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So with the bank holiday over and the tour nearly complete (apart from
3 final dates at the Leicester Square Theatre on 8th-10th June - please tell your friends if you’ve seen the show and enjoyed it) and it’s time to move on properly to the new show. Except I have loads of bits of admin and kickstarter rewards and a show programme to write first. Most of today was spent creating handmade T shirts for the RHLSTP kickstarter donors (and I am only halfway through those), but this should hopefully mean that everyone will get their rewards by the end of next week at the latest (and thanks for your patience). As long as I have a programme for the tour and all the kickstarter rewards have been sent out, no one will mind if I don’t actually have a show, right?
But there’s loads of time to knock together 60 minutes on being 50 (I mean I am not even 50 for another six weeks and for the show to be genuine I probably shouldn’t write any of it until I actually am). I find it most interesting the extent to which I am not bothered about turning 50 given how devastated I was by turning 40. I don’t know if this is a new found maturity based on the fact that I have the grace to accept the things I can’t change and just appreciate still being here, or if I am in total denial that any of this is happening. I mean 50, come on. That should be a body blow. Someone who was 50 on the day I was born was alive during World War One. I AM SO OLD. But I feel so young.
The pressure to come up with a good show was increased when I went to see David Baddiel’s “My Family: Not the Sitcom” for a second time tonight. Catch this show this week or in London, or out on tour if you can, because it’s a really brilliantly put together show involving over-sharing, honesty and proper belly laughs. David is one of the guests on the upcoming series of RHLSTP so I thought I should refamiliarise myself with this familial story. In spite of it being warts and clitorises and all, it’s a very moving and loving tribute to his parents. David, like me, is stricken with the need to tell the truth, even when it isn’t strictly necessary to do so. It’s terrible in real life, but great for comedy, because by revealing that which would usually be hidden, this show becomes about us all and makes our own family secrets seem less embarrassing. It’s dangerous doing comedy based on true stories of those who you love, so David might have been wise to wait until his mother was dead and his father had dementia. Though without either of those two tragedies, there actually wouldn’t be as much comedy here. It does fit in with my own beliefs that laughter is the best response to disaster.
It’s interesting to see a show like this develop and change and improve. I generally like to get a show together fast, work on it as I tour it and then put it to bed after a year, but there’s clearly something to be said for keeping on working on a piece for a longer time period. You need a big hit show to really be able to do that, perhaps (and Talking Cock was the closest to this for me), but David has done an amazing job of keeping it fresh for himself, whilst allowing it to work as a theatrical piece.
I was also excited to meet the man who originally played Tinky Winky on the stairs by the toilet and to be sitting behind Jim Piddock - probably best known as the voice of Major Zero in the English version of the video game Metal Gear Solid 3:Snake Eater, but also a familiar face from many Christopher Guest films. I didn’t say hello to him though. Because I am too shy to converse with people I admire. Had no problem with Tinky Winky though.
I had come to the theatre alone, which was a rare treat. I don’t go out without my wife very much any more and often work at night. It was a reminder that it’s still possible to have a little culture in your life, amongst the mayhem, even if the culture is David Baddiel discussing his mother’s sexual organs.
The June (not Terry) newsletter is out with all the up to date news on RHLSTP guests, Emergency Questions books (available to buy by the end of the week hopefully) and eBay auction (closing Wednesday afternoon, but more to come)
is now up here.
And remember you can get the secret email with advance notice of RHLSTP guests and secret channel access and more by
becoming a monthly badger.
