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Woo hoo! Managed to actually sit down and write an AIOTM sketch this morning. It’s the series opener and I think it’s quite a nice link between the old and the new, referencing some old gags whilst doing its best to destroy them. And if I manage to write a sketch a day from here on in then I should have loads of material. It’s literally that simple.
In the afternoon I decided to tidy my office (classic displacement activity) but it made sense as exhaustion had kicked in and I was mentally spent. But when you’re writing AIOTM you never know where the next sketch might come from: tidying an office, losing a remote control down the back of a radiator, inventing a new piece of cutlery. Anything and everything is potential material.
Tidying the office led to no lols. But I was impressed with how much more organised my office cupboard was. And I managed to throw away all my gameboy game boxes (I was going to throw out the games too, but relented and kept them all in a box, just in case Phoebe wants to see the useless old consoles and games we played in the olden days. I also got a bag of old electronic equipment that I had been holding on to to take down to the recycling bin in the library, including the ill-fated Collings and Herrin Podcast Studio that we bought many years back and tried to use once, but couldn’t get it to work. I thought that some crazy fan would probably like to have this piece of non-history. But I decided it wasn’t worth the bother (it’s scarcely even a Collings and Herrin artefact as it never contributed to the podcast). So if you want it then go to Shepherd’s Bush library later in the week and see if you can find it in the bin.
Oh and how could I forget this? As I took Histor out of his place in the cupboard his head fell off (like an oeuf which is French for egg) which was a bit alarming. He is old now and his internal rubber is disintegrating (all birds have rubber inside them, at least they do when I've finished with them) but it's sad to see him in this state. Pliny has rotted after Stew kept him in his cellar. Maybe it's for the best.
My mother-in-law came to babysit, because Catie and me were heading out to a party at a restaurant that celebrated the cartoonist Quentin Blake. As usual I had no idea why I had been invited. It wasn’t a huge party and the only other person off the telly I saw was Gregg Wallace from Masterchef. But his invitation made sense because he is a chef and the party was at a restaurant. Zoe Wanamaker was rumoured to be on her way too. So that’s quite an eclectic mixture on the celebrity invites. It was like the Breaking Bad DVD launch I went to where the celebrity guests were me, Tracy Ann Oberman and Draco Malfoy. Do they pick their invitees out of a hat, or am I just right at the bottom of a list and only get invited when all the other proper famous people have said no. The party was at a fish restaurant so it’s possible I was there just for the pun. We’re nearly at the four week mark for no alcohol so it was slightly annoying to see champagne and cocktails passing by on trays, knowing we couldn’t drink them unless the party last another 70 days. But I was actually quite pleased. I was wiped out from the exertion of writing one sketch and I think a couple of drinks might have made me collapse.
We stood near to Quentin Blake (or rather he came and sat near to where we were standing) but sober and shy we didn’t pluck up the courage to say hello. Neither of us can network due to being social introverts and thus we can never be truly successful. It’s possible I was invited just because the people at the restaurant knew I’d be no trouble and wouldn’t bother Mr Blake.
We lasted about 90 minutes at the party, but when you’re a parent of a young child, even getting out of the house is a triumph. We arrived back by about 8.30pm. How our lives have changed. My mother-in-law, one of the four people who reads this blog, had managed to extricate the remote control. I asked her how she’d done it, but she didn’t tell me (or I was too tired to listen), but it’s good to know she has this magic power for the next time this happens. The older generation have lots of skills that are being lost to us because we are not prepared to learn and would rather leave a remote control down the back of a radiator than make a serious attempt to retrieve it. And I am glad that the ancient professions are disappearing. We’ve got the internet now. We don’t need to know how to do this stuff any more. Soon all radiators and remote controls will be online.
Tony Law RHLSTP (is he batshit crazy or catwee sane?) now up on video
itunes
Audio
British Comedy Guide or iTunes
