It seems that once again we were lucky with our flights. Our Rome trip came just the other side of the last volcanic eruption and though airports were closing down in the north and looked like they would shortly close in the south our plane was unaffected. Though from where I was sitting the engine on the wing outside looked very dirty and had strange marks that looked like burnt paint coming out from behind it.
But I had bigger worries than a plane engine becoming clogged with volcanic ash and exploding. And I'm not talking about the AIOTM script (I had managed to do a couple of hours in the morning and had written maybe 8 pages of the script - which is usually between 30 and 40 sides long). Somewhere on the ground beneath me York City, the magical shamen football team were about to play in a football match at Wembley which could propel them back into the actual football league.
As with my script I was oddly calm and confident (which is probably a bad sign for AOITM as it turns out) because I listened to the first half in the cab on the way home (my iPhone doubling up as a digital radio, but cutting out whenever the 3G signal dropped) and the Minstermen quickly went two goals down. Even so I wasn't too worried. Richard Brodie, the 21st Century Gazza, who has survived being runover and being hit in the head with a thrown coin in the last two months, would surely unleash his necromancy skills very soon.
Indeed there was hope as the team somehow hypnotised the opposing keeper into dropping the ball into his net, but that exhausted all their powers. Despite what sounded like much better play in the second half York lost 3-1. I am glad that Oxford are back in the football league, but it's a shame it is at York's expense and I think this might be our last good chance to return to league football. It wouldn't be York if there wasn't disappointment. But also the boys had a lot to be proud of. I had been wearing my football shirt in support of them (so if the plane had gone down, I would have done down a Yorkie) and I was still happy to be wearing it for the rest of the evening, as I pushed on with the AIOTM script, which as always, at this stage feels like it might be some kind of genius or the worst script ever written. I am giving myself licence to fail. It's important to take some chances and I have nothing to lose (except another Sony Award) and hopefully the braver decisions I have made will turn out to be funny rather than disastrous. Very much looking forward to getting the team back together and if nothing else this script feels more like a team show than anything in the first series. In some ways it feels reminiscent of those charming gang shows of the 1950s that June Whitfield might have taken part in. But with swearing and coprophilia.
I had also been impressed with some clips of Bill Maher that Paul Jackson played yesterday and although this week's script is not massively political, I have decided to take a punt at being a little bit controversial about some important issues from this week. We will see how that goes. But now like some ineffectual James Bond I have a Licence to fail, I don't feel so bad about taking the chance.
It's either brilliant or tripe or brilliant tripe. It's rough. It's not ready. Let's give the roulette wheel a spin and see how it goes.
Tickets selling well at the Leicester Square Theatre, 8pm start. I think you should be able to rock up and pay on the door if you want to do it last minute. It will be a big fun party to start the series. And I am risking a criminal record too. Plus an exclusive stand up set that won't be put out on the internet (well maybe this first one, if it goes well, but not after that).
What's not to like?
