A very enjoyable podcast with the wonderful Isy Suttie and the audacious Andrew O'Neill today. It all recorded fine too. It was show 24, which means you pretty much have a day's worth of chat to listen to if you so wish (and if you can stomach episode 22 which most of you can't). The month has really flown and it is hard for me to process that so much has gone on. Or that it's all practically over.
After the show I headed up the hill to the Tempting Tattie for my last ever "Richard Herring". We got there at 4.30 and my potato actually used up the last of the mango chutney. I don't know how David the owner makes the cheese and mango chutney baked potato and he has vowed to take the recipe to the grave. He wondered if I would be his last ever customer - there would be some justice in that - but Simon Donald tweeted to say he was in there later. I had hoped people would pop in and say thanks and goodbye to the grumpy, but lovely man who had been making potatoes for the best part of a quarter of a century, but he said that no one had. But I thanked him. He's been a big part of my Fringe experience for as long as I have been up here. I was glad to get one last potato. And David seemed happy with his lot and maybe relieved to be going. He threatened to come up to the Fringe next year and do his own act or maybe come to all my gigs and throw potatoes. He said Stewart Lee had been in this Fringe and was a charming man, but he had a story about another famous act who was rude and pushy and expected to be served before everyone else. The potato man sees the truth.
Whilst I ate my last Tempting Tattie, I was reading on Twitter about the comedians leaving the city - and others who were already home. For once I was not jealous of their freedom. Whilst I am tired and couldn't go on for too much longer I am still enjoying the Fringe and tonight's "What Is Love, Anyway?" did not feel like the last one.
I had a second crack at "Set List" tonight and though I started well I didn't do quite as well as the first time. And I felt a bit deflated rather than elated afterwards. But all the comics struggled a little bit and more than anything I have done, the failures in this show simply highlight how great the successes are. It's properly difficult and at times impossible. Fuck, it's still a rush.
I was maybe too tired to really get too much out of it though. This was my 13th gig in three days. I am now just one gig away from a two week break. This will be more days off than I have had since January (including weekends). I think I have earned them. But first Adam Buxton and Seymour Mace at Stand One at 2.20pm on Monday. You'd be mad to miss that if you're in town.
Not in town? Maybe I will be coming to your town -
here's the tour dates. After doing WILA anyway nearly every day for the best part of three months it is very odd indeed to think I have a month and a half off!
