I have now pretty much totally forgotten that the Hitler moustache is even there. I certainly am not filled with the paranoia and fear that I exhibited the first time I had it. Maybe if I feel it's normal then it becomes normal. I am now considering keeping it for Edinburgh at least, but will have to shave it at some point as I need to do a photo session for the new book cover and I think that would just be too confusing.
And dare I wear it for my parents' Golden Wedding party? Am I really that bad a son? Perhaps I am. I didn't send dad anything for Father's Day today, hoping that it would be enough that I had praised him in an Independent on Sunday article that I'd been asked to contribute to. Alas, my contribution was cut, so dad got nothing. Ah well. Happy Father's Day anyway, TK.
The last couple of previews have been a little bit quiet. Plenty of people have been there, but they just haven't laughed very much. With good reason as there is as yet not enough to laugh at. It seems from comments afterwards that they are finding what I am saying interesting. But that's not enough. I need to make the show a lot funnier and work out some structure, but I am confident that with still over 30 previews to come that I should knock it into shape. It's good to realise that it needs some work. I was elated that I managed to talk for about an hour at the first preview despite having written pretty much nothing, but I mustn't get complacent. Hopefully with the book done and dusted and a bit of sleep I will have time to really nail this mother by doing some actual work in the day time over the next couple of weeks. At the moment I've just been turning up at the gigs, looking at my notes for about half an hour before and then blundering onwards in the hope that it will all come out perfectly. This is a technique that has worked well in previous years and it's amazing how the stage time is about ten times more useful than the actual writing time, but I still need to do some reading and some writing and some thinking to make this show all that it can be. I have a good feeling about it though and it's always painful doing these previews and this show is already way ahead of most. Shit look there's ages to go til Edinburgh. Fuck it, I'm going to leave it til the last minute as always. What can possibly go wrong.
I last played tonight's venue in Southampton in
December 2006 and at the end of the set I regaled the audience with the story of the painfully slow exit of the guy in the wheelchair. I should probably have started with this as it went down very well indeed. I also pointed out that it was in this very room that I had first met my girlfriend, though it would be some time before we got together. "It's a room full of amazing memories and now tonight I have another memory to add to the Nuffield Theatre scrapbook that I have. A picture of your bored and unamused faces!" Most of the crowd weren't sure if they should laugh at this, true to form for the gig, but I knew things hadn't gone as badly as I was making out. An audience sitting in silence are at least, generally, listening, though tonight there was a proportion of people who were shuffling uncomfortably in their seats. They had been treated to an assured and gag-filled set from the reliable Ian Stone in the first half. The contrast between his slick set and my meandering one could not have been greater. The fact that he is Jewish and makes much of that fact and I had a Hitler moustache helped put that contrast into sharper focus.
It's all part of the process of coming up with a new show, which regular readers of this blog have now been through some five times already. This is, astonishingly my 25th Edinburgh show (my 26th if you include the live podcast show we'll be doing this year - I don't think last year's can be added to the list). It's the eighth solo show of the decade too, which isn't a bad turnover rate. I might just spend the next decade by repeating them all in turn. Like many of you I would love to get DVDs of "Christ on a Bike" and "Talking Cock" out there.
Amazingly no one has asked me yet to be King of Edinburgh. I shall keep chugging away, largely unnoticed until I die no doubt. And whilst five years ago I was quite bitter about that fact, now a bit older I am rather happy about it. I am, it turns out, the luckiest of men. Persistence is its own reward.
And let's not forget I did win the Daily Telegraph Worst Comedy Experience of 2005. So it's not like my efforts have gone completely ignored.
Once home I finally got round to watching last week's opening episode of
Psychoville. It is absolutely awesome. Very dark, very funny and beautifully acted, scripted and directed. It is great to see some intelligent and funny comedies making it to our screens. And most of them are coming from seasoned veterans like Armando Iannucci, Stewart Lee and the League of Gentlemen. Which should maybe tell commissioning editors something. I am not for a second suggesting that it's not great to seek out new talent - it is of course an important necessity - but look what you get when you give people who've learned the ropes some air time as well.
Oh dear, I've turned into one of those blokes complaining about how things aren't as good as they used to be. Luckily I am a massive fan of newer acts too. I think the mistakes are being made through comedic taste rather than anything else. Anyway, shut up Rich. Watch Psychoville - it's ace.
