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The As It Occurs To Me juggernaut is juddering slowly into town. We are in the process of putting together the first three episodes now. There will be 60 minute versions that will go up containing pretty much all the stuff we recorded on the secret channel (which you will get if you took part in the kickstarter but can pay to view by visiting
www.gofasterstripe.com/aiotm) and then shortly afterwards we will put out the free 40 minute versions of the show on the usual channels. Today I worked my way through episode 2, working out what should make the long and short cuts, trying to save up some good bits for the paying people, whilst making sure the free stuff looks as good as possible.
These first two episodes have some great bits in them, but also some more shoddy stuff. We learned a lot on the job and due to the restrictions of time and budget some of the studio bits are less slick than I would have liked them to be - sometimes charmingly so, sometimes just slightly embarrassingly so. I hope we will be forgiven some rough edges, given the magnitude and difficulty of the task we set ourselves and the relative lack of financial reward for the people working so hard on it. I hope the fans of the show will like the indulgences in the longer versions of the shows and hope the casual observers will forgive the slapdash nature of some of it. I think, by the later shows, we had learned a lot and improved the way we wrote, filmed and rehearsed the scripts. I can’t remember why, but it’s clear in episode 2 that we had not had enough time to rehearse what we were doing. It makes it closer in spirit to the original AIOTM, but as a man who gets annoyed by the cast of Saturday Night Live never learning their lines, I am equally annoyed by how reliant I am on my cue cards. But I am not sure there was any real alternative (and maybe I should’t be so hard on SNL - even if they are being paid handsomely for their work). Some bits are actually too poor to put in even the long versions of the show (but they will still turn up on the secret channel). Hopefully there should be something for you to see within the next week or so. Thanks so much to Chris Evans (not that one) and all the post production team, who are working very hard on all of this. Also to me. I am working quite hard on it too.
2017 hasn’t really let up for me yet and the next six weeks are going to put me under a fair amount of strain. Not only do I have to craft a new hour for Edinburgh, record another 14 RHLSTPs and do all that needs to be done to make our new home habitable, as well as move in, but now I also have to attempt to write another episode of my sitcom. Thank goodness the new baby isn’t arriving until the autumn. Remember also that I am now just a month from my 50th birthday, at which point my brain with atrophy and all my comedic ideas will dry up. So I am really up against it. I am trying to get super organised and make lists and plan work times, but maybe I thrive on the chaos.
I have really been making an effort to streamline my work so I can spend more time with my family, but that doesn’t seem to be working too well. Though today we have a lovely morning together. I made waffles for breakfast and then we went swimming - Phoebe again throwing herself with abandon into this dangerous situation. dunking herself under the water and hoping she’d find her way back up again. I usually had to assist and occasionally she’d disappear between some other swimmers and I couldn’t grab her straight away. One time she fell off my back and went spiralling through the water, as I tired to right myself. She always came up laughing. She played happily with the other kids. And whilst in the pool I identified a problem that, if it can be solved, would lead to a multi-million pound business and certain success on Dragon’s Den. It is very hard to wipe a child’s nose when they are in a swimming pool, but because of the dampness and excitement noses need to be wiped. Phoebe was only mildly snotty today, but one of the other kids she was playing with had a huge, luminous green bogey hanging from their nostril for ages. If you want to be a millionaire please invent some kind of wipe that will be easy to carry in a swimming costume, that will somehow be impervious to water, but will be able to wipe up snot and ideally will then be teleported into the bin. Maybe it’s a matter of some kind of waterproof container, but a tissue isn’t up to the job obviously and a wet wipe can probably not cope with a wet face. Something that can’t get wet, but can absorb anything viscous. It would also be useful for men who like to masturbate in the bath and don’t want their sperm to turn into a strange jellyfish mass that is intent on attacking them. Men who masturbate in swimming pools could also use it, but that might not be a market you want to seek out. I’ve given you the idea boffins, now you just have to make that reality - all I ask if for 10% of the gross profits. They’re all gross profits by the time I have finished with them.
We discovered (a bit late) that our gym has an outside playground and an inside soft play area too and Phoebe had a lot of fun on these, making friends (with friendships that seemed close but lasted for only minutes), babbling away, throwing herself around, being a daredevil.
Tonight we went to see Austentatious again at the Leicester Square Theatre. Usually with comedy and even with improv, I can watch it and understand a little bit of how they do it, but with these guys I have no idea. They craft a unique story with brilliant characters that is both funny and genuinely movie. It’s such an entertaining and clever show. I can’t recommend it highly enough. They are on in Edinburgh too.
Go and see them and marvel at their utter genius.
