4948/17868
RHLSTP day! Which meant more fun researching my guests and especially watching David Cross in Mr Show and the excellent “W/ Bob and David” on Netflix. Sketch shows are usually the province of the 20-something comic, so it was cool to see one down by performers solidly in middle-age. And I realised that that is, of course, what I am going to be doing with the new AIOTM, so it was inspiring to see a show without a ridiculously huge budget turning out material that was inventive and interesting. I mean they had a lot more budget than I am going to be getting, but it did open up the possibilities.
I was a bit worried about being star struck and in awe of David Cross and indeed that’s how it turned out a bit. He was incredibly friendly and was very generous with his time, coming to the theatre after a business dinner on his night off on this short UK and Ireland tour, but it was hard to be my usual rude and dismissive self and I floundered about a bit trying to ask him proper questions (partly to be fair due to being pretty tired). Luckily he was on excellent form, riffing routines, being very open about his work and his private life and being especially funny about frozen vegetables. I felt a little disappointed afterwards that I hadn’t been on top form and had made some stupid errors (and then done the rookie stand up thing of commentating on my mistakes), but luckily David was in better form and we got on to some interesting subjects and opinions were expressed. I suppose I knew that David didn’t know me from Adam and I wanted to impress him with how brilliant I was. But let’s face it, even on top form that was unlikely.
The audience laughed as American shooting sprees and Donald Trump being mentioned in the same sentence prompted David to suggest it would be good if the two things came together. I remarked that you’d think people would have been less keen to laugh at the assassination of a politician so soon and the audience gasped in shock. As if it was me who had been laughing at assassination ten seconds earlier.
David put away a few pints of beer, but remained lucid and in control, but he did seem keen for things to end, partly because he was worried his wife might be finding it boring, but mainly I think because he needed the loo. But then he ordered another drink so we carried on for a bit longer.
It’s tough doing two long interviews in one night (after an early baby wake up - plus Phoebe had needed some parenting in the night time too), and I felt a little bit broken after and worried that David hadn’t enjoyed it, but I think I was being paranoid.
The chat with Marcus Brigstocke had been tremendous fun. He too was open about his upbringing, poshness, childhood rebellions and eating disorders, but effortlessly amusing and even the most dead end of the emergency questions seemed to lead to fresh stories that would never otherwise be told (which is pretty much the raison d’être of these questions, but I can’t remember such a consistent hit rate). We’ve now got six episodes of series nine in the can and I think (my mild incompetence aside) some of the strongest episodes. I am not as tired as I was in series 8 (even though those shows were all shorter due to time constraints) and I think I am generally improving at this aspect of my job all the time (which you would hope after over 100 interviews). It still surprises me that I sometimes come out of it feeling like I’ve been in a boxing match.
