It was a beautiful sunny day in Cornwall today and though I was meant to be writing show one of AIOTM I was also somewhat tempted to just sit on the grass drinking ale or cider until I passed out.
The reading was well attended, though the average age of the audience was probably about 25 years older than my normal crowd and I got an audible tut at my first wank gag.
It felt inappropriate to be rude in such an idyllic setting and I was aware that there were probably people in the audience who came to see every author and were probably not expecting tales of Mr Cunto and Dr Wank, but whilst some of the cruder moments were greeted with some befuddlement it was great that the really good dirty jokes - like the sperm marathon one - got big laughs even from the more reticent spectators.
It was a long way to come to do a one hour reading and part of me was getting a bit nervous about the fact I both had to get back to London and write an hour long comedy script (and by the end of today I had about one page typed up, though plenty of ideas for material - it has been an eventful week both for me and the country at large. It's a shame Gordon Brown doesn't get to do an AIOTM!) But I also didn't want to waste this lovely day and a weekend away with my girlfriend (who aside from our four days in Rome I haven't seen too much of thanks to all this stupid work I've been doing). There was also some concern that the volcanic ash cloud might scupper my flight, but after a minor panic and discovering that there were no trains from Newquay to London on a Sunday, I discovered that there were plenty of trains from train stations that were much nearer that would get me home in under 4 hours, to Paddington, which is much nearer my house than Gatwick, and I wondered why we hadn't got a train down in the first place.
But that slight excitement aside I decided to relax and leave my work til tomorrow and (more likely) Monday. We went to see an excellent talk by Paul Jackson, the producer responsible for many great comedy hits including "The Young Ones" and "Red Dwarf" as well as the man who had ensured the screening of both "This Morning With Richard Not Judy" and "You Can Choose Your Friends". I have a lot to thank him for. But all I can say is his excellent taste! Now to convince all the other TV executives. But he took us on a very entertaining journey through some of the funniest comedies since "Beyond the Fringe" - and no, my stuff was not included!
The hotel is swarming with famous faces. At breakfast we saw members of the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band who had entertained us with a ramshackle, slightly overlong, but still stupidly funny show the night before (and gave me hope that I might fulfill my dream of still doing this job at least into my 60s) and at dinner I was sitting facing a very sprightly looking June Whitfield. We weren't dining together and thanks to my stupid decision to bring my girlfriend I couldn't make a move on her. But she sat regally at her table, like the comedy royalty she is. She's still being funny into her 80s, so that will take some beating.
We were made very welcome by the people at the festival and it was probably a good thing to have a calm before the storm. But weirdly I don't feel the panic I felt throughout the first series of AIOTM where I was similarly unprepared. Hopefully this is a good sign and means now I am up and running with the idea I can keep knocking these out without too much stress. Or maybe it just means the second series will lose its edge and be shit. Either way, for the moment I was calm and happy and wondering if I should come away to such a retreat to try and write the show every week - though I might well end up Lotus eating instead.
