And a miserable St Skeletor's Day to you all. But look on the bright side, lonely, hideous, single people. Think of all the money you're saving on Ferrero Rocher.
I was hit surprisingly hard by jet lag today. I woke up really early, disconcerted, confused and panicky, but not quite knowing why. This used to happen to me quite a lot when I was drinking a bit, but it's been a while since it's happened. I just came downstairs and watched a bit of telly for a while - seeing the very impressive (even at 6am) Sky Atlantic channel, which I might just watch every second of the day for the rest of my life now. I was quickly calmed and the panic dissipated as quickly and mysteriously as it had arrived. I sometimes wonder if those brief moments of terror and fear are brought about by a sudden clarity about the futility and awfulness of life and if it's actually the rest of the time that we're kidding ourselves. If there is a Hell then it need only be us feeling that uncomfortable and strange for all eternity.
I managed to get a few small jobs done and started gearing up for the tour which starts in just two days, as well as catching up on some admin. I had hoped to begin thinking about what work I needed to do, but by the afternoon my head was aching and I just wanted to go to bed. But I was forced to start thinking a little bit about this year's Edinburgh Fringe. It's time already to start sorting out a venue, even if I am not entirely certain what my show is going to be. After the last few years and my increasing sales and popularity in Edinburgh I suddenly find myself in the rather pleasant position of being spoiled for choice. I am looking for a venue that is around 300 seats and a slot starting between 8.30 and 9.30 and pretty much all the major venues are offering me something that basically fits those parameters. So I just need to think over the offers and the locations offered. It's a tough decision, but gratifying (after so many years) to be courted by the venues rather than begging them for a spot!
As always it is entertaining with the Fringe that everything happens backwards. First you get your venue, then you come up with a show title, then a poster and then some months down the line you start to put together an actual show. I've been mulling a few ideas around in my head, though none of them had completely grabbed me, though all have potential.
I have been considering:
A follow-up to Headmaster's Son about my year off (gap year if you're a youngster) called maybe "1985 - my year off" (cos I liked the idea of it looking like a sequel to 1984, though it bothers me as a title because my year off was actually 1985-6).
A show about love and whether it even exists, prompted somewhat by the questions I ask at the end of Christ on a Bike about whether love and religion spring from the same place and are equally delusional. I like the fact that that question can occasionally slightly stun an audience that take the fact that religion is made up as read. My working title for this would be "What is Love Anyway?" And if you don't know what a year off is then you probably won't know that that is a song by the Welsh poet/philosopher Howard Jones.
"Richard Herring is Surprisingly Adequate" a title that comes from a piece of gossip from the Pop Bitch newsletter, but also one that sums up my career a little bit. I thought it might be interesting to look at my mediocrity, my failure to win things (slightly spoiled now by those bastards at Chortle) and why my life and career hasn't turned out quite as I might have hoped. And if that's my own fault. I think this one might seem a bit too negative and introspective, even though actually I have some quite interesting theories on it.
"Richard Herring - The Man Who Can Only Live in a Vacuum" based on that recent entry about my best ever joke. Possibly about whether it's possible to go back to your youth and whether I could dare risk trying to do the joke again with 44 year old bones. It'd be about the self-destructive nature of comedy as well as the passage of time.
"What a Waste of a Good Education" - don't know exactly what this would be - I just like the title, which is a direct quote made by a friend of my Grandad's after they had listened to one of my early radio shows together. Again, maybe an introspective look at whether being a comedian is a proper job for a grown person or what I might have done with my brain otherwise if I hadn't used it for making up cock jokes. But there is a poignancy to it too. My Grandad had been a big supporter of my early career and I had written to him regularly when I was starting out and I think it hurt and disappointed him that his friend didn't enjoy the show (not that it was really aimed at them - he was in his late 80s at this point and I was in my early 20s).
"Standing Up, Breaking Down" which might be more of a strange little play based on the routine I briefly did about whether Mars Bars actually exist. I'd like to stretch the routine out to an hour and have some ideas how that might be possible. But I feel this might be a little extra show that I do one Edinburgh - possibly only once.
There's certainly lots of ideas which is a good thing and whichever one I do I am looking forward to creating a brand new show for the first time in two years. Though apprehensive as always. Will I manage to keep up the recent run of form?
I think, prompted somewhat by yesterday's Ferrero Rocher riff, which shows some promise, that the show about love might be the best bet. It's a big subject and one that I don't think anyone else has covered - well not in the way I hope to do, it's not going to be about the difference between men and women and their attitudes to the subject which I think has been done. And I like the idea of challenging a concept that is so universally accepted. For once I don't think I will be preaching to the converted. And even if that idea doesn't entirely come off I think that there is an hour of stand up about all that love entails. There can be some autobiography, some shocking revelations about my own ridiculousness, some sentimentality. It's got Richard Herring written all over it.
And whatever I go for there's a few good ideas there for the future, although I think in 2012 I will almost certainly do "Talking Cock: The Second Coming" as a 10th anniversary treat. It's the only other one man show I have done that hasn't been on DVD (I will be filming Christ on a Bike with go faster stripe in May, probably in London). And who knows what other ideas I will have had by 2013!
It's good that ideas are still coming thick and fast, even after all this time and I am still aiming to have produced 10 different solo shows in 10 consecutive years. I had a break in 2003, so conveniently the 2001 and 2002 shows will slip into the sequence in their revitalised forms.
2004 The Twelve Tasks of Hercules Terrace
2005 Someone Likes Yoghurt
2006 menage a un
2007 Oh Fuck, I'm 40
2008 The Headmaster's Son
2009 Hitler Moustache
2010 Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming
2011 What is Love Anyway? (possibly)
2012 Talking Cock: The Second Coming.
2013 Show 10 - TBC
And then I will give up.
Or should I aim for 25 consecutive years of different shows and then in the 26th year perform every show for one day only throughout the Fringe. I am sure that the 61 year old me will be well up for that!
Still weirdly exciting to be planning the next show already. I am as always looking forward to the Fringe, having forgotten completely what a total ball-ache it is. Christ I am even thinking of doing another Edinburgh As It Occurs To Me - even though the last one nearly killed me!
Plus I've got to get on with writing some treatments for TV shows, books and films. I hope the jet lag clears soon. I've got quite a lot to be getting on with.
