Voice a little croaky today, but no harm done and had a thoroughly enjoyable day. First up was my annual appearance on the Fred MacAuley show, where in the past I have often been very hungover and on one occasion probably still drunk. Today I was sober and rested, but scarcely got a word in and just sat back and laughed at the effortlessly amusing Andrew Maxwell instead. I most enjoyed him berating the elderly audience for being nearly dead and calling them "low flying angels". They lapped it up. I didn't even mention my show. Ah well.
I was hobbling around town a bit today as I've bought some new posh Jeffrey West boots which as usual were taking a little while to break in, this time rubbing off the skin on the top of my foot just below the big toe. They are beautiful items of footwear, so it is good that I am punished for my vanity. I like them so much that I wore them today, despite having weeping sores on my feet. I am an idiot.
The podcast was massive fun as usual with guests Shappi Khorsandi and Simon Donald and some frank and loose tongued and occasionally offensive chat. Simon is part of the team that created the massively influential and brilliant magazine, Viz and he very kindly gave me a copy of his book afterwards and I was inordinately excited that he signed it to me, with a picture of Sid the Sexist. How awesome is that? I am really proud of the way these are turning out.
Do tune in if you aren't already or come down and see them live. Tomorrow I am very excited to be chatting with Barry Cryer, with Ed Aczel doing the stand up.
And I had a bit of a Barry Cryer themed afternoon. I have been trying to meet up with the scarcely living legend all festival, and finally there was time for a sit down and a drink at 4.30 this afternoon. It's always a pleasure to catch up with a man who is one of my all time favourite comedians and human beings and impressively he sank two pints of strong lager, whilst I had orange juice and lemonade and a coffee. He was doing a show in a couple of hours, but that wasn't going to hold him back.
Then I got to see his show (and got my first sighting of Paul Daniels and Debbie Macgee in the queue) - Barry sat in a high-backed armchair (he is massively influenced by my work) to take us through an A to Z of his favourite jokes. It was a simple but engaging format and the audience was rapt. He is a wonder to behold and I really hope that I am still doing this job when I am his age. He still loves it. He told me that he wouldn't do it any more if he didn't. He is a fucking marvel. Put that on your poster Baz. I tell you who the real King of Edinburgh is, it's Mr Cryer and it's embarrassing that people are all saying it's me when he is still around (though once he's gone, the crown will be mine again!) I am looking forward to his response to the Keith Allen question tomorrow.
Once again I had loads of energy for tonight's show - I have definitely caught my second wind. I can't believe I've done this 15 times. But it's interesting that I have also started counting how many are left.
I came back home straight after the show for a night of watching a DVD and drinking alcoholic ginger beer with my girlfriend. Good to escape the madness completely every now and again.
And for those of you who paid to get your names in the programme, I a planning to start the arduous task of signing and posting out your limited edition programmes in the next couple of days. Thanks for your patience. I just haven't had time until now. Your contributions are massively appreciated. The total for the collection (including previews) has now topped £8000, which is just amazing. We should easily crack £10K by the end of Edinburgh - and there's still the tour to come!
