So I'm not having much luck in garnering sponsorship for my programme for Edinburgh this year. There are a few possibilities but not sure how many of them are going to come off. Remember all the profits from the programme go to SCOPE, but it would be nice to cover expenses so that all donations go to the charity.
So I had a thought that maybe any of you that are interested could help out in a small way. If I could get 250 of you to donate £10 then that would cover the entire cost of designing and printing the programme. Which might sound like a lot of money, but remember, you are getting a free hit of Warming Up every single day. There are over 1000 entries for you to read. £10 works out at 1p a day for your enjoyment. Also what I am prepared to give you several additional features for your £10 investment. They are:
a) Your name will be printed in the programme in a list of sponsors (dependant on getting your cheque before we go to press). This item is bound to become a collector's item for centuries to come. Your name will literally live forever and everyone will know how generous you are and how much you care about charity and so on also (though they will mainly think you are aggrandising yourself)
b) You will be posted a copy of the programme at no extra charge the second it comes off the presses (p&p included)- you'll see it before anyone else. And it will have a special limited edition sticker on it, signed by me, with your name on it too, and its number in the limited edition (eg 34/250). This will make it a collector's item. You can send more than ten pounds if you like. Whoever pledges the most money will be sent the ultimate edition (1/250) and have their name in biggest on the page of dedication.
c) I will be drawing five names out of the bag at random and they will be sent a signed rehearsal draft script (including personal annotations from me and probably bits of script that were never broadcast) of either Time Gentlemen Please or That Was Then This Is Now. You will easily make more than 10 pounds back with these on ebay. There will also be a selection of smaller prizes such as signed posters and old programmes and stuff for other people. So you'll probably end up with something other than this amazing programme deal.
d) The more money I receive from this the less rubbish adverts I have to put in the programme, meaing there will be more proper stuff to read!
So all in all that sounds a pretty good deal, huh?
But I want to get the programme ready early this time, so you need to ask fast. If you want to take part in this giveaway. Please send a cheque for at least ten pounds, made payable to SCOPE (or cash, that is roughly equivalent to that amount if you don't have a chequebook or live abroad - you can trust me) to Richard Herring, PO BOX 48323, London, W12 8YY.
Or if you prefer you can donate via my new justgiving page http://www.justgiving.com/richardherring
If you do this you will then have to email me your address to richardherring@richardherring.com
Your donation will need to reach me by May 10th if you wish your name to appear in the programme and my local post office is notoriously slow and rubbish so don't delay. Make sure you enclose your name and address (preferably on a sticky address label to save me some time), and if you are a UK tax payer could you also declare this and sign it, on another piece of paper along with your name and address so SCOPE can claim gift aid back on your donation at no extra cost to you.
I will keep you updated with how much this scheme raises. Please do consider it. It's all in a good cause.
I was at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden tonight, a tiny and black sauna of a venue with only 60 seats. I sold out! The show is a smash already.
But there was no technician at the venue and when I got upstairs I just sat in the theatre, learning my lines and waiting for someone to come up and tell me that the audience were about to come in. At 9.30pm, the appointed start time, this still hadn't happened, but the girl from the box office appeared, seeming a bit confused about what was going on. "Do you want to make an announcement that the audience can come in now?" she asked.
"Well, yes," I said, "I'm ready. I assumed you would do that. Do you have any music to play as they're coming in?"
"Er...no," she said, "I'm just the box office person. I don't know about that."
"Is there a tech person I can speak to?"
"No, it's just me."
"Oh, right."
"But when you come on I will turn on the lights and stuff," she told me.
"That would be helpful."
I was a bit confused about what was going on. There was no microphone, which I wouldn't need for amplification purposes, but having had one for every gig so far, it was going to feel strange not having one tonight. We hadn't worked out what the signal for me going on would be.
Finally the girl came back and said pretty much everyone was in. I said I'd just go on when the lighting state changed, and she went up to the box. But I looked through the door to the stage and everything was still lit by a single light.
The girl shouted down to me that the lights weren't working and I said I'd go on anyway, so it was rather moody lighting under this one bulb, but it all worked out OK. I tried out some stuff about the Pope that worked OK. I don't know if it will still feel relevant in August. So I am praying that Pope Benedict XVI will die at the end of July to make me seem ultra topical and cool. And like I say it's not an evil thing to wish, because as soon as he's dead he gets to enjoy the Paradise of Heaven - whichever of his heroes turns out to be in charge.
Considering it is only April the show is in amazing shape. I remember doing the first Talking Cock show at the same venue in late May/early June of 2002 and I was reading it all off bits of paper. I didn't get entirely off script for Hercules until the first show in Edinburgh and was always struggling to fit all the stuff in. Stand up is so much more liberating and I have room to breathe and mess around and come up with new stuff. My friend Ben came and said it was nice to see me messing around and being silly again and that's it's also nice to see me not so worried about knowing everything off by heart. I think he's right. That is really what made me decide to do a much looser show this year. It's all looking very promising. If you were there I'd love to hear what you thought about it and if you weren't then I hope you'll try to come to one of the increasing numbers of gigs I've got coming up.
