Last but not least: With trowel in hand for casual conversation

How do you crack stars? How do you get Madonna, for example, to allow you a look behind the facade and reveal herself as a human being? Obviously, you can't do this during a press conference with 500 accredited journalists. The Red Bull Music Academy offers a possible solution: at the annual workshop for young, creative musicians, celebrities from the music world find themselves among their peers. Usually, even after three hours, the invited speakers hardly want to stop telling the youngsters about their profession and their social life. But of course you can't always show up for an interview accompanied by thirty young DJs and producers. That's why the American agency Another Anomaly has come up with something new. The interview magazine created by the agency, which is designed by CD James Cooper and his class at the Miami Art School, lets the interview partners compete in a ping-pong game. Cooper explains that this creates a conversation situation similar to that on Freund's couch, but has less to do with mothers and more to do with top spin. The first issue created using this method has just been published.
The relaxing effect of ping-pong has long been recognized in Zurich. Once a month, Krethi, Plethi, Hans and Wurst meet up for an after-work round at the Toni Molkerei. And even there - as has been tried and tested several times - it is surprisingly easy to strike up a conversation with this or that person.