As if to confirm my influence over the fate of Northern Ireland, the Stormont Parliament convened today with old enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness smiling together on this historic day. And without being arrogant I am pretty sure that one of the conditions of this historic meeting must surely have been that I had to play a gig in Belfast. Once that had come to pass the process could move on. All sides are united by the love for my comedy. But I don't want to make a big deal about it. I am just doing my job. If world peace is a consequence of what I am doing, then that is just a nice bonus.
The tour is really starting to take its toll. I have a bit of a cold, a sore throat, a croaky voice, I'm getting fatter and I increasingly tired. My legs felt heavy today and the gig was hard work, though it went pretty well. I finally remembered to include a joke I had thought of a week or so again, about God and Adam on the roof of the Sistine Chapel touching fingers and questioning if God was secretly saying that he thought Adam was gay. It worked well and it's satisfying still to be coming up with new ideas for routines that I have done probably about 100 times now.
The show was a bit more crotchety and less playful than usual, due to my achey throat and legs, but I stayed on the right side of the line of anger (that is its official title) and it just gave a slightly different light and shade to the evening. I was performing in the bar of the massive St David's Hall and last time I was here with Stewart we were in the 1000+ seater auditorium, so I was able to joke about my changing fortunes. Though in honesty there might actually have been more people in the audience today than there were when Lee and Herring were on. I had over 200 tonight and all I remember about the previous gig is that there were about ten times more seats than there were people.
And the attendance for this tour has been better than any of my previous solo efforts, so things seem to be moving in the right direction.
Tomorrow I am playing the Blackwood Miners' Institure in the heart of the Welsh valleys (I believe) and I made some play out of the fact that that sounds quite intimidating and scary and that I will probably be beaten up by lots of aggrieved men with dirty faces, shining lights from their helmets into my face.
We shall see.
