I can't believe it, but until today I had completely forgotten about one of my most popular stand up routines. When I was doing the Lyric Hammersmith gigs I was determined not to repeat material over the four gigs, for the handful of people who came to all of them and I wracked my brain for the last couple of shows trying to think of stuff I hadn't done. And in recent charity gigs where you sometimes need to pull out your crowd pleasing big guns I have had a vague feeling that I had something in my arsenal that would really fit the bill.
But it was only today when looking at a photo of myself licking my hand whilst fondling my breast, that I suddenly remembered my "childhood misunderstanding of homosexuality" bit from menage a un. I don't know how it slipped my mind. It's my banker bit that works in front of practically any audience and yet I haven't done it in any of my non-40 gigs since Edinburgh (or before).
In fact it was so long since I had done it that it was actually a bit of a struggle to go over the routine in my head, though I managed to remember it all, I think (and luckily I have a rough DVD of the menage show now -out soon, though probably not in time for Christmas alas).
I know I am getting old and perhaps these memory lapses are part of all that, but on the other hand I think it just shows how much stand up material I have written in the last three years, where I can get by with forgetting some of my best stuff and it not really matter.
So I brought the bit out of accidental retirement tonight at my gig in the Angel - this one in an old chapel that had been converted into a bar, still with the pulpit in tact (though we didn't do the sets from up there). It was good to have the routine back. Though it was a small crowd and it can be a bit embarrassing when I am miming cunnilingus on my own hand and fondling my own bosom and no-one is really laughing. But that is the joy of this job. It's a ridiculous way for an old man to make a living.
