I woke up in Zurich, but was back home in time for lunch. Such are the wonders of modern travel.
I was a bit blasted by the time I got home and although I spent some time trying to come up with a title for my book (My favourite, though this won't be it, was "The Unbearable Shiteness of Being 40" - I have learned the error of having a swear word in the title - can't say it on the radio) I didn't get too much done.
I watched the third part of "The Incredible Human Journey" which had lots of remarkable stuff about the Neanderthals, who I had not known were in Europe tens of thousands of years before homo sapiens. Basically it seems we whipped their hairy arses, not because we were cleverer than them (they had slightly bigger brains on average) or stronger than them (they were right muscly monkey men) but probably because we had more social cohesion. Though Dr Alice Roberts didn't go down this route I couldn't help wondering what the world would have been like today if the Neanderthals had killed all the humans. Would they have evolved like we did and come up with scientific and artistic achievements? Would we have businessmen in suits and ties with ridged brows? Or would they still be skulking in caves? What would the modern Neanderthal world be like? Someone must surely have done this as a novel or a film - and if not, then don't nick the idea of me. I'm going to do it. Planet of the Neanderthals. How cool would that be?
I felt sorry for the poor old Neanderthals. If only they had made little models of men with lion heads or big titted Venuses then maybe they'd have been able to stand up to us and have survived. If only a few of them had escaped to an island somewhere - they did essentially, the last enclave was on Gibraltar, but they died out without any assistance from modern man. That'd be cool too though wouldn't it? Island of the Neanderthals. Surely that's been done. A modern day party of humans could discover them. Again don't steal it. It's my idea.
I had a night off and went to see a show at the
Canal Cafe Theatre. This is a terrific little space above a pub in Little Venice, where I have seen some amazing shows in the past (such as an early one by the League of Gentlemen when they still wore DJs and used sellotape to change their faces into those of their characters) and I remembered today was also where we shot the TMWRNJ sketches about the alternative comedians looking back at their early days ("amazing times for comedy") - they were amazing times for comedy.
I was going to see a show called
I Think You Stink which I knew next to nothing about and which I feared sounded like it might be a bit rubbish from the title, but it was a lovely little hidden gem. Apparently it was on during last year's Edinburgh Fringe, but this was the first I had heard about it and it was a funny, silly and slightly chilling musical themed around B movies and the world of the macabre.
In some ways it was enjoyably amateur, but the singing, dancing and basic direction (as much as there could be on this tiny stage) were absolutely excellent. Though it could perhaps have had a touch more overall structure, each vignette was funny and entrancing, but not overly concerned with going for obvious laughs (and I mean that in a good way). It was much more of a comedy experience and I thought rather unique, with a very funny song about a Tesco manager who goes insane with the mundanity of his life and some genuinely quite scary stuff about hanged cheerleaders. It was quite interactive with some funny attempts to make the whole thing appear 3D (the best bit of which involved holding up a string of in car fresheners) and the actors creeping around the audience and sometimes whispering menacingly into our ears.
I really liked the fact that amongst all the creepy actors with their faces painted in ghoulish make up that started to run off their faces as they sweated, they had a guitarist who sat, deadpanning, dressed in his normal clothes, looking as regular as you could possibly be. He was very like my friend Mike Cosgrave who largely fulfilled a similar role in the Seven Raymonds (our college comedy troupe). The guitarist tonight was my hero. Alas I don't know the names of all the cast, (only Nick Helm who I've seen do stand up, but who is a very good singer too) but you should go and see it if you get the chance. It's on on Tuesday night as well. It had the feeling of being something very new and special and the songs were very catchy and enjoyable. It worked on this tiny level, but its not impossible to imagine it on a much bigger stage and with a bit of work being something like "The Rocky Horror Show". I hope this talented group will do more stuff together. It's such fun when you almost accidentally stumble over something like this without any preconceptions. It was as enjoyable as the League of Gentlemen had been in the same space, about fifteen years ago.
Ah and
this reviewer names the cast and my hero guitarist.
