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A productive day including writing two short pieces for newspapers/magazines, working my way through the shoot we did on Saturday to select my preferred shots, listening to Wednesday’s RHLSTP guest Bilal Zafar on various podcasts and getting through about half of the line edit of my new book. I think I should manage to get that sent off by Thursday at the latest. It’s actually much closer to being finished than I dared dream with only a couple of problematic bits to re-write and a few more minor bits and bobs to address.
I don’t want to shock you but I think it might actually be good. I know that’s not what you’ve come to expect from me.
I even managed another chapter of stone clearing during the evening dog walk before coming home to complete both snooker semi-finals (and one of them was the most exciting frame we’ve had, I’d say).
It will be great to have a clean break and get both the TV job and the book finished before heading off for our holiday. It’s a shame that the snooker final might have to hang over til August, but that just makes it more exciting right?
It’s been a good while since I’ve done proper stand up, but I am looking forward to the time I might be able to do gigs again (and I think there’s something happening in August where I will be on stage, even though there will be no audience. I made the decision today, which I hope I can stick to, that I am not going to do any material that I have done on stage pre-lockdown post-lockdown. I have basically got 10 and 20 minute sets that I have been doing for many years, with a bit of rotation, but including jokes that are now approaching 30 years old. When doing short sets in front of audiences that didn’t necessarily know me I felt the need to give them punchier and reliable gags that I knew were likely to land. It was not a ridiculous policy, but was partly borne out of insecurity. I needed to prove myself to those unfamiliar with my work.
But I realise now that I have to leave the safety of the familiar behind and especially with my work on line I have been a lot bolder at flying by the seat of my pants or at least trying out new stuff. And I think that it will be much better for me to leave all that old stuff behind now (unless I have a specific reason to resurrect an old show) and try out new ideas. It’s going to be a bit shaky to being with as it’s always nice to centre yourself with stuff you know works. But I want to keep moving and, as far as those shorter sets go, I haven’t been moving (it’s not like I’ve been a slouch and I’ve written more material than most stand ups will have done this millennium). And I think it would be good to dump everything that came before the flood and have only post-diluvian and during-diluvian stuff to work with. Or at least nothing that I have done on stage before the virus hit.
It’ll be good news for me and bad news for the first few audiences I play to and it might be harder if I am compering anything.
My wife also thinks I should do a show based on my new book (which I hadn’t thought of, but which might be a good idea) which would include a bit of International Men’s Day stuff that I might have done before, but I think I can give myself a pass on that.
Let’s see how I get on. No more enemy’s enemy is my friend? How will I survive without my one-liners?
I have informed the authorities of his crime and will testify against him in court.
Don’t ask me how it works. And don’t tell anyone I told you.
Weds 22nd 8pm RHLSTP with Bilal Zafar
Thurs 23rd 8pm Twitch of Fun with Ally Sloper (and Donkey) Thurs 30th 8pm Twitch of Fun (episode 4)
Friday 7th August Twitch of Fun (episode 5)
Monday 10th August SNOOKER FINAL (unless I can slot it in earlier)
