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Hot Mark: Welcome back to our listeners. If you've just joined us, we're here with Dr... um... Basil Regis Foster Otto Inman II, author of next week's #1 bestseller about the Barefootin Tickler, called Kickin Off His Shoes (and His Plan to Get Yours, Too).

Basil: So I learned a lot about the Barefootin Tickler in Viennetta, which is at least so far as has been reported the first town the Barefootin Tickler ever converted. It certainly seemed to get his chosen career off to a good start. Everywhere he goes, from one town to the next, he gets all the guys barefoot, and then tickles their feet until they embrace his lifestyle of barefootin and feet-tickling. In all the places he's visited, none of the men or teen boys who ever met him have put on a shoe since, and they've all devoted much time and effort since the meeting to becoming expert foot-ticklers.

Smart Mark: But how is this possible? Does he brainwash people?
Basil: He doesn't have to, apparently. Everyone I've interviewed has told me that he was really a barefooter at heart all along, even if he didn't know it, and the Barefootin Tickler just made him admit to being a barefootin fool.

Hot Mark: Even guys like that Professor Graves?

Basil: That was a fascinating interview. Someone I'd known to be a bit of a fuddy-duddy, but he'd thrown over his career and made radical changes to his life. I was as shocked as Oliver had been just from the first sight of him barefoot. But it certainly seemed to agree with him. He looked years younger than his age, and spoke as if he'd experienced a sudden surge of zest for life. I'd taken a couple of precautions for the interview. One was to conduct it out of doors, so that nothing about the room would influence me, and the other was to meet my researcher just out of town that morning and bring him with me.

Smart Mark: So how did the interview go? What did Professor Graves have to tell you about the Barefootin Tickler?

Basil: It was nice to have the account of a trained professional observer. He didn't have quite the recollection that I might have thought probable, but he was able to lay out a good number of details for me. He'd been at research one day, quite as normal, when throughout the course of the day he'd heard vague reports of the town's routine being slightly off one way or another. People had been saying that a strange man had arrived in town, nobody quite knew how, but that the stranger was completely barefoot. He'd been holding forth on the green about how he meant to get all the guys in town barefootin too.

Hot Mark: But didn't he hate going barefoot?

Basil: That was what made him curious about the phenomenon. Apparently most of the men or teen boys who'd gone to the green did so because they were skeptics. Professor Graves wasn't ashamed to tell me that he'd had that same thought. But he'd arrived at the green only to find the Barefootin Tickler, quite at his ease, sitting with his big barefeet plainly on display for all to see. At first, it had been a bit daunting, but gradually he'd found himself becoming comfortable with the sight, even finding it interesting. As he told me about how strange it had seemed to him as he'd become more comfortable seeing the stranger's bared feet on display, I noticed a sort of agitation on his part. He began fidgeting with his own feet, as if he were drawing attention to them, and I noticed that my researcher seemed to be looking at them with increased interest. There's something that's not exactly easy to explain here.

Smart Mark: Why don't we take another commercial break now, and maybe you can see if anything comes to you?

Basil: Thanks; I may have an idea.

[commercial break plays]

Hot Mark: Welcome back to Mark and Mark Til After Dark. And I have to tell you, Basil - whoa, dude! When you have an idea, you really have an idea!

Basil: Thank you, Mark.

Smart Mark: For our audience who are only listening and not watching the webcast, Dr Inman has done something very unusual. He's just put his bare feet up on the studio desk.

Basil: I hope you two don't mind. I thought that a little demonstration of the Barefootin Tickler's technique would make it easier to get my point across.

Hot Mark: It doesn't bother me, Basil. I hope you don't mind my calling you Basil; it just feels funny calling someone Doctor Somebody when he's barefootin.

Basil: Go right ahead, please. Actually, it's a good indication of one of my points in the book. The open displaying of a guy's barefeet constitutes the breaking down of a social constraint, and the breaking of one constraint often leads to the breaking of another. In many of the towns converted by the Barefootin Tickler, social constraints on men's daily lives were considerably above average.

Smart Mark: I can see how that connects. But, Dr Inman, come to think of it, I didn't see any motion indicating that you were taking your shoes off. And... I don't see them under the desk. Surely you were wearing shoes when you arrived. That reminds me, though, of your book, which we ought to plugging more. For our audience, if you've just joined us, the title is Kickin Off His Shoes (and His Plan to Get Yours, Too). But is that an accurate title? I mean, did the Barefootin Tickler actually arrive in town and then kick his shoes off, or was he already barefoot when he arrived?

Basil: Mark, as for my wearing shoes when I got here, surely you'd have noticed if I hadn't been, which is another of my points. We always notice the one thing that's out of place before we spot specific things that are where they belong. You could always check with your station manager... Julian, wasn't it? But you're quite right to wonder about the Barefootin Tickler. From all the information I've gathered, he was definitely already barefoot when he arrived.

Hot Mark: Why would that make a difference?

Basil: Well, it meant that he was already a barefooter when he began, and removed the possibility of the theory that he somehow became a barefooter in Viennetta. Professor Graves was able to settle that point for me pretty definitively. There could be an origin story in some other town, but most of my research in other towns suggests that Viennetta was where the Barefootin Tickler began his Pied Piper-like activities. Anyway, to get back to Professor Graves, as he told me about how he went to the green, saw the Barefootin Tickler with his barefeet in plain sight, and began to notice that they were actually really interesting to look at, or even to study carefully, he began flexing his soles a little. I'll show you... just like this... and then I just happened to notice that my researcher was beginning to fidget, rubbing his ankles or his heels together unaware, as he seemed to be watching the professor's barefeet with rapt attention. Then, without even noticing, he slipped his own shoes off.

Smart Mark: That's pretty spooky. If I'd been you, I might have suspected that Professor Graves might really be the Barefootin Tickler himself. And why was your researcher affected while you weren't?

Basil: One part of my early training gave me the capacity to give myself a much lower susceptibility to persuasion for a short period of time. As for Professor Graves' perhaps being the Barefootin Tickler himself, I kept an open mind about that. But it soon became clear from subsequent events that he couldn't have been in at least half the towns that the Barefootin Tickler visited, and I struck that possible theory off the list. And it was really fascinating to watch as it happened. It became one of the longer chapters in the book.

Hot Mark: We'd better take another station break here, Basil. Julian is giving me a signal.

Basil: Sure.

[station break plays]

Smart Mark: Sorry about that, listeners; it was a false alarm. But this may interest you. As I said earlier, Dr Inman has put his bare feet up on the desk, and apparently they've been drawing Julian's attention just as much as Professor Graves' bare feet inspired your researcher, Doctor. In fact, Julian's now barefoot himself, which I've never seen the whole time I've been here at WTKL. So I suppose the Barefootin Tickler's system is working.

Basil: It seems that way to me, Mark. I thought he seemed to be looking at my feet through the window to his room, but I couldn't be sure. But it seemed to be just the way Professor Graves described it. Before he'd known what was happening, he'd found his attention absolutely riveted on the Barefootin Tickler's massive barefeet. He couldn't look away, and as the Barefootin Tickler had talked about the joys of a barefooter's lifestyle, he'd begun to feel a weird, impossible urge to join him. He thought that maybe it was the way the light caught on those soft, golden soles, or the beckoning angle of those powerful arches, or the perfect length and shape of those inviting toes, the powerful effect of barefeet seen in an unexpected setting, or even the way the town's residents were all kicking off their own shoes, but, whatever it was, soon he found the urge to join in the fun growing so strong it was just irresistible.

Hot Mark: Yeah, I can see that. It's a little like that now. We don't usually have our guests barefootin here in the studio, but even just looking at your barefeet is kinda making me wanna ditch my shoes, too.

Basil: That would certainly please the Barefootin Tickler. Be my guest. After all, as this is radio, it isn't even as if anyone will see. I'd have thought you'd be very casual here.

Smart Mark: And, now, Mark's barefoot too. Doctor, you have no idea. This one used to show up at the studio in tee shirts and flip flops until I took a firm line and insisted that he at least wear tennis shoes and golf shirts. That's not too much to ask, I hope. You'll understand, the way you maintained your professional standards during that interview.

Basil: I can appreciate the way you think. Looking professional helps you to feel professional. Professor Graves used to have a similar attitude. He'd even told the Barefootin Tickler that was why he'd never liked taking his shoes off in public, though, of course he'd changed his mind by the time of our interview.

Hot Mark: Do you think there was anything specific that caused the change?

Basil: Well, I've had a theory or two. One thing I heard about from other guys besides Professor Graves was that there was something mesmerizing about the way the Barefootin Tickler wiggled his toes. Here, I'll show you...

Smart Mark: Really? The way he wiggled his toes? Why would you think that, Doctor? I mean, I can see that you look really relaxed...

Basil: More relaxed than you, Mark, if you don't mind my saying so.

Hot Mark: He might mind, Basil, but I'm on your side. Let Mark keep his heavy, clunky shoes on. I'll put my feet up and wiggle my own toes along with yours.

Basil: From a lot of what I've heard, the intensity of his toe wiggling is one of the Barefootin Tickler's more influential traits. Some of the men I've interviewed told me that he'd wiggle his toes in patterns they had to call hypnotic. And Mark is demonstrating how, the more men he gets barefoot, the more it makes other guys want to join in and stay that way themselves.

Smart Mark: I do see what you mean, Doctor, and of course you're our guest, but Mark, you really ought to put your shoes back on. I just wouldn't feel right taking mine off and showing my bare feet, even if... no, I'm sorry. So, Doctor Inman, back to your book...

Basil: Actually, our conversation could be almost lifted from one of the chapters, in which I examine in depth various men's attitudes towards barefeet and barefootin. It's not nearly so uniformly negative as you'd think.

Hot Mark: You know what it is, Basil, Mark wears shoes that tend to be a bit too small for him and pinch his feet. I wish the Barefootin Tickler were really here to talk him into taking them off. Besides, Mark, you KNOW you want to...

Basil: You could always say it's in the spirit of the programme...

Smart Mark: I think we should settle this during our next commercial break which is just about due. You're listening to Mark and Mark Til After Dark, our guest is Doctor Basil Regis Foster Otto Inman II, his book is titled Kickin Off His Shoes (and His Plan to Get Yours, Too), this is WTKL, and we'll be right back.

[commercials play]