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I don’t know when I am ever going to do any proper work again. I had some time to get some stuff done this morning, but only succeeded in sorting out a few chores and bagging up last week’s eBay items and monthly subscriber prizes - well done to Ben Raphael who ended up with the hand-drawn T-shirt, a Time Gentlemen Please script and some programmes and a DVD (you can win stuff like this too
if you pay a pound or more a month here). I had hoped to get to the Post Office too (and to live tweet my first post office queue in a while), but the day got away from me and Luca was about to arrive to drive me to Bath. On the plus side I feel I am achieving stuff with almost every spare second, but when will I find time to work on something more substantial than a blog or a Metro article? Even a frame of self-playing snooker seems beyond me.
In more bad news, due to tiredness and general clumsiness the new microphone I use to record the shows has somehow got lost and is another expensive item to add to the list of breakages and misplacements. Incredibly I am managing to keep my daughter safe so far, though I nearly tripped over Liono on the stairs while carrying her today. Parents tell me in whispers that it is inevitable that I will bang her head or drop her at some point. So far, in spite of the fatigue I have kept her very safe. But I am not going to get cocky. I know that I can’t protect her from the world or even my own clumsiness. Hopefully she’s inherited my thick, motorcycle helmet like skull.
I thought we’d left loads of time to get to Bath, but had forgotten that tomorrow is a bank holiday (because comedians never get any holidays despite the fact that they spread joy rather than stealing your money), and the roads were crazy busy. My new sat-nav found us a different way through and we got to the Komedia about 30 minutes before the doors were due to open. I had used the journey to write my Metro column and catch up on my blog. Being on tour does not seem to give me a chance to sleep, but it does mean I can get some work done (and play some Addas Family pinball).
As I arrived in town, Russell Howard got in touch to say he was also in Bath and would I like to meet up for dinner. He seems to have forgiven me for all the Haribos I stole from him. I used to kick around Bath as an adolescent on occasion and it’s changed a fair bit in the last quarter of a century, though they still haven’t updated their archaic swimming baths. I ate ribs with Rusty and his parents and had one beer. Touring is a lonely pursuit (even with a tour manager) and I am usually in and out of a town as quickly as possible, so it was great to have some social time. Russo came to watch the gig too, which always adds an extra pressure - it’s hard to forget that there’s a comic in the crowd.
I did make some slips, maybe because of the beer, but probably mainly because I had been up since 6am with Phoebe. Also the mic kept on falling apart which usually happened at amusing and easy to deal with places in the show, but maybe happened once too often. It was a loose performance, which was good in most ways though (Luca thought it was the best he’d seen -even though I was annoyed by the slips) and in the bit about the impressive things about Bath I found myself delivering an unexpected but pretty well formulated tirade about Lord Bath’s artistic efforts and him putting pictures of his conquest up his staircase.
I am delighted by Russell’s success. I gigged with him quite a lot in 2004 and 2005 as I found my way back into stand up and he was a very hard act to follow, improvising with ease and bursting with ideas. He has been a bit maligned by comedy fans and certain comedians too, but whilst his BBC3 show might not have been aimed at you, this is a big shame. Because he’s a top stand up, a humble and sensitive man and also his BBC3 show gave more opportunities for new acts to get 20 minutes on TV than any other show (and many of them esoteric acts that the production team had to really battle to get on air). Russamondo also reminisced about the Radio 4 panel show Banter that we’d both been on and the fun we’d had making it. He always remembers a bit that never made it to air for obvious reasons when I furiously criticised the website "teens for cash” for clearly being a set-up and trying to pull the wool over the eyes of its loyal viewers who believed that they were seeing real teens being convinced to have sex in return for money. I remember that being quite an awkward show to edit as we all started to try and outdo each other with non-Radio 4 material and I felt a bit ashamed of myself afterwards, so I am glad that Rushmore has good memories of it. But aside from that it was a great show and I am surprised nothing happened with it, but good to see that everyone in it (apart from me and Andrew Collings) have gone on to bigger things. There’s room for comedians who are aimed at the youth market (at least to begin with), I know that that’s how Lee and Herring were originally pitched. It’ll be really interesting to see how the Russian develops. But if you get a chance to see him live you should take it. I’ve had to follow him. I know how hard that is.
Any road, enough about that wanker, this is about me and I was amazing at doing comedy (as long as you don’t count the fact that I couldn’t keep the microphone in one piece until someone taped it together for me).
More brilliant and crazy fans after the show, a real pleasure to meet them all. I am surprised to see that I didn’t do this venue on the last tour, (the year’s are flying past so fast now - it always feels like a matter of weeks since I was at the regular venues) but I think I probably did a little bit better in terms of numbers than in 2013. I had about 250 in tonight. Looking ahead to the rest of April I think there will be a few quieter gigs, but March (and early April) have been phenomenal and I am still having a whole lot of fun with the show. Priorities have changed both professionally and personally, but even though in late August I might have been questioning what I wanted to do career wise and wondering about how practical touring was going to be for me, I am so pleased that I am retaining my audience in the face of stiff competition and a lack of anything but self-generated platforms. I now feel more like a stand-up comedian than a writer and it’s interesting that even if I don’t get much time to do the latter I think I will always be able to do the former on some level. I feel so fortunate to be in the place that I am at. I’ve still got some stuff to give I think.
I managed to find time to put a few more things up on eBay, including some of my child-like (i.e. rubbish) hand drawn T shirts, more snooker balls and a Fist of Fun radio script including hand-written notes and doodles by both me and Stew (plus unaired material).
Check it all out here. As always all that money is going towards making more internet based comedy. And more stuff will go up every week.
