Well it doesn't look like the proposed protests in Lowestoft have had much effect on ticket sales. A month ago I had sold about 42 of the 712 tickets, today I am up to 69. Let's hope I can sell 3 more so at least the auditorium will be 10% full. The poor turn out just makes the protest funnier and I am hoping there will be more people outside the theatre than in it. I'd love to see you there if you can make it, I might need to feel a bit of love with so much dislike outside. Numbers are also low in Inverness and Dundee if you know anyone up there who likes obscure comedy.
You can get all the details of the last 16 dates, plus news of all the stuff I am up to at the moment
in the latest newsletter.
I might have to take out a superinjunction on myself so that everyone gets to hear about my tour. It seems the best way to spread the word about what you've been up to. I think Andrew Marr only took out his so that eventually people would know that he had somehow persuaded a woman to have sex with him.
I got up early in the hope that I'd get on with my script, but I managed to distract myself for most of the day with other business. I went to the gym, did some tour press, wrote the newsletter, sorted out my car insurance and then in turn sorted out my car tax online (and as with last year was slightly freaked out by the fact that I didn't even need to put my MOT or insurance details on to the website- they just knew!) and had a cup of coffee with Andrew Collings. Finally I got up to my office and tried to concentrate on writing the script, but as so often found it hard to engage. I had ideas but couldn't find the way to express them on paper. I still have a month to go with this, but it would be cool if I could get ahead, because as you'll have seen if you clicked that link I have quite a lot to get through next month. But this is just the way it is sometimes. Well, in my case, nearly all of the time. It feels like a long time since I have tried to write a script (it's probably a couple of years) and I am a bit rusty. But a couple of funny ideas squeezed their way out. I actually have a very good feeling about this script. This might be the one that does it for me as a writer. I fucking hope so. I have had enough babies strangled at birth. It's the thing that makes it most hard to commit to a script: the fear that you'll put everything into it, create something good, only for those with the power saying no.
But it was this fear that caused me to blow some opportunities in the past, largely by procrastinating and failing to get scripts in in time, giving the person who had commissioned them time to move on elsewhere. So I mustn't screw this up. But I probably will.
At least that will mean AIOTM
will keep going.
At 8pm I gave in on work and had my dinner. We then sat down to watch some of Simon Schama's "A History of Britain" which I have been meaning to get through for years. It's a bit like a radio show on TV because there isn't very much good footage from the middle ages, but it's still pretty good. My knowledge of history is awful given that I have a degree in the subject (or would do if I went to pick it up). But even the rare bits of this subject that I worked hard on I can't remember anything about. I know I wrote a great essay on the Lollards, but I didn't recall anything about them at all.
In one of the programmes I got quite excited by the idea that King Alfred had been to Rome to look around the ruins of the forum. I had done that too and suddenly I was unexpectedly connected to an ancient historical character. I had been to the same place as him, seen the things he did. It took me about 20 minutes to realise that King Alfred had had a palace that was discovered in the grounds of the school I went to. I had walked in his footsteps pretty much every day of my teens. It's odd that I would be more impressed with him having been to Rome.
Anyway, those five nights off fucking flew by and right back into it tomorrow. Hope I can remember the show.
As always I am overwhelmed with how well the SCOPE programme fund is doing. Already over £1000 raised which is a massive step towards covering the production costs. As I foolishly first mentioned this on a bank holiday weekend I will direct your attention towards the page again. It is here. Donate at least £12.50 by the end of May to get your name in the programme and get sent a limited edition signed programme. I am also looking for advertisers for the programme and if any big business wanted to pay the whole production costs then that would be amazing. If you know anyone who would like to be associated with this programme which will be given out free to the 35,000+ people who will see the show and hopefully raise about £40,000 for a brilliant charity. So if any disgraced banks want to make people think they are nice or if a gym that has got into trouble for having shit smelling substances in their conditioner want to make the world associate the with charity rather than fecal hair products then email me at herring1967@gmail.com. But that's also the address if you want to enquire about other adverts which can be as small as a quarter of a page. Please help if you can.
