I've been hearing a lot of pre-Edinburgh Fringe buzz about the double act Peacock and Gamble. I hope they can live up to the hype. If I can't be a success then it'd be good if some of the people who've copied me exactly in everything I do could do well.
I am joshing, they're quite funny and have mainly copied Cannon and Ball but if you watch
this clip of them you'll see that one of them (I don't know which is which I am afraid) had actually copied exactly Oddbod Junior from Carry On Screaming. My wife and I watched this the other day and the bit with Naughty Keith made us laugh until we cried. I think Naughty Keith should go it alone. Or come and work with me. He could be the new Stewart Lee with the right management and branding team.
So it was in the hope that I might meet the strange, rude puppet that I headed down to Broadcasting House to be interviewed by the derivative double act. Firstly the Oddbod one interviewed me for a Radio 4 Extra show and then we did a podcast for their Edinburgh podcast (blimey, what a good idea. I should do one of those). Naughty Keith did not show up. I was gutted. He's my hero.
We had lots of fun and I couldn't believe it when I discovered I'd been talking to these two reprobates for two hours. They talked about doing a podcast in the green room at the Stand after my Edinburgh Fringe podcast, which would be like one of those ITV2 extra shows where desperate new presenters interview reluctant people from the proper show, often when they're partying, drunk or trying to relax. I thought it was quite a good idea. I am sure we'll do it at least once.
Do go and see these idiots in Edinburgh if you get the chance. You can see them before they're famous. But to be honest you can see them any time and that will still be true. Wait another 25 years and you'll still be able to say that you saw them before they were famous. Or just wait to visit their graves (the little one can't be expected to live very long) and then you can still say I saw them before they were famous. Maybe in 3 million years one of them will be the only surviving fossil of a human being. Let's hope it's not the little one or they'll assume we never evolved from apes.
And so on.
I went for lunch in Itsu which they don't have in Harpenden (they don't even have Nandos - man it's good to be home) and got the news that I've had another script commissioned by the BBC. Gorgeous alas seems to have bitten the dust for now, so my 2010 resolution to have a TV show in production by the tenth anniversary of Warming Up looks like not coming true (how are your resolutions getting on?) But maybe if I can get the script written fast and they commission it fast then there's still a chance that I could be on the way. Weirdly this script is based on an idea I worked on twenty years ago. It would be crazy if it finally saw the light of day now. Am I twenty years ahead of my time or twenty years behind? It doesn't matter. As long as I can live for another twenty years I can just use all the twenty years out of time material up as I go along. I love living off the endeavours of the mid-twenties me. He worked hard and had to live off baked potatoes. I do fuck all and sit on a throne made of diamonds eating gold. Ha ha ha.
Might this script be the one? The whole discombobulating and ultimately probably heart-breaking journey starts again. One day one of these has got to sneak through. You need the persistence of a herring, but probability says that eventually I will catch an executive on a day when they are vulnerable, confused or drunk and they will pick up the accept stamp rather than the reject one by mistake.
And I've started booking in guests for the Edinburgh Fringe Podcast. On the 2nd August I will be joined by Sarah Kendal, on the 3rd Lucy Porter and the 8th wrestler turned comedian Mick Foley and Al Murray on the 14th (probably). I'll keep you updated as and when I get more. Book tickets for these shows and for Talking Cock
at edfringe.com.
