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At my preview tonight as I waited to go on, a man approached me and said “Do you know who I am?” I did recognise him, for sure, but it was hard to place him. But when he said I used to come into his shop in Balham, I shouted out “Raj Patel!” He was the nearest newsagent to the flat I shared with Peter Baynham in the mid-nineties, who featured in Peter’s segment in Fist of Fun. I hadn’t seen him for 20 years, so it was no surprise that it took me a while to place him, but it was good to see him again.
He no longer runs that particular newsagent, but is still in the business and doing well and we chatted about how far Balham had come up in the world and the ludicrous rise in property prices. He asked me how Peter was doing and was maybe a little surprised to discover he is now working in Hollywood on major comedy blockbusters. It’s a far cry from those Balham days, both for the character he played and the (only slightly more) adept and together actual Peter Baynham.
I was in Hitchin tonight, amongst my very near future neighbours and they gave me a fabulous welcome. The show seems to be somehow coalescing into something really good. I am somewhat bamboozled myself with the ease that it has come together. Six weeks ago I had next to nothing and now I have more than an hour and it seems to fit together pretty well. Screw these losers who work on their Edinburgh shows for a year! The good thing about cramming at the end is that it still feels loose and raw in the right places and I am enjoying discovering the new hidden gags. Necessity is, as always, the mother of invention. After the year we’ve had Edinburgh should hopefully feel like a holiday and I hope I can keep the show light and celebratory in feeling (even though there are some darker bits in there). Raj seemed to enjoy it. And that’s all that matters.
The new batch of Emergency Questions book are being delivered on Monday, so if you have preordered one you should hopefully get it by the end of next week. Loads of you have so Chris Evans (not that one) is going to be busy. But please make him busier yet and
buy a book here. We have no PR department or marketing budget and are not available in shops, so rely on word of mouth, so please recommend to friends.
Provided they get delivered before I head into London then they should also be available at the Leicester Square Theatre on Monday night. And I am taking a load of them up to Edinburgh with me and will be selling them after all my gigs.
We ordered a sarcastically huge amount for this second edition, but I think we might get through them in the next couple of months if demand remains this high. So do order now if you want to ensure you get a copy.
