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Phoebe is back to waking up early, but that means there’s loads more hours in the day, though I wasn’t too delighted to have to deal with her laughing face at 6am as I was a little hungover from the schnapps I’d been given at the skiing based event last night. We had breakfast watching the first in the new series of Dave Gorman’s Modern Life is Goodish, which is a very strong and likeable hour of stand up and a show that perhaps doesn’t get the credit it deserves as it’s a bit hidden away on Dave. But each episode is essentially an Edinburgh show in itself and he does eight in a series, so it’s a pretty impressive feat. Whilst ostensibly looking at subjects that might seem a bit light, like Homes Under the Hammer and the shitty limericks of Edward Lear, this show had a subtle but important theme of the death of surprise in modern culture. Others might like their satire clunking and hitting the “big” targets, but this kind of subtle social satire that doesn’t wear its intellect on its sleeve is in many ways cleverer and more relevant. Dave is a polite and nice man (sometimes a little bit too polite and overly concerned to point out that he’s not mocking the weak, but that’s hardly an insult) and shows that comedy doesn’t have to be angry and edgy and abusive to eviscerate its targets. The observations in his routines are nice and some will chime with you - for me the limericks of Edward Lear were always infuriatingly lazy with their repetition in lines 1 and 5 and Dave isn’t the only person to have noticed this, but he takes that observation to several interesting places.
I joke tweeted that at last someone on TV had dared to take down Lear, but had a vague memory of some old comedy annual having a funny takedown which I couldn’t quite recall which led to an entertaining (if wasteful) hour where I was tweeted and tweeted some anti-limericks. I finally more or less recalled the limerick that was somewhere in the recesses of my brain
There once was a person or man
Who came from the Isle of Mann
That person or man
From the Isle of Mann
That stupid old person from Mann.
Dave and I, whilst quite different performers, have ended up covering a lot of similar subjects: Lord Sugar is an obvious joint obsession, as is asparagus wee, but to be fair that one definitely originated with him (as a comedy idea - he didn’t make wee smell of asparagus, well not all of it). We have even independently come up with one-liners about the same subject a couple of times. And I probably shouldn’t promote him, as him having his own TV show means the pedantic and slightly crazy 40-something examination of the minutiae of modern culture is covered for commissioners. But fuck it, he’s really good. And no one’s going to put me on TV anyway, because I am not as nice as him and might say something awful. So watch this excellent show and marvel at his take down of continuity announcers who spoil a mild surprise (though ironically the Dave continuity announcer totally telegraphed the egg based running joke in the show)
I struggled to get working on the new show, even though there is very little time left, but at 6pm had a burst of creativity where I started working out the ordering and the argument of the piece. There’s a lot to cover and I will only be a tiny part of the way by Saturday, but I think I will have something worth watching by then, even if it’s not exactly like what the show will end up being. The deadline of Edinburgh and the pressure of getting reviews and an audience does mean that creating a show that way does mean you have to have a show that is 90% there by the time of the first Fringe performance. And maybe that is the most efficient way to create a new tour show. But I quite like the fact that I am going to be creating this one more continuously over the next six to nine months. I never stop reworking a show until the tour is over anyway, but without 40 previews and 25 Edinburgh performances, Happy Now? will necessarily be a bit looser than previous shows have been at this point. I did my final preview in front of a slightly soporific and quiet audience in a cinema in Dalston tonight (the comfy seats led to at least two people falling asleep before I’d even started). Monday’s preview had really rocked and maybe given me a false impression of how far on I was, but with a more reserved audience it was harder to build up the energy of the stories and I tried to largely work without notes and so it was a bit more faltering. And I didn’t managed to incorporate my more serious thoughts or keep up with the running order that I created at the last minute. But aside from one person claiming they thought it was a bit off that they were being charged to watch me try out material (the gig was a tenner and had three other acts on, including Bridget Christie, so I think it was pretty good value - also you know, if you’re ever going to do new material there has to be times when you try it out and I don’t think my £2.50s worth of the ticket price was too much of an over charge), I think it went down OK. There’s certainly some way to go, but the routines about the birth of my daughter and the fears I have about keeping her alive are really strong I think (I was toying with the idea of trying to do a whole hour on the birth- and the peripheral subjects that come out of that, which is still at the back of my mind as it could be a neat structure, but I think I want to talk more about fatherhood beyond birth). It’s a show, not really about babies or my daughter in particular, but about fatherhood and the changes it has wrought on me and whether it’s possible or desirable to be happy (and whether I am). Backstage the comedians discussed what happiness was for them and I think interestingly it seemed to involve situations in which you can forget yourself and act on instinct, like being on a fairground ride. I am unable to enjoy anything like that as I am too self-concious to absent my questioning self from any experience (sex with me is a fucking delight - or rather it isn’t).
It’s going to take more than 48 hours to get this show into shape, but I am still weirdly confident (and not sure why) that I will have something worth £15 for you on Saturday. But also, the most remarkable thing is that I am not filled with terror and dread. Doing this run under my own terms, without having to worry about reviews or even really selling tickets or the competition of hundreds of other comedians has been a (largely) relaxing delight. Be interesting to see if that affects how good the new show is. But whatever happens this experiment feels like a success (though will be glad when it’s over!)
More RHLSTP guests added.
27th September Diane Morgan, 25th October the meeting of past and future Turner Prize winners with Grayson Perry. Book here.
More great names to come.
The 11th episode of the Twelve Shows podcast is now up here
and on iTunes. And RHLSTP with Brett Goldstein is also up on audio at the British Comedy Guide and iTunes.
