I had bought Paranormality by Richard Wiseman on my Kindle on the way to Bolton and had been enjoying reading about how chalatan psychics, so it was an interesting coincidence (proving that the paranormal exists FOR CERTAIN) when I discovered that tonight at the Albert Halls I was up against the medium
Psychic Sally. She was in the big room and had sold out all 700 seats (at £20 a pop, maybe I am in the wrong business). I was in the small room and had sold 120 seats. I am over six times less popular than Psychic Sally in Bolton at least. At one point tonight I suggested it was wrong to extort money from vulnerable people, but then conceded that it was more or less the same as taking money from comedy fans. I was joking of course. Comedy fans are much more vulnerable.
I had been tempted to take my audience upstairs and storm Sally's stage and then ask her if she had seen that coming, but what if she had seen it coming and had set up a big cage to trap us all? It wasn't worth the risk.
Wiseman's book is very enjoyable and interesting so far and the section about our conscious mind being artificial and giving us the illusion of choice is interesting to me as a writer. Because it often feels that a lot of my ideas come from somewhere other than my own head and I try to let my subconscious come to the fore when I am doing the podcasts. As with nearly everything it turns out the the scientific theories about the world are much more interesting and extraordinary than the shit that gets made up by people (or that they think they're making up, but actually their brains are making them think they've made it up... or something).
I snuck backstage at Sally's gig before I went on, but hung back and couldnt' really hear what she was saying. She was getting some big laughs though, so maybe those 700 people had made the right choice.
If God existed then surely he would have taken this chance to strike down the Bolton Albert Halls, taking me the blasphemer and Sally the woman who talks to demons down in one fell swoop. But he was too busy punishing the Japanese for whatever they may have done. So we were safe tonight.
It was another small and appreciative crowd for me - I think it's the first time I have ever done a gig in Bolton, but it's hard to remember for sure. I was glad to be done though, because it meant that I would be heading the home for the first time in almost a fortnight. Amazingly I was opening my front door at 1.30am, slightly disorientated to be back. Everything was familiar yet at the same time strangely alien. But very lovely to be here. That's 46 gigs done (including London) and 48 to go. Halfway through the whole run, a third of the way through the non-London bit. So far so good.
