8255/21174
Instagram tossed up with Flight of the Conchords song that I had forgotten about, but I think it might now be my favourite of everything they've done (usurping "If You're Into It".
It's this one!It's a beautiful song, as well as being very funny and a very neat switcheroo on Paul Simon's (deliberately?) rather unpleasant 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.
I was a huge fan of the TV show and the pair have gone on to great and deserved solo success too.
As happy as they make me with their crazy high-jinks, they are also a reminder of my failure to spot how great they were and become their friend in one of the Melbourne Festivals I did in 2002 or 2003.
Everyone was saying how great they were and no one was saying how great I was and both years I was escaping miserable relationships at home and was feeling lonely and isolated. I saw the Conchords at one lat night gig, doing a short set and was morosely dismissive of them (they did a song, I think, about how you can be overwhelmed but not whelmed and other such quirks of language, which I felt had been done before, but really I just envied them).
I never cope well with the socialising part of festivals, either retreating into myself before retreating or getting drunk and behaving stupidly. Being able to network and get your face in front of the right people (preferably when you're not drunk and acting like a dick) is a big part of success in this business and it's no surprise that running away from all opportunities has led to me being at the level I am now.
I did remember today, at the Fringe when I was in the Oxford Revue, where so many humiliating and potentially career destroying and certainly confidence destroying things happened, that we all got to go to a party where all the important people were. In truth there would have been no networking opportunities for the little children that we were, but I was overwhelmed (having never been whelmed) and had to run off and hide in the toilet. I don't think it was from anyone in particular, just the whole thing. I wanted to be a comedian but had no idea how to talk to the people who might make that happen.
I did have to put up with a lot of extremely unpleasant situations that year and I am not the only comedian to find it pleasurable to be at the front, addressing hundreds of people and trying to make them laugh, but not being able to cope with the fear of being in a room of hundreds of people, even when they aren't interested in you at all.
Anyway, my bad. Missed out on being friends with the Conchords (but they were too cool to be friends with me anyway and being all confident wouldn't have helped me), but worse, missed out on discovering one of my favourite comedy acts super early.
It just goes to show that you shouldn't trust my judgement of anything.
And if anyone is looking to summarise the millions of words in the 22 and a half years of this blog, then "I am a twat" probably does it.
Stick that in the British Library
Sarah from Ring is very keen to give me a cut price camera. Learn from
renaflu.com. Less is more. Also offer photos.
Sarah emailed me 10 times today. How keen are Ring to off load these cameras. Play it cool guys. It makes it look like some kind of con. At least give me the chance to think about it
And The Freewheeling John Dowie which is harder to get hold of, but very much worth the effort.
