7798/20739
Holiday over- back to work. But as always it's a slow fade back into this. I tried to do some work on the show for tonight's preview, but I was weary and decided it was best to conserve my energy and watch Beyond Paradise! I have the luxury of three previews in a row this week (the other two already sold out), which is a mini version of how I used to get these shows together. Before I had any responsibilities I could do six weeks of gigging most nights and do all the work on stage, learning from the previous night's mistakes. But now I can't justify being away from home that much, especially with a tour coming up, which is a bit of a vicious circle, as I need to do the previews to get the tour together. Luckily I think I've done enough gigs over a protracted period of time to edge my way there - though I think I have forgotten as many good bits as I've remembered.
The show is close enough to being ready that the remaining warm ups should suffice. But I will continue to work on and improve the show throughout the tour. Hopefully we'll be putting in some more dates in 2025 as we're missing out a lot of places this time (largely because I've recently done them with RHLSTP), but sales are a little slow in many places (including the Bloomsbury in London weirdly) and it seems that after six years off from stand-up I will have to try and build up my audience again. It took a good decade and a half of constant touring to get to the point where I could sell an average of maybe 250 tickets a show. If I am taking a step backwards this time then I am not sure there's enough road left for me to build back up again. Appearing on Taskmaster can often prove to be a big boost for a touring comedian, but I was more concerned with doing the tasks than proving myself to be a character (I also correctly worked out that Daisy and Johnny were the characters in my series and slotted in - my zelig like skill is to work out where my status lies and acting accordingly) so if anything Taskmaster may have shrunk my live audience, but I don't care - who has the fucking trophies?Keep your amazing careers and being on the show felt like a farewell to TV rather than an opportunity to get more work - what else is there for me to do? Would I Lie To You? is pretty much the only programme I'd still like to be on.
This isn't quite true. There were Taskmaster fans on the RHLSTP tour, but unsurprisingly people see me as a podcaster rather than a stand-up now and this tour is coming hot on the heels of the last one (which was probably my most successful tour ever). But if you know anyone in London
do direct them towards my shows. Swindon is selling the worst surprisingly (though I had the wrong date on my website) and Carlisle is selling surprisingly well. Who knows how any of this works? And as I say a few of them are sold out or near enough.
But tonight's show was fun and the first half was loose and tight in the right places. The secnd half still needs work and was again disrupted by men passing out. This is a very weird phenomenon with this show. There is some light discussion of how the operation went and the after effects and four times now at the Bill Murray (and once at the Ealing gig I did) a member of the audience (always male, always testicled) has had this weirdly similar reaction. It's like they have been hypnotised and passed out, whilst still somehow almost awake. With eyes open they start lolling and go limp and it looks like something pretty serious is happening. I don't know if it's because the Bill Murray is a little claustrophobic so it might not happen elsewhere, but I suspect it's more to do with a sympathetic reaction to the loss of a friend. The fact it happened twice tonight was a little freaky. I might have to put a trigger warning on this. Both gentlemen were fine (as everyone has been so far), but it's a great responsibility for me to have this power (it also happened once during Talking Cock when I was talking about penile injuries - I ended up going to that guy's wedding in Trinidad weirdly, so hopefully all the men I've poleaxed on this tour will invite me to theirs too).
It's going to be good to get back on the road with a stand up tour again and thanks to the success of the RHLSTP tour I don't have to worry too much about whether this one makes a profit. I think it's a good show so hopefully word will get round. At least maybe men will take on the challenge of if they can get through the experience without passing out. Are you man enough to take on the one bollock challenge?
People without any bollocks at all are also welcome to try of course.
If you donated to the justgiving page to get your name in the tour programme then you should have received a digital copy of it by now. If you haven't it's because you didn't give me your email address, so please email me at
herring1967@gmail.com so I can send it to you. If you donated £25 or more you will also get a rare physical copy of the programme (I am only printing 200 this time) - again if you haven't yet sent me your snail mail address then please do so asap. We've already raised £2500 for Movember and hopefully we can at least double that on tour!
