A hush went across the crowd when Laz Lake entered the room, the brains behind the infamous and slightly insane Barkley marathons . When he asked who, in the audience, wanted to apply for this crazy event - Well, only three or four people put their hands up, from what I could see (er, that did not include me). The concept is genius and hilarious and marginally weird, some might say. The man himself - brilliant. And obviously much, much revered in this country as well as the U.S.