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I wasn't feeling my best today, after being continuously woken up by my son all night, but there was a show to do, so on I pushed. The end of the tour is in sight, just a fortnight away and I am amazed that I haven't yet got too fed up with the relentless podcasting (though the last couple of weeks have been quite intense). With two newer acts as guests today there wasn't quite as much research to do - or at least it was harder to find out about them, which might make the job harder in some ways. It's important to be prepared with some knowledge, but it's also cool to be surprised yourself and find out stuff that isn't in other interviews. It's a delicate balance and if I stop and think too hard about podcasting I can tie myself in knots. It was interesting tonight how much I found out in the interviews. I can trust myself to come up with pertinent questions, I think. The only danger is if the guests come up with short answers. This luckily was not the case tonight. Lindsey Santoro was a delight and had a story for everything and Mark and Anthony from the Exploding Heads gave me a good run down of how they met and their early exploits which I didn't know about.
Lindsey had won the RHLSTP sponsored Next Up Edinburgh Comedy Prize which is the biggest prize in comedy - not in monetary value (she claimed to have bought hedge trimmers with the prize money we'd provided), but she received a huge inflatable trophy, that she brought along tonight and which we inflated (quite slowly) during the show. Great content for an audio medium. She had a fantastic Edinburgh last year and justifiably so. I think she's going to be a big stadium filling star.
And the Exploding Heads managed to engineer a call to the podcast from Colin from Portsmouth, perhaps their most successful character, so there was a little sketch. I love these guys who are some of the few people who are using podcasts to do more than just boring interviews - they actually write scripts. The Emergency Questions book threw up a question that could have been very tactless but luckily the lads are very open and it led to a really good topic of conversation. It is a magic book.
It was also terrific to be back at the Warwick Arts Centre (
though I was able to reference this memorable night) and the audience was excellent (well over 350 in). I've seen a lot of changes over the years (they've got a Pret a Manger now) and haven't been here since 2019 (when I think I was in a temporary venue as they were doing work on the main one), but it's been a consistent presence in my performing career.
And though I felt lousy before the shows, Dr Theatre seemed to cure me of my tiredness and mild sore throat and dizzyness (though I also had a Lemsip Max). Two more terrific shows to add to the giant podcast bin. I came up with a couple of good new questions too, one based on the guy who got tapeworms in his brain from eating bacon that he'd failed to cook in any meaningful way. Which is very impressive and also really stupid. Bacon is much better when cooked as much as possible. Doubtless that will kill you in a different way, but at least you haven't eaten raw bacon and made your skull home to worms.
So desperate for bacon this morning
I ate it straight out of the pack
Which should come with some kind of warning
Of parasitical cerebral attack.
Not sure how long I'll keep up with the quatrains, but am enjoying it so far.
