Louis Theroux has long had the ability to make anyone seem interesting. He professes to do this by focusing on how off-beat ('weird') people are very normal despite their wholly abnormal beliefs (such as believing aliens are coming, Jews are the cause of evil, or right-wing Christian beliefs are the way forward, etc). His ability to interview is mirrored in his ability to give interesting talks and now, in his ability to write a book, too. His first book is entitled The Call of the Weird,, and it's rather good.
As Theroux's peculiar documentaries launch again on BBC he revisits America to investigate the lives of inmates in one of America's most unappealing jails, and catches up with the 'Weird Weekenders'of previous years' shows. The key, he says, is that in meeting these odd, peculiar and often offensive people, is to find what makes them normal - what perfectly normal characteristics they share with us. Theroux says this is what he thinks makes his documentaries interesting. And they are. Whilst borderline patronising at times, Louis Theroux asks some brilliant questions.
Theroux recently spoke at The Idler bookshop in London's Royal Oak - the perfect spot for the very middle-class Louis Theroux to be holding a very middle-class talk in a very middle-class church. I left with his book, and while it's been out since 2006, it's definitely not as well publicised as his documentaries. The book is essentially a deeper delve into what he thinks whilst visiting these people, which is something he mentions in his talk. Whilst the documentary presents how he reacts, the talk and the book provides some lovely 'behind the scenes' from inside the head of Louis, on what it is like to interview the Weird. The book is rather special. Buy it.