BBC Radio Shetland

Kevin Bacon's Game of Fame

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Life Stories

27/12/2016

BBC Radio Scotland - Kevin Bacon's Game of Fame

Rajesh Mirchandani meets actor Kevin Bacon and explores the strange game of fame.

Rajesh Mirchandani meets actor Kevin Bacon and explores the strange game of fame, plus he talks to the college students who invented the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

At the age of 26 Kevin Bacon rocketed to stardom but it was a long slow steady decline after that with a string of box office flops. By the time Kevin reached thirty he suffered terrible anxiety and hit rock bottom. Around this time three college students created the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon which asserts that the Hollywood star can be connected to any celebrity in six or less steps. Kevin admits that he was initially horrified by it and thought it was a joke at his expense. He says, "When you fight so hard and put your sweat and blood into trying to have your work speak for itself, I found it belittling." But as the concept hung around he realised that it wasn't going away and so he decided to embrace it.

 We speak to the college students who twenty years ago created the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. It put him at the centre of the Hollywood Universe but is that really a position he deserves?

In 2007 Bacon launched SixDegrees.org an organisation that utilizes six degrees of separation to grow charitable social networks. We join Kevin as he visits a charity event because twenty years ago his name was put to a game. Gaining access to Bacon he gives an interesting insight into his own philosophy and first hand experience of fame. Having won it lost and claimed it back to some degree.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Kevin Bacon's Game of Fame

Genres

BBC Radio Shetland

About BBC Radio Scotland