The DVD record finished at about 12.30 this morning. It had been an arduous but enjoyable evening. We had done two shows back to back. There was meant to be half an hour recuperation period in between, but the first show had overrun so I was essentially on stage for five hours, with four ten minute breaks. By the end my legs were heavy and my voice was croaking and I felt like I had been pummelled in a boxing ring. It is without doubt the longest I have been called on to perform in one evening. But the shows went very well, especially the second one and my worries that the old material was not all that funny or interesting quickly evaporated. It's quite different than what I am doing now, but with the required energy behind it it swings along very well. It is a show that relies on the performance more than any other I have done, which might explain why a few people thought the Edinburgh version was so rubbish, because doubtless there were a couple lacking in vigour. I hope this DVD will capture the exhiliration of a good performance. It's a long show and certainly tests the patience of everyone involved, but I felt very pleased with it and was glad I got this extra chance to perform it, especially as the last tour date
had been a bit of an anti-climax.
After a nervous first few minutes I settled in to the show tonight and had a lot of fun with it. It will be available to buy in the next few months from
the Go Faster Stripe website where you can still buy Stewart Lee's excellent DVD (do it if you haven't already - the more support these guys get the more shows we will be able to release this way). They are also going to release a DVD of the Hercules show, which was shot by another company and which is not up to the Go Faster standard of production, but still perfectly watchable. I will keep you informed of release dates, but hope you will buy these very reasonably priced products. I am just delighted that the shows will continue to exist in some form now they are gone.
I broke my booze embargo to have a couple of glasses of wine after the show. I figured I had earned them and will be back on the wagon for the rest of the month. I got to sleep at about 3 and was delighted when the hotel fire alarm burped into life at about 8.30 for one shrill tone. Enough to wake me up. I think the staff were so excited about my prescence in the hotel and wanted to get me out of the room so they could enjoy my company.
As I left I knew I would be safe from the Polish ice maiden as her employment at the establishment has been inexplicably terminated. The smiling Welsh girl who had dealt with the arse end of the affair yesterday was at the desk though. She dealt with me very professionally, but as I was leaving smiled and lightly said, "Sorry again about the other receptionist yesterday... She's a cunt to me."
The remark was so throw-away and flippant that I couldn't quite believe what I had heard. I did a small double take and said goodbye and walked outside. I don't mind people swearing, but it seemed a bit of a risky expletive to use on a stranger if you are working in the service industry. I had not been overly impressed with the hotel, mainly because it had tried to big itself up to me so much earlier in the week. But it could never have lived up to those expectations.
Had she really said that.
As I got outside my mind unscrambled the sentence and I realised she had in fact said, "You should have come to me," but due to her accent and the lightness of the throwaway line, my ears (maybe still ringing with the fire alarm) had misinterpreted the remark.
Imagine if I had taken umbrage. Imagine if I had complained about the receptionist's potty mouth. I wonder how many times totally innocuous statements get misheard in this way and what terrible trouble this can lead to.
