Karen Koren: Kenny will be greatly missed

IT’S the second week of my annual holiday among the fjords of Norway and the sun has peeped through the clouds a couple of times. However, there will be no lovely suntan for me this year.

No matter; I’m still having my break from everything Festival oriented.

I get the odd message from home and I was very sad to hear the news that a good friend and stand-up comedian Kenny Harris has died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage at only 53. He will be sorely missed by friends and family.

He was a very jolly man with a huge personality, always ready with advice and a joke. He had his own company, Head Surf, which he started to help businesses think more creatively.

Kenny’s view was that some people have creativity in abundance and that the rest of us are uncreative. But his philosophy was that creativity is something that you do and can be learned with practice.

He would hold seminars and get people thinking more creatively using humour. He would say that his was an energising approach to “fluid thinking for solid results,” allowing anyone to be more creative.

It was a very clever approach to working practice. I hope in some way the business will carry on.

One of my huge regrets now is that I did not use Kenny more to motivate my staff. It was always on the cards that he would come and talk with management staff, but we never quite got round to it. There are always regrets when someone you like, care for and admire passes away suddenly.

I remember when I had to give a speech at the launch of our brochure for the Festival a couple of years ago and he took me aside just before I went on stage and talked me through what I was going to say. It was the best speech I have ever given and I’m not sure that I even thanked him at the time. So thank you Kenny for all you gave.