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Hope you had a good St Skeletor's Day.
I've done five gigs this year so far, all without a tour manager, which hasn't been too much of a problem as they've been pretty local and a bit spaced out. But I am getting too old for this shit and driving home from Leicester this evening I could see that the days of being a one-man band are pretty much over. It'd been a full on day and I had been awake since 5.30am when Ernie had woken from a nightmare and the 100 minutes drive felt like it took forever.
Always lovely to come to the Y Theatre and this gig seems to be an annual event. Three great guests today - terrifying Australian nutcase (though not compared to the other comic Australian nutcases) John Robertson and two of the men behind the phenomenon that is Viz magazine, Simon and Chris Donald.
I hung out a few times with the Viz boys back in the Noughties and know Simon well, but had never met the somewhat shyer older brother Chris. So it was a delight to take them out to what turned out to be the poshest restaurant in Leicester, Pret a Manger - no actually a proper place where my fish cost me about £40. The boys (both in their sixties, but they will always be boys to me) ate a couple of sides - because they weren't that hungry (I hope - perhaps they were embarrassed to go for any of the mains as I was paying).
Viz magazine has had more influence on UK comedy than almost anything else and the story of how it turned from a practically photocopied fanzine to one of the biggest magazines in the UK is almost unbelievable. In a competitive market of handmade fanzines and magazines it outshone all the others, due to the comic sensibilities, the fact it was actually made by "the kids" not a big business attempt to do so and proper comedy chops and artistic talent.
There are two moments from the 1980s when I accidentally came across comedy that would help to define me. One was on Camp America, where looking through a trunk of stuff I came across a copy of one of Gary Larson's books. He hadn't made it to the UK at this point and I'd never seen his stuff before and the book blew my tiny mind (it's clear that Suzy Eddie Izzard was also very influenced by him). Then in 1987 I was in a production of The Threepenny Opera at University and maybe even at the audition had gone to the room of the producer or assistant director. I was at St Catherine's college which was modern and largely filled with comprehensive school kids and I hadn't seen much of the Oxford of Brideshead Revisited. But this now forgotten student had what felt like a suite of rooms in super posh New College (actually a very old college - the person who named it lacked foresight). I was in awe. On the floor were various magazines, one of which was Viz. He may have had a few copies. I'd never seen it. I loved it. He may have let me keep the copies.
It absolutely shared my comic sensibilities - they too had been fans of Python and Derek and Clive and like the Young Ones it showed me that it was possible that someone like me might actually be able to make comedy that people might want to see. And it says a lot that this magazine that had made by some nerds in Newcastle for their non-cool mates had the broad appeal that meant it would end up in this posho room in Oxford University.
So fascinating to talk to this pair on and off stage. I get to meet my comedy heroes in this show and although these two are almost contemporaries and very down to earth men, I was still in awe. We could have talked for hours.
And balancing the afternoon was a chat with John Robertson, who was predictably unpredictable and smaller than I expected. He too is a very inventive comedian with his own energy and this was a fun and dirty chat.
These podcasts will be out in a couple of months.
