once.
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  Which would have to be honest have improved the performance,
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  but that's another matter. But you know, I think that it
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  may well be that there was some problem with with the setup
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  where he was actually performing or presenting.
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  So it may well be that he has a case if he wants to bring it
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  against the organisers. Well, indeed, now the
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  broadcaster and author, as he is actor as you say, said that he
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  broke his leg, hit pelvis and a bunch of ribs etcetera and he's
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  taking the particular event organisers, Cog ex convention at
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  the O2 Arena to court. Now he's suing them for £100,000
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  in damages. There's a lot of money, but
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  accepting that of course he has injured himself.
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  He fell basically 6 feet onto solid concrete.
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  So I can understand what's happened here.
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  But you're right, it is a bit strange, isn't it, that he
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  didn't do like a prep call or it didn't see where his mark was,
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  Effectively where you, an actor, would go to a plinth or they'd
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  go to a point on the stage and they would have that spatial
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  awareness. So who's really at fault here?
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  Is it him and that he just simply forgot himself in the
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  moment and then just wandered off in the wrong direction?
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  Or is it actually the organisers who perhaps, maybe should have
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  had something but clearer as a barrier?
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  I mean, I know we don't actually know the full logistics here,
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  but who do you think's culpable here?
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  Well, yeah, did he do a Joe Biden is what you're asking?
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  I mean, the Bible says Proverbs 19, verse 3.
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  A person's own folly leads to their ruin, yet their yet their
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  heart rages. And it could be something like
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  that, that his anger is because is really at his own stupidity,
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  but he can't admit it to himself.
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  That's a possibility. But it does seem that even if
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  there is a possibility of making a six foot fall onto concrete,
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  there should have been something in the way preventing that
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  happening, not just simply guidance or a sign saying don't
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  fall here. You know that's not good enough.
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  It needs to be impossible to fall.
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  There needs to be a proper, an actual barrier in place if
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  you're going to hold an event like that with such a huge drop.
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  I mean, if you remember the public, let alone someone who's
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  been invited to speak, you would expect those measures to be put
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  in place. And if someone did fall, they'd
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  be held liable. So I think whether or not we
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  decide, well, he was a bit silly.
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  He should have been more aware of his surroundings and he
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  should at least have made sure he knew the way and the way on
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  and the way off of the podium. I think the fact that he could
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  fall means that they are liable. Well, indeed.
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  Now the lawyers who are representing Sir Stephen Fry
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  said it's very unfortunate that court proceedings were
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  necessary, but the defendants do not accept Sir Stephen's
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  accounts of events and we have to have had to ask the court to
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  determine who's responsible for injury and losses.
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  Now, in this particular case, it's very unfortunate for
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  Stephen Fry, but he's not the first person to do it.
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  And so Ian Mckennon actually fell off during a Shakespearean
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  performance on the stage and landed on a woman's lap, causing
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  her much distress. It is extraordinary that this
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  isn't, as I said, the, you know, uncommon.
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  So I wonder whether maybe that it's just the actor lost in the
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  moment or or is is that really what's happening?
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  Because both been on a stage, when you get those lights in
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  front of you, sometimes you're sort of absorbed in the moment,
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  in the atmosphere, and then suddenly you find yourself on.
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  I can see, yes, I, I agree that that's what I was sort of
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  talking about earlier. But even though you don't quite
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  a bit of acting, it could that could take over.
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  You're being in the moment, as you put it, so that you're not
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  quite as aware of your surroundings.
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  And I have to say that even what what I was saying before was
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  like the legal position, if they didn't have a barrier, then it,
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  it could be shown that they were liable.
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  But it's not necessarily mean it's the right thing that, that
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  they can be liable. I mean, what came to just
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  accepting that there are risk, reasonable risk, normal,
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  ordinary risk. You know, if I walked the wrong
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  way, I might fall off the back this fall off and hurt myself.
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  But it's my fault, you know, where is, where is that
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  acceptance of risk? It it does seem that we're in a
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  sort of safety hidebound culture.
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  We don't accept that there's any risk to anything.
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  We just can't accept it. No, I mean, people are very
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  embarrassed. I think these days that people
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  actually die at all. It does happen.
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  You fall off the edge of life and you're dead.
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  You know you can't sue anyone then, can you?
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  Unless it's gone. I'm afraid that's true.
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  Well, look, I know that many people maybe listening to the
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  podcast, we're actually there live watching this happen.
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  But I would say to Stephen Fry, obviously we wish him a speedy
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  recovery. But the next time that you
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  decide to become a stuntman in your your performance, be
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  careful what type of role that you're going for because you
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  never know, that stage just might have a trap door.