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Lovely to be on a family holiday, but I had a fabulous day working away from them today as I did two gigs at the Wells Comedy Festival. I have loved dodging work and spending more time with the kids, but I think I need to get the balance right. As full as the family part of my life is, today filled up a separate receptacle in my soul and was very fulfilling. It helped that the Wells Comedy Festival is rather lovely and that it was a lot of fun bumping into the other acts. It also helped that Wells is so beautiful. I spent some time here in my youth, of course, as it was just a 126 bus ride away, but I never appreciated just how exquisite the place is. In my memory it seems bigger, but despite its quaintness, the architecture and history of the place are breathtaking. A weather beaten medieval statue on a little bridge over the road brought me close to tears as I considered the centuries that it had been there and the hands that must have wrought it.
But I was filled up with professional happiness from my first gig of the day, a lovely, funny and serious chat with the always interesting and open John Robins (making his ninth appearance and pipping Buxton to the record - for now). The audience were extremely appreciative and it solidified my resolve to start doing more of these shows outside of London. Loads of people queued for photos and books afterwards and I saw people from school, the child of one of my teachers, a man with one leg who is getting photos of comedians holding his false one (I tried to quiz him on whether he’d prefer to have one ball or one leg, but he wouldn’t be drawn) and the brother of one of the people who my Ball Back is dedicated to (who was taken very young and very suddenly by cancer). So it was an emotional post show which maybe heightened my senses for the walk into town.
I passed a middle-aged couple on my walk in. All I heard of their conversation was the lady saying, “it’s all built on slavery I suppose,” which slightly took me out of my reverie. She might not have been talking about Wells, of course, though it did provoke a lively debate on Twitter about whether the feudal system constituted slavery or whether people would have willingly given up their times and skills to build these religious edifices, or been forced into it. At my gig I wondered if you could convince people who were slaves to create such amazing art. To look at Wells Cathedral and not be blown away by the artistry of the people who built it is quite difficult. But I confess, I have no idea about the lives of the people who built it, or the person shio crafted the weathered little man who made me want to cry, Though perhaps most of the emotion came from the art wrought by the wind and rain, that it both survives and is partially destroyed and the connection between the hands that built it and the eyes that now see it, separated as we are by chasms of uncrossable time.
Then on to the Little Theatre for a Ball Back try out gig, which I did almost entirely without notes and surely forgot quite a lot, but managed to get through nearly all the prepared material in the hour. There’s some strong laughs and it’s a bit emotional and I know I can make it 10 times better than it is. But it’s in really good shape.
Lots of comedians drifted in and out of the dressing room and they were all nice ones and there was some fun gossip and catching up. Maybe I’ve been cocooned at home a bit too much. I don’t need the comedy cup topped up as much as I used to, but it felt very good today.
The John Robins RHLSTP will be out in August - I’m putting together an Edinburgh Fringe season without going to Edinburgh to save myself £20,000. I can also charge myself extortionate rent for living in my house and make a profit.
