7709/20648
If Trump gets in again do we have to do another Brexit? Hopefully properly this time
#diamondhard
I feel much more like a balanced and healthy human being this week. I even managed a 4km run whilst listening to small-nosed, flat-footed diabetic Ed Gamble tell me about his life (it was in an audiobook, he wasn't running alongside me) You can come and watch me talk to him (mainly about cheese)
on 12th February at the Leicester Sq Theatre. I prepped a bit for my first 2024 stand up gig, trying out material for the Can I Have My Ball Back? tour. I did quite well for an hour, going over the bit I already know (though thinking up a couple more jokes) before getting bored and decided I would just wing the rest and see how it went. It's pretty typical of how I write my stand up shows and this one is mainly a story so it felt like that was possible.
I got to the Bill Murray early, before free parking kicked in and the only non-permit parking space that was free near the venue was incredibly tight. It took me a few goes, but I managed to get into it in the end with my bumper at the back practically touching the car behind and maybe four inches from the front of my car to the back of the van ahead of me. Even if the gig went terribly, at least I would have this. I just hoped both vehicles would be gone by the time I left or I was going to be stuck forever. 90 minutes of parking was going to cost me £10.50 and even though that meant I could stay until 8.30am tomorrow that seemed like an awful lot. Hopefully I would sell lots of books to make up for it (I sold one book, the profit from which did not cover the parking).
Lovely to be back at the Bill Murray and the small room was packed, which was very reassuring given the 6pm start time. The audience was pretty patient with me and laughed in many of the right places and it wasn't until I got to about 75 minutes in and a bit I'd hardly thought about at all that it started to break down. So I think that counts as a success, though I just felt shell-shocked afterwards. There's definitely some way to go before this a fully formed show, but it's closer than I would have thought, which is good as it gives me some time to work on themes and nuance (as if) and work out what the fuck I am actually going to do with my Right Bollock puppet - he clammed up a bit tonight, but definitely made an impact and I think if I get this right (and Right) it could be a pretty tasty dialogue about vengeance, betrayal and talking to your own testicle. I think the audience were into it. But one man spilled his drink as I was talking about whether I was going to have a falsie put in and his partner got annoyed and I suggested they could do their own show about this drama.
It's really satisfying to be able to take a new show like this slowly and to trust the audience to let you fuck up or be boring as long as there's some laughs along the way. In the olden days I would do the show more or less every night for a month and do all the work on stage, but the gigs are a bit more spread out for this one and I will try to do a bit of thinking about it at my desk. I imagine though it will mainly be like today where I don't really apply myself and then the odd joke pops into my head when I am doing something unrelated and then I do most of it in front of an audience, where you are forced to find the laugh or experience mild embarrassment.
Drove home listening to Jon Ronson's new series. Absolutely amazing as always.
More names announced for the RHLSTP tour. Charlotte Church will be joining me in Cardiff (not many tickets left), Lindsey Sontoro is one of the guests at Warwick Arts and Abi Clarke will be at the sold out Bristol gig. More names coming soon and lots of these gigs selling out (not Bedford or Hull though) so keep an eye on your secret areas if you're a badger/plusser
or here if you're not.
