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A very busy, but very positive day. I had a meeting with a top TV executive this morning and got a new pilot script commissioned. As always this is the start of a long journey and there’s every chance that the journey will end with my project being kicked to death at the side of the road as has happened with every script I’ve written since 2007. But it’s still a positive step and I finally feel about ready to dive off this cliff into the water below with my fingers crossed that I won’t smash my head on the rocks again or drown if the water is too deep. It’s an exhausting and frustrating process but I will keep putting myself through it because I’d really love to get some scripts on telly. I had a few ideas, one which, in traditional Richard Herring style, had occurred to me in the taxi on the way to the meeting. But the one that got selected was the one I had been thinking about for the longest time and which I had most fleshed out and which I probably wanted to do most. It’s got a sci-fi theme and will be hard to pull off and even harder to sell to the people who decide what goes on to the telly, but I am looking forward to taking the challenge. Part of me feels that this is my last chance and that if this gets rejected I should maybe cut my losses and concentrate on the stand up and web stuff, but I know in my heart that if it fails I will dust myself off and mope around a bit and then have another crack.
We’re having a naming ceremony for Phoebe tomorrow so I then had to dash across town to help with the supermarket shop and drive to Majestic wine to pick up some beer and champagne. My wife was amused by the sign in the carpark that said “These spaces are for Majestic customers only”, but we qualified on all counts.
Then I tried to come up with a Metro column for about 70 minutes, to no avail (I have hardly ever missed by deadline on this, but this time everyone will have to wait until Monday - it’s only an issue for the illustrator at this point) before heading back to the Bloomsbury Theatre for the DVD record.
I was feeling pretty weary, but we recorded some fun extras. My oldest friend Phil Fry who features in two of the routines in the show came in to chat about his memories of our camping holiday in Weymouth. He recalled something I’d forgotten about the Ted Rogers gig. The women we were teamed up with in the “spoon with string on it, up the trouser, down the dress” competition were quite hands-on and tried to help us get the spoons out, prompting Geoff Quigley to shout “Get your hands out of my trousers”. Then me and the surprise guest had a long chat about how Edinburgh had gone and the various endings to the show and the negativity and positivity that they revealed.
I checked the kickstarter total as we finished filming and was amazed to see it had jumped over £2000 (thanks to a couple of people taking on the more expensive rewards) and we were only £300 from the target. Fittingly we exceeded the total about 20 minutes before I stepped on to stage. I am delighted (though not looking forward to the hundreds of T shirts and hand drawings I now have to do) and moved by this support. It’s still running for another 4 days. If we make a bit more then we can up the pay of the crew and cover a few more expenses (
so still a chance to get hand drawing or T-shirt or producer credit or an advert for your small business/internet site/comedy venture/whatever). If we get a lot more then we can put it towards the next series of RHLSTP. I love the fact that we’ve raised this huge sum by just a thousand people giving (normally) about £20 or £30. Hopefully it means we can do more with this platform in the future, possibly for more RHLSTP videos or to help us fund an AIOTM series. Though I am confident we could have raised the money for the TMWNJ DVDs in a couple of days in this fashion (and many of you are suggesting that we do) sadly it was not the money that scuppered this project in the end, so it can’t help with that. Maybe kickstarter will only work once, but it's a lovely boost for us all to know that you support us. So ta!
Predictably I didn’t do as sharp a performance as last night and made lots of uncharacteristic errors, inexplicably changed bits and dried up a couple of times. I also came on to the stage rather too exuberantly, buoyed on by the massive cheers of the crowd and found myself delivering the opening monologue whilst struggling for breath, messed up my timing on the sofa bounce and had to stop and admit that I’d been too enthusiastic. I decided to retake the start again, but I am sure Chris Evans, not that one, will treat you to the messed up version in the outtakes on the DVD.
Even though my delivery was a bit woolly round the edges (like a hand-knitted child in a window) and I inevitably kept putting myself off by thinking about the recording as I performed, I think it was a fun performance overall. The ad-libbed bits came out much sharper than some of the scripted bits weirdly, but the crowd of Die Hard fans (presumably having to content themselves with seeing me whilst they awaited a further instalment in the law-of-diminishing-returns-proving franchise) were behind me all the way and their enjoyment was infectious and I had a pretty good time. I am annoyed that it wasn’t quite the performance that it could have been, but what we lost in technique we perhaps made up for in spontaneity.
But this was a great day: I have some work, we can film the upcoming RHLSTPs and we recorded the DVD to a (pretty much) sold out theatre. For a show which subliminally wonders if I am passed my prime and in decline, today was a ray of hope that the best may yet be to come. I did manage to get some weird cuts and marks on my arm at some point, though didn’t even notice I’d been hurt until much later. I don’t even know how I did it. But I survived the dangerous finale. Which I suppose I may attempt one more time during the August/September Leicester Square Theatre run.
It was all exhilarating and lots of fun, but I wasn’t able to go out and celebrate with Phil Fry or my surprise guest or the Cannibal as I had to get home to sterilise bottles and look after Phoebe through the night. But I am so pleased to be doing that. And I had a beer on my own as I washed up the bottles. Best post-DVD celebration ever.
