It's always an exciting day when the new show programme arrives. We've almost doubled the print run this year as the tour will be longer and the Edinburgh venue is bigger, so whilst we only did 25,000 in total last year (with a 3000 reprint half way through the tour), it's 40,000 this year and 30,000 of them were delivered by an increasingly tired man in a van this morning. There were 133 boxes filling my front room by the time he left (the other 10,000 will be delivered to Edinburgh). I am hopeful they will make a pound each for SCOPE. Do give generously if one of them ends up in your grubby mitts.
I suspect it will be some time until I get round to posting off the limited edition copies to the kind folks who have already donated so generously. I generally sort that out when I am in Edinburgh. But if you missed out getting one of those exclusive programmes this year I am going to give you the chance to get a regular signed copy. If you go to
my justgiving page and donate at least £5 then I will post you one (again probably not til August). Make sure you email me your snail mail address (to herring1967@googlemail.com) if you want to take advantage of this offer. All the money will go to SCOPE! If you come to any of the Christ on a Bike shows from now on in then you will be given one for free of course.
I also have copies of Talking Cock, Hercules Terrace, Someone Likes Yoghurt, Oh Fuck I'm 40, Headmaster's Son and Hitler Moustache. Add £2.50 for each additional programme you want and let me know which ones you want in your email and I'll sort you out with those too. You can have as many copies of each as you like. I have a very limited number of menage a un programmes too. If you want one of these email me and make me an offer.
Anyway, Collings arrived as the last 15000 or so programmes were being delivered and we soon got on with recording podcast 117.
See here for details. It was fun creating a tribute to BT in the picture. A homage to poor 21st Century broadband service or excellent 1995 dial up.
Once done I headed over to Ladbroke Grove to have a meeting about the 2011 tour of Christ on a Bike, where hopefully all those programmes will disappear. And it's a bigger tour than ever with 87 dates already in the diary (though I can't announce them as yet because there may be a few changes - for example at the moment I have Exeter, Cambridge and Inverness on consecutive days, so I think I will get that changed). But I can tell you that I am doing five weeks at the Leicester Square Theatre in London from December 19th 2010 until 22nd January 2011
and tickets are already on sale!.
It is exciting, though daunting to think that so much of my future is mapped out already. The tour runs (with only a couple of weeks off) from December 19th to May 15th (and more dates will probably be added).
What if no one comes?
It's a gamble, but hopefully it will do as well as Hitler Moustache. Early sales for Edinburgh are very encouraging
so book now. And you will be the first to know when dates are confirmed. And then you can complain when it turns out I am not playing the end of your street.
The best news of all is that I will have a tour manager. So I won't have to do the driving or the lifting any more! Which should make the loss of five months of my life a little easier to bear.
This is all a little bit head spinning, but great to think that this show which did a tiny tour in 2001 to general indifference might now be seen by the audience it possibly deserves. Further evidence that the hard work is paying off. Even if work is begetting more work.
And if it doesn't work out so well - then my lounge will remain full of boxes I guess.
Crazy days.
