Warming Up

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Phoebe’s Nanna was looking after her overnight, so I was a bit annoyed to be woken by the booze in my system at 7.30am. Stupid body! This was a chance to try to sleep until midday. Luckily I wasn’t too hungover, but it was still enough to remind me that it is time to get back to healthy living and exercise. I had worn my wedding suit last night and it was still baggy, but I have put on about half a stone in the last month because tiredness and busyness has kept me from the gym and sent me grabbing for cakes and chocolate. And though I haven’t been drinking a lot, I have been drinking frequently. So my lent will be occurring after Easter and I am going to see if I can cut out sugar laden treats (and maybe sugar all together - though it’s in everything these days, so I don’t know how far that goes. Obviously I am not giving up yoghurt for anyone) and get back into exercising.

I wasn’t gigging tonight, but heading to the Gulbenkian in Canterbury for the second time in a month to be interviewed for their comedy archive. They had asked me to bring along some items to help link the interview together so I spent the morning looking through my extensive collection of notes and artefacts to find appropriate stuff. I hardly threw anything away and scrap booked all my University scripts and programmes and reviews, so there was a lot to choose from. Eventually I will probably give the University all of this stuff (if they want it) or at least the bits that I don’t eBay off, but for now I selected a few bits that I was happy to give to them, or let them scan. I bagged up all the floppy discs that I had used in the  1990s which contain scripts that I am sure I’ve forgotten and goodness knows what else. Hopefully there is nothing too overtly personal or pornographic in there, but they have assured me that they won’t delve into any letters or diaries that they might find amongst the radio scripts. I think sadly there wasn’t anything very personal or pornographic going on back then. I was mainly just writing comedy scripts. 

As I didn’t have my usual one huge fireman’s worth of stuff to carry with me I was able to take the train and I had an hour to potter around Canterbury and buy something for dinner. I also picked up Jon Ronson’s new book, “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” which I got well into on the journey home. As usual with him it’s a cracking read and a subject that particular interests me. I have had some experience of Twitter mobs and righteous indignation (possibly in both directions) and the fury and judgement and lack of forgiveness that have permeated social media do concern me. Even if people have made terrible mistakes (and so far in the book no one has done anything that awful) there has to be some way back for them. We’ve all done stupid stuff (as whoever is about to look through my floppy discs is about to discover) and we’ve all got lies or selfish actions or stupid thoughts that we hope no one will ever find out about. Do we leap on the bandwagon when it happens to others mainly because we’re glad it’s not us? Do the people who protest the most have the most to hide? I used to wonder about those people who waited outside courthouses to shout abuse at murderers and paedophiles. Obviously almost everyone disapproves of those things but most don’t feel the need to demonstrate their anger to that extent. Obviously lots of factors could create that impulse, but public displays of mortified disapproval are a strange thing...

The interview was as fun as talking about myself for 90 minutes was going to be (i.e. enormous fun). We sprawled backwards and forwards in my career, though I am maybe not the best person to analyse my own work. I have no idea why some of the things were successful, just as I have no idea really why I fell out of favour with the people working in TV now. Someone else could probably tell you.

But I think I gave a bit of insight into how a show is created and the way the process of touring now works for me, as well as advocating the liberty of the internet and how inventive it allows you to be. It was mainly not very funny, but hopefully interesting. The theatre was far from full, as it might have been for other comedy figures, but maybe it’s more interesting to have the thoughts of someone who doesn’t have huge success. I love the idea of some student having to trudge through the masses of mediocre material that I have created in 25 years to try and work out what went wrong and what went right. And being archived in libraries and universities is perhaps all I have ever wanted. I don’t really even want people to look me up in the archives. Just that I am there is enough for me!

There were some insights and it’s also a good thing for a creative person to attempt to assess and take stock of what they have done. The 90 minutes passed quickly and the small audience seemed engaged.

The audio version of this interview will be going up on the secret channel of extras for monthly subscribers (along with an audio of a muffled recording of about half of the 1996 play Punk’s Not Dead) in the next few days. To get access to these and other exciting extras (including bonus video questions from pretty much all the recent RHLSTPs) just pay a pound or more a month here.

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