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I am not a very pushy person when it comes to my career. I have always believed (wrongly) that if you're good at something, people will notice and that you will get what you deserve. If for example you wrote a blog every day for 23 years, you would assume that you'd be hailed as a literary hero - no need to push it. People will find it themseves.
I've found those performers who are ambitious and manipulative rather embarrassing and I couldn't do it myself. Though it does seem to work.
I noticed 20 odd years ago that one comedian would be my best friend at the Edinburgh Fringe, because I was established there and might be able to help them, but when I went to Melbourne, where I was not established at all, they would barely acknowledge me. They were very good at playing the game, making best friends with the right people. And their tactics paid off as they're very successful now.
Through some misguided honour or fairness that I have inherited from my stupid, moral father, I haven't wanted to play the game. I've found networking embarrassing and I am really terrible at even remembering who the important people are. It's why, I suppose, I have ultimately ended up almost entirely working on my own and why my best friends are puppets.
It hasn't been an entire failure - I've always had enough work and usually had enough money. I have a manager who is a bit more pushy than I am and maybe people have noticed me and given me work. My career has been surprisingly adequate and my output will justify my epitaph of "quite good". I've been doing it long enough to know that there are times when one gets hotter and when one gets colder and the trick is to carry on without burning or freezing to death.
Over the last few months I've felt like things might be winding down and that jobs would be coming in more rarely and that "my time" if I ever had one, has passed. I didn't mind too much. I am happier now that I have ever been, no longer fettered by the hope of something "happening" (by magic obviously as I was doing nothing to make it happen), financially secure for a few years even if I stopped working and loving having a family and getting to spend time with them.
And yet, without me trying at all, it does feel like some dial somewhere has been turned and the central heating has gone up a little bit - it's largely a coincidence of timing, but there was the dual announcement of Bake Off (something I did months ago) and Educating Rita. I've also coincidentally been offered a small part in a film called Zak the Ripper and today got another request to be in a two hander play (which I don't think I will have time to do, but still it's unusual). The other secret project I did last year has contacted me to ask about press (I don't know when it's going out, but that's usually a sign that it's fairly imminent) and there may be some limited interest in a couple of my book/podcast ideas and I am, at least, starting to feel fired up to work on them.
I think because a lot of people thought it was real. Certainly once it got to America there was a lot of people misunderstanding it. Best comment "The eyes wouldn't make me doubt his personality. That's disturbing."
That's the power of my acting. That's why I am so in demand.
The point I am trying to make here is that after a couple of years of really not trying to get any work, it feels (almost certainly wrongly) that I am being appreciated. Exactly as I hoped would happen. Just thirty years too late and mainly for work I am not getting paid for. It's definitely true though that people casting things will often cast people based on just having seen them somewhere (fun fact - Rebecca Front ended up being in Time Gentlemen Please because I bumped into her in a bakery in North London and suddenly realised she'd be perfect for Ms Jackson. I might have arrived there eventually, but I hadn't thought about it until she was literally in front (no pun intended) of my face).
People are taking an interest in me again, though to be fair, mostly because they think I am actually a serial killer. But it all counts. Bilal has literally just texted me to say that his reel on Instagram has had one million views! And just because that's mainly from people who haven't spotted that it's a joke that doesn’t mean it doesnt count!
Another unappreciated masterpiece that someone will write a dissertation on at some point,
Rich and Ally's Craven Newsround is back today, talking about Bryan Johnson, the man who wants to live forever. And there's some surprising philosophical thoughts from Ally Sloper, a man who is to all intents and purposes immortal. I don't know how he thinks of these things. I guess that's what makes us such a great double act. Hope you like the new titles!
