Up at 6.30 and writing by 7.30, but it seems that as long as I have a few ideas then I can indeed get most of the work done on Monday. I plodded along with it all and it was mostly together by 2.30. Loads of time left. But feeling very uncertain about whether the script was even a little bit funny. Though that is what makes this exciting for me. It's a big leap of faith and I am forced to try out ideas that I would probably hide away if I had more time to consider it. But as I have learned from stand up, sometimes the stuff that you're most afraid of putting in front of the public is the best stuff. If I had a team of writers and a month to write the show and a massive production team I am certain we'd end up dropping the more experimental and longer and stranger sketches. But the strangeness and sketch-writing rule breaking and the self-indulgence (occasionally) are what makes the show work. But also, 14 episodes in, a lot of the show is carried along by the personalities and performances and interaction between the cast. It's a good formula with the right participants. And even on a day like today when I am feeling tired and afraid, it is reassuring to be working with the cool and funny people who are helping me out with this. Just one cunt in a cast or crew can ruin the whole thing. No cunts in this show. Or if there is a cunt, it is me.
We had some students in to film the performance which added an extra level of fun, though in the heat of the moment, with all my other concerns, I totally forgot they were there until the show was over.
It was another largish crowd - at least 250 I would say - which is also very encouraging. People are getting into this. I am glad it is working out. The whole project was a big gamble and it seems, slowly and steadily, like everything I do, to be paying off. Maybe in another 20 years it will be prime time on whatever medium is prevalent at that time.
Though it does take up a lot of time and emotional energy and I am not getting any time off. I have lots of other things to be doing and at the moment I am not getting a chance to do them. I had hoped to do another series of AIOTM in the autumn, but with my Radio 4 show to do and a desire to get on with writing some TV ideas, I think I will have to wait. Or just do a couple of one offs. Talking to Fiona yesterday made me realise how focused I had been in January 2008 when I pulled myself together, got fit and got on with my work. Indeed on the morning of January 1st 2008 I wrote the proposal that would turn into the book "How Not To Grow Up". And two years on things are all moving along nicely, but I feel I need another similar spurt of concentration and creativity and to try and get some ideas for TV together. I had backed away from that after constant rejection over the years, but I really should be writing for TV at least and would love to get a sit-com or a play off the ground and I need the autumn to regroup. So we'll see. There is at least the Edinburgh AIOTM once I've done the next four London ones.
The show went a whole lot better than I had been anticipating and indeed those strange ideas that I thought might get no laughs went down pretty well. It was an especially eccentric audience and it was fun talking to the audience at home, asking them to check I had made it out of the theatre alive, as I wondered if I was in a roomful of serial killers who were going to make a suit out of my skin.
The complicated denouement managed to make sense, showing I think that you can take people down some unusual and complex routes and they will follow you.
I celebrated by going to have a cocktail with my lovely girlfriend.
It's great to be this busy and it's great that the ideas are still flowing, even if it hurts a bit to strain to shit them out of my brain.
And if you want an AIOTM T shirt as mentioned in the podcast then head
to the mysoti site. Type mysoti on check out to get 15% on any of the T shirts on the site (valid for the next 2 months).
There's some great Collings and Herrin ones too.
You can subscribe to AIOTM on iTunes or
via the British Comedy Guide. Spread the word if you like it.
