The last of my Lyric Hammersmith gigs tonight. I've been doing these for a few years and there have been some amazing nights of comedy, but it's the right decision to let these go. They are a lot of work to set up and I've stretched the patience and generosity of my comedy friends as far as it will go and in spite of the A class bills I have put on not enough punters have been coming along. I can't quite work out why as generally these nights have been reasonably priced and featured the best comedians on the circuit, but for some reason they haven't been selling this year.
I felt a little sad that it was ending and that the public and the press had failed to discover this night (unless there was a HUGE TV star on the bill), but overall it felt like the time to go. It's a lot of stress booking these nights and my efforts are probably better focused elsewhere. It felt like ages since I had last done this, though I think I hosted the January gig and I was a bit rusty when it came to this MCing job and was a little bit rubbish, but luckily the acts did better. It was an anti-climactic end to it all though. I thanked the theatre and all the acts who have come down over the last (how many? 5?) years. There were no tears and no ovations and no bouquets. I didn't expect any, but still felt a little disappointed. I hadn't been the best I could be tonight, but it was more that this little gem of a gig had passed by without getting the attention it perhaps deserved. That's show business. Most of it passes by unnoticed.
I hope the theatre will continue persisting with the gig and that whoever takes it over will have more luck with it, but I left the venue feeling just a little bit hollow, a little bit sad it was over, but a little bit more glad. But many thanks to the dozens of acts who came along and performed, generally, for a tiny fraction of what was being taken on the door. The Lyric Hammersmith is an amazing theatre and puts on some great stuff (as well as Edward Bond plays) and I hope overall we raised some money for them. Thanks for taking a shot on this night and for looking after us so well.
The most remarkable thing about tonight was that I managed to resist tucking into the rider. There are usually a selection of biscuits and cakes and crisps and fruit waiting for us and a fridge full of beer and of late, even if I've been watching my weight, I've found it hard to stop helping myself to a crisp or two, or a chocolate rice crispie cake - and then, once the first one has gone down, I might find myself returning again and again. Tonight, even though I was hungry as I'd missed a meal and been to they gym, I had a few grapes and a couple of carrot batons and stopped myself from even just taking one solitary crisp. The beers stayed in the fridge. This is a good sign. Maybe the appetite switch in my head has finally been turned off by one of my numbskulls. I actually had over 250 calories going spare at the end of the day and didn't have any desire to consume them.
I felt grown-up and middle-aged leaving the gig straight away rather than hanging around with the other comics for a drink and then doubly so as I listened to the "Shakespeare's Restless World" podcast on my drive, thinking how utterly excellent it was and how I must let people know! It's really good. You should listen to it. It's on iTunes or
the BBC website. Having spent the afternoon again reading and commentating on the 2003 me's desperate attempts to stay young, get drunk and stave off loneliness through meaningless sex, it made me laugh to step outside of myself and view this sober, married idiot, lapping up Radio 4 and having the chance to eat free chocolate and drink free beer and yet refuse to do so. But I was glad to be this idiot rather than that one. I am middle-aged. There's no need to be ashamed of that, even if I was a little bit. But I was also a little bit proud. The nice thing about getting older is that increasingly you just don't give a fuck about what anyone else thinks or if you might be perceived as dull. You just do the things that make you happy. And hearing about a 400 year old woollen hat made me happy.
Then when I got home I tuned into 4OD to watch Sarah Millican on Deal or No Deal. I'd been looking forward to it all night (my fogeyism just gets worse doesn't it, but the more I admit the more liberated I feel). My wife does not like the programme at all, but she loves Sarah Millican so was prepared to watch it with me. My favourite bit was when Noel said "Deal or no deal?" and Sarah said "No deal" and my wife said, "Oh, so that's why they call it "Deal or No Deal"". She is a source of great entertainment to me, but I would suggest that if she didn't know that before then she really hasn't given this brilliant show enough of a chance. The programme was both funny and moving and any DOND aficionado would be able to notice how much Noel was enjoying himself, when usually you can see that he is dead behind the eyes. Millican is a disarming and wonderful force of a human being and naturally funny and charming and honest - not many people would admit to weeing themself in their car, or to having moved to the passenger seat to do so, so as not to to have to sit in the wee. She's a brilliant comic too and I am delighted to see someone so deserving doing so well. And it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster of a game, though my wife was still unimpressed with the format even now she understood the title.
More pertinently for long term fans of Warming Up - the man behind box number one was my ex-tour manager, arrogant Simon Streeting (who has now moved up in the world and tour manages for Sarah - only someone with her down to earth charm could put up with his overbearing arrogance), so if you want to put a face to a name (or a libellous misrepresentation of the truth) then why not
have a look.
