Another enjoyable preview of new material tonight, again, coincidentally at the Canal Cafe Theatre, though this time it was packed to the rafters. With comedy nerds. Or so it appeared from the well meaning heckles.
I mentioned Stewart Lee in a bit that I am doing about changing his name to Stewart Wee in the phone book (which almost certainly won't be in the show, but at least counts as new - or different- material). "How come you've not got a TV show like him?" came a cheerful heckle. It was early in the gig and might have been enough to unbalance me in the past, but although there was some edge behind the entreaty, I could be happily joke, "I am not interested in selling out and doing TV like him. I just want to do live work. Playing tiny box rooms that are ludicrously hot and have only about sixty people in them. That's proper comedy!" Though I was mocking the small scale of my current ambitions, I did actually mean it. The bit about being happy doing live stuff in any case. To some people not being on TV means you have failed or disappeared. Increasingly I am realising that having the freedom to play these tiny gigs and produce free podcasts and sketch shows and do whatever material I want is actually as good and in some ways better than being on TV. And, you know, I am occasionally on TV anyway!
I carried on with the new material, which in spite of the fact that I still haven't had time to sit down and do any actual writing work is coming along nicely. Five years ago the idea of coming on stage to improvise around some half thought out notions would have filled me with fear. Now I wasn't even vaguely nervous. Most of it was going down really well.
"Do the joke about fucking the stab wounds!" shouted one man.
"Well, I'm doing new material tonight and as you've just revealed the punch line to the routine you want to hear there's not much point in me doing it," I wryly observed.
"Oh yeah," he said.
Another man, when I had asked for questions revealed that I had once asked to put a trout in his girlfriend's vagina.
"Yeah, it was in a show, though," I insisted, defending my reputation,"I wasn't just in a fishmongers and got an idea and said, "Excuse me young lady, would you mind if I put this up you?""
For non-Richard Herring aficionados this gave a very bad, though also rather accurate, impression of what other stuff I have done in my act.
The first heckler, a persistent and slightly drunken man, who was clearly a fan, but spoke with the brusque candour and over familiarity that can often come with fandom came in with another query, "How come your hair is now blond?" He was clearly insinuating that I was dyeing it. "I am afraid that this is nothing but nature's dye, my friend. Far from being blond, this is merely encroaching grey hair."
"How come you're not on TV now, seriously? Is it true that you've been banned by the BBC?"
The rest of the audience were getting bored of his interruptions, but I had run out of new stuff and was happy to run with this to see where it went.
"No, I've not been banned. I was on 6Music last week and I do do some BBC TV shows. But they're not interested in doing any of my other stuff at the moment. It really doesn't matter that much. Isn't this much more exciting? To be doing this live and interactive and to be getting slightly rude questions from someone who clearly loves what I do. Ah the double edged nature of fandom!"
He asked a couple more things, but I remarked that this was turning into a press conference, rather than a comedy gig and in any case he really didn't get it. And maybe I would have been as confused as him a few years before. But whilst I would do TV again if the right thing came along, doing these live shows, improvising new material for a show that starts in earnest in about seven weeks... this is what makes my job really exciting and amazing. Of course I am getting plenty of paid work. I had had to come out leaving my book, now definitely titled, "How Not To Grow Up" tantalisingly close to completion. And of course providing the new show is any good I should be touring it in much larger theatres next year and making some money from it.
So being able to be self-sufficient and say whatever I want in such an intimate and exciting medium is actually a privilege rather than a curse. Stewart has done an amazing job in getting intelligent and exciting comedy on to television, but he is the exception rather than the rule. For me TV is a way to pay for the months I spend doing the work I earn nothing for and doing stuff that producers would run screaming from for fear of upsetting the editor of the Daily Mail.
I really am having the best of times with my job at the moment, even though it is wearying and exhausting and apparently non-stop.
I am a lucky man.
The guy who had heckled most came up to apologise to me afterwards, but there was no need. I knew his heckles came from a place of concern and love. He wanted me to be back on TV and for him seeing me in such reduced circumstances seemed to indicate failure.
Luckily I am now secure enough or deluded enough to know that it doesn't. And I really had a blast having to think on my feet, not just with the audience interaction, but the actual material as well.
There are a lot of interesting themes to discuss. Some of it isn't that funny yet, but I think that will come.
All hail to the BNP for giving me something to talk about. And to the stupid idiots who spent all day telling me that not going to vote is a political statement.
It isn't by the way.
Spoiling your ballot paper is a political statement, but if you stay at home and do nothing, then you just look like one of the lazy millions, rather than regiistering your disgust.
I think it's equally lazy and easy to say that you don't want to vote for anyone because all politicians are the same. Not only is this not true, but I also think it's insulting to all the people who have fought and died for democracy, as well as a dangerous attitude because, as we have seen, it leaves the door open for evil and horrible men to get into positions of power.
I hope next time the apathetic will consider making the short walk to the polling booths and the angry might make a point of voting for the least bad candidate in their opinion. But that's just my opinion. You sit back and let history steamroller over you if you wish. You won't be the first to do so.
