Warming Up

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Wednesday 13th July 2005

Far from being the hardest job in the world, writing comedy is, in fact almost modern day alchemy. Anything bad that happens to you as a comedian can one day be used to earn you a living. To most people losing money or being in an accident or splitting up with a lover or people dying would be an unmitigated disaster, but to a writer you can always think - hey there's a book/routine/article/subject for warming up in this.
This morning I woke up with a hangover in a mood with myself for getting drunk at my poker party, playing like an idiot, getting knocked out early and losing forty pounds of actual money (and failing to win the top prize of £175, so in a way losing much much more). "I hate poker", I thought, "I only ever lose and no good will come from it. My mum was right."
But then later in the day I got a phone call telling me I'd been asked to present a show on poker on some cable channel, interviewing people about the game and doing comedy about poker. And they were going to pay me to do it. And I would be getting more than £40. Add on to this the money I might be getting from writing my book about being a rubbish poker player and you see that what to anyone else would be a frittering away of time and hard earned money, to me becomes an investment. I may be failing to win the big prizes on the poker table, but look like the game might provide me with a living (for a while) anyway. Which sort of feels like cheating.
All the other poker players have to do well on the night to make a profit. For me, it's almost better to fuck up and throw my money away, because that will make for funnier stories and more job offers. What kind of a charmed life do I have? I just wish more bad things would happen to me, then I'd be a millionaire.