A SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH STREETTALK

• Word Juxtapoz was first conceived many years ago when as a young student, I stumbled upon some brain teasers in one student magazine. They were however, rather simplistic and not at all eye-catching. I tried them on a few friends who immediately took great interests in solving them. Since then, I began to create my own for leisure, but never with the thought of gathering up a collection of them in a form of a book.
  It was not until more than ten years ago, when the desire to come up with such a book began to burn. From then on, I would often find myself unable to sleep and getting out of bed in the middle of the night to sketch down visual images of catchphrases, idioms and clichés that kept continuously popping up in my mind. At other times, I'd just be reading a book or article when something clicked and bingo another idea for the scrapbook!
  I also noticed how much pleasure my friends had in cracking the puzzles I set them. One buddy, Victor, would tell me “These are really ingenious. Just where do you get the ideas from?” Then I asked myself – if I could tickle hundreds of people through my doodles, wouldn’t that be great? It was then that I published my first book entitled “Word Juxtapoz”.

What made you decide to take your hobby and make it a living?

• One stint in a Book Fair, 30,000 copies of my puzzling merchandise, hundreds of worldwide Internet subscribers and a burning PASSION made all the difference.
  Today, I'm driven to do what I do by the constant demand and encouragement I get from audiences from all over the world - USA, UK, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, South Africa, Korea, Japan, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, etc. - who visit my web site, www.wordjuxtapoz.com.

How do brainteasers and word play appeal to you? Why not
crosswords or sodoku?

• I love words - and love even more playing with them. To this end, I pick mainly word puzzles or puzzles that contain elements of pun or "mental twist". These puzzles serve as excellent catalysts for my lateral and creative thinking. After all, I'm a creativity practitioner - not just a puzzle-solver.
  I'm not a fan of crosswords or Sudoku as they belong generally to the "left-brained" or logic genre.

How do you come up with word puzzles? What's your process?

• Having been a creativity practitioner (and not just a preacher of creativity) for years now, I can get into what I call a state of "induced creativity".
  By this I mean I deliberately induce myself to mentally prepare my mind to focus on the particular challenge in question. Whether it's a quest for a new idea or a problem to be solved - I make sure I get myself "totally absorbed" into the issue. I'd think aloud, explore the task from various perspectives, play with different elements through association - all with the aim of finding new possibilities and creating new combinations.
  Invariably within a reasonably short time, I'd be able to yield some form of "flashes of inspiration" or creative breakthroughs.
  Of course, this comes through years of practice as a creative thinker. This is the same approach I use to generate my ideas for what is today a collection of hundreds and hundreds of my wacky, mindbending and visually stimulating teasers, puzzles and riddles, which is available on my web site, www.wordjuxtapoz.com.

Where do you get ideas for puzzles?

• Just about everywhere. I get my ideas by observing everyday things and occurrences, reading books, listening to "coffee talks", daydreaming, and - by studying the dictionary!
  Words invariably come alive to me each I read them.

What's the weirdest thing that gave you inspiration for a
puzzle?

• Seeing two men holding hands and crossing the road: Gaywalking.

Does your brain ever get tired from creating puzzles?

• No way! On the contrary, my adrenaline often gets pumped up when I'm thinking about creating new puzzles.

Have you ever been stumped by one of your own puzzles, or
have you committed to memory how each one works?

• This is an embarrassing question. The honest answer: Nope.
  I've never been caught in any of my public presentations or workshops - with my pants down.

What's the longest time you've spent solving a puzzle?

• Up to a week, I guess. Like all normal human beings, most of the time, I just give up and look up the answers.
  Don't you?

Since you're good with words, can you talk your way out of
any situation?

• I'd certainly love to think so. But my wife would probably beg to differ as she always has the last word whenever we are engaged in "intense fellowship".

Are you always pushing puzzles onto your friends?

• Not anymore. Especially now when I realize I seem to have many more of my wacky creations than I have friends. Pushing my original riddles now only to unsuspecting strangers over the Internet via my "killer sales letter".
  Have you seen it yet? Go to: www.wordjuxtapoz.com/wjbookjuxtaerobix.html

Do you ever speak in riddles?

• All the time. Thousand apologies to my little nephews, nieces, friends and audiences of my very fun and creative talks and workshops, who have to bear with me and my speaking in riddles.

What do word puzzles say about you? Are you a puzzle
waiting to be solved?

• Wacky, weird, crazy, ingenious, or simply WOW!
  Am I a puzzle waiting to be solved? Inside me, there are at least a million wacky ideas trying to burst forth and each one looking for its own victims!

How would you convince a kid to drop his computer game and
do a word puzzle instead?

• Get him to "test drive" a series of my world's wackiest and most mind-boggling Juxtaerobix workouts! And then challenge him to come up with his own and put me to the test.
  Don't believe me? Grab my stuff and go try it for yourself.

What do you say to those who think puzzles are just for nerds?

• "Grow up!" or "Get a life!".
  Just as there are as many types of books and movies for as many types of people, nerds or not, there are "nerdy" puzzles for nerds and there are fun puzzles for anyone who knows how to have fun.

Aren't word puzzles a bit anti-social? Why not group games
like Scrabble or Pictionary?

• Anti-social? Definitely not my brand of mindbenders!
  As a presenting author and a workshop facilitator, I have employed and tested the use of well-designed and highly visual teasers like Juxtaerobix workouts on audiences of varying age groups. I have used them as icebreakers, brainstormers and teambuilders to great success.
  The results are always the same: High "social" impact, high fun energy and sometimes extremely "dangerous liaisons"!

Why solve word puzzles online when you can just surf the net?

• Why bother to surf the net if you can't have fun solving word puzzles online?

Are word puzzles any better than puns or cliches?

• Did you know that the proverb, the one about eating and having a cake, is probably a cliche that contains a pun and is in fact a riddle itself?
  Try solving this riddle: Which is correct: (a) You can't have your cake and eat it too, or (b) You can't eat your cake and have it too?

The pay-off of a word puzzle doesn't seem particularly great - isn't solving an entire crossword more staisfying?

• Size does matter. But ONLY when it really matters.
  Try indulging in a good spread of buffet when all you have is a mere five minutes. A cleverly conceptualized teasers that both challenges and serves up a visual buffet of interesting words and colourful pictures (think Juxtaerobix)
  for the senses is all it takes to perk one up in a jiffy and awake the mental giant within.
  It's like having the perfect cuppa.