I mainly stayed in bed today trying, but failing to sleep off the Karaoke Circus hangover. I had to get up to go out at lunchtime to meet Emma from Avalon to discuss budgets for the tour of Hitler Moustache. I hadn't realised how far advanced she had got with this, but she presented me with a list of fifty gigs taking place between 29th January and the 5th April with just 15 days where I am not gigging. It's going to be a punishing schedule, but is a fairly comprehensive jaunt around the United Kingdom. I will probably be coming near to you at some point (no gigs in Ireland as yet, I am afraid) and will provide full details once everything is confirmed. It is mainly sensibly scheduled, though I have taken exception to a couple of the proposed drives - eg Exeter followed by Leeds followed by Taunton and a particularly harsh proposed trip in the last week, when I will be most tired, from Penzance to Norwich. I think that last one might actually be almost impossible. It's an 8 hour drive and I will need to stop off for food and other calls of nature, so would need to leave at 8am to get there by 6pm and hope for no hold ups along the way. I am hoping we can change these as I am pretty sure that such an incredible journey would kill me, but it's still going to be exhausting whatever order we do them in. I am quite looking forward to it all though. Here's a list of the towns I am going to: Folkestone, Nottingham, York, London, Luton. Bath, Windsor, Bristol, Hereford, Rhyl, Birmingham, Leamington Spa, Stamford, Hastings, Harrogate, Gwent, Cardiff, Reading, Andover, Manchester, Cheltenham, Lincoln, Sheffield, Berwick upon Tweed, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Aldershot, Fareham, Wolverhampton, Colchester, Cambridge, Southsea, Exeter, Leeds, Taunton, Penzance, Norwich, Whitby and Hull.
Don't complain to me if your town is not on the list, ask your local theatre to book me. As I say we might be able to add in a few. I will let you know when all is confirmed and tickets are on sale.
I am also doing the Brighton Festival on the 16th October and the Manchester comedy festival on the 20th October. Not sure if tickets are available for those yet.
It is strange to be thinking of the tour before Edinburgh is even over and to know that my February and March 2010 are full of work already, but that's no bad thing. Hope to see you there.
I felt utterly drained before the show tonight and have been living on chocolate and coffee in an attempt to keep myself going, though fear that it's a strategy that is more likely to result in my untimely death. However, once I was on stage I was full of energy and it was one of my favourite shows of the run, particularly gratifying because both the other Mondays have been amongst the worst shows of the Fringe. Once the finish line is in sight one does get a fresh burst of energy and it is satisfying to know that I have no more Monday shows to do and that this time next week I will be heading back down south, if my car is still where I left it.
I came back home after a couple of drinks with friends and watched some telly on my own whilst having a glass of wine. It was rather sweet to have a night off and escape the madness. And tomorrow, for the first time in a week, I can sleep in as long as I like without having to talk crap with Collings or go for head-spinning meetings about what I will be up to in the future.
There is certainly a general feeling that there are a lot less people in town this week, but so far every single show I have done has been sold out. This is unbelievable and wonderful and unique for me. I have my fingers crossed that I can push on to the end with the room at capacity. I should do it I think, but Thursday and Sunday still have a fair few tickets left to sell. It would be a shame to fall at the last hurdle. But then again, things could be a Hell of a lot worse. It's been a good Fringe, that's for sure. I even had the additional excitement today of being one of the shows picked in the G2 to be rated by their reviews across different papers. Unsurprisingly I averaged 8, in keeping with my solid 4 star rating in almost every single review. Hooray!
