Joe Simpson and the skill of the card player

Joe Simpson, Speaker and Inspiration

I bumbed into Joe on the way back from Geneva. We were in the queue for bag check-in at the airport and I had not seen him since March when he had done some work with us in Hong Kong.  He described the audience in Hong Kong as “the scariest I have ever worked with, very intimidating.”  Staggering to hear as at the time he absolutely had 60 very senior people in the palm of his hand.  He spent about 90 minutes with our audience telling the ‘Touching the Void’ story which is mind-boggling well told (even having heard it four times and seen the film).  More impressively he stayed on for Dinner with the senior team in Hong Kong [suitably enough on ‘The Peak’].  Now mountaineers aren’t the chattiest and Joe is no different.  Most of his other vignettes seem to involve about 20% of those people he has been closest to dying, alone, somewhere cold.  Still there is something about this man.  About the way he writes, and talks, or smokes - like he’s still hanging on to something.  His dark, dark eyes haunt.  He is just about the the unfunkiest person you could put with a conference audience at a social event...and it worked.  There is no ego, boasts and few jokes, but he is a remarkable person to spend time with.  He is I understand a bit of a card player back in Ireland where he lives. Maybe this poker player carries those table skills with him always.  His agent rings me occasionally.  We will definitely do some work with Joe again.