Give ‘Em the Ol’ Razzle Dazzle

Scene from the musi­cal Chicago: Razzle Dazzle

I never fully under­stood what this song “Give ‘em the ol’ Razzle Dazzle” from the musi­cal Chicago was about until recently. Here are some of the lyrics:

Give ‘em the old raz­zle daz­zle
Razzle Dazzle ‘em
Give ‘em an act with lots of flash in it
And the reac­tion will be pas­sion­ate
Give ‘em the old hocus pocus
Bead and feather ‘em
How can they see with sequins in their eyes?

Give ‘em the old Razzle Dazzle
Razzle daz­zle ‘em
Show ‘em the first rate sor­cerer you are
Long as you keep ‘em way off bal­ance
How can they spot you’ve got no tal­ent

These words betray the tac­tics used in the enter­tain­ment indus­try to make actors, singers and other enter­tain­ers more appeal­ing to their audi­ence. Usually intended to dis­tract peo­ple from a lack of real tal­ent the ol’ raz­zle daz­zle is a scheme that always seems to work. Elaborate cos­tumes, dance num­bers and stage effects that make the enter­tainer seem so much larger than life that no one notices that he or she isn’t really that tal­ented. Thinking of this made me won­der if this was also a tac­tic used in the lit­er­ary world?

While in today’s writ­ing world there is a wealth of tal­ented writ­ers, but only a cho­sen few have been able to rise above the fray. I thought of the expres­sion to “never judge a book by its cover”. These are words of wis­dom applied to every other aspect of our lives except when it comes to actual books. More and more efforts are made to design book jack­ets with elab­o­rate illus­tra­tions on glossy cov­ers that are designed to catch the eye of its poten­tial reader. Isn’t that a bit of the raz­zle daz­zle? I can say this because I am per­son­ally guilty of being drawn in by the book cover, but later being dis­ap­pointed by the actual con­tents.

Interestingly though, many of the books con­sid­ered clas­sics were writ­ten well before this tac­tic was employed. An orig­i­nal copy of a book writ­ten in the 1800s would have noth­ing added to the design of the book cover. No glossy images or glit­tery titles to draw you in. Most were just dark book cov­ers with noth­ing but the title and the authors name printed on the bind­ing. Yet, many of those books are still some of the most highly read and sought after books today. Why? Because such books made such a last­ing impres­sion on its audi­ence that word-​of-​mouth adver­tis­ing put these books in the hands of more read­ers.

I relate these thoughts to my own future hopes of becom­ing a pub­lished author, would I be will­ing to give em the ol’ raz­zle daz­zle just to see my book widely dis­trib­uted in print?

When writ­ing for chil­dren, I am aware that there has to be a degree of visual appeal to attract them to my book Children are usu­ally drawn in by the illus­tra­tions, as they should be. But, I am reminded of the most beloved books of my own child­hood. I hardly remem­ber what they looked like, but what has stayed with me though is the sto­ries. Their words remain imprinted in my mem­ory. As a par­ent, I still seek these very books out to share with my chil­dren. I want my book to have that affect on peo­ple. So as a writer, I think I’ll leave the ol’ raz­zle daz­zle to the enter­tain­ers and try to let good writ­ing that touches the read­ers heart pre­vail.

Thanks for read­ing,