Profiling an escape artist
Columbia Missourian
If there’s one medium that I’m still unfamiliar with, it’s radio. I’ve never listened much to it growing up, but after going through several NPR and BBC audio reports, I must say that it’s a magical medium. One particular aspect that I like most about radio is how there is so much description of a person or the surroundings, and enough to hear, and still, there is a ton room for imagination. The profile piece on Mario Manzini is one such example.
There were a couple of things I wished the reporter had done though.
(1) I wished there was less of the reporter and more of Manzini. For such an interesting character who had amazing quotes, I did wish I heard from him more. I think that would have painted a more intimate portrait of him and I would have felt a stronger connection with Manzini. As mentioned in class, an audio/video piece should really have less of the reporter.
(2) There was hardly any natural sound in the piece. It was probably difficult for the local reporter to be at the performance venues but I thought that could have been overcome by overlaying certain sections of the piece with a song that Manzini uses for his acts. Another possible way was to get Manzini to watch some of the footage of the stunts that he performed, get the sound from the video, and also his reaction to some of the show he did.
Summing it up, it was a fantastic interview – that felt like it would fit better in a newspaper.
