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I spent the day prepping for Twitch of Fun and trying to get some books read (I’ve foolishly ended up organising four RHLSTP Book Clubs in 3 days next week (even though none of them will go out til November) And I am also interviewing Richard Osman about his new book at the Cheltenham Festival and then being interviewed about mine -
you can still buy tickets to mine (Osman is sold out for some reason) And have 3 regular RHLSTP interviews in the next five days too!
I keep thinking that I’ll be so far ahead with podcasts that I’ll be able to take a break, but it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.
I was a little bit distracted by the boiler conking out again and the prospect of no hot water for the family until Monday (when my guy can turn up to have a look). I persisted with the reset button and eventually the error message stopped coming up and the water got super hot. It’s just the kind of every day heroism that makes me a fantastic dad.
Luckily there was a surfeit of funny stories for TOF including Velma coming out as a lesbian - someone said they thought her name was Thelma and I told them that that girl has always preferred the V and the continuing saga of using anal beads to win chess matches. Someone said you could also cheat by hiding a queen up there, but I countered that wouldn’t work if you were playing with the white pieces. Be good if you were brown though, right.
My (character’s) desires to make Twitch of Fun high brow were maybe going to suffer, but it was great to go into the show with some stories that were likely to be amusing. It isn’t always the case. But I still don’t prep much and when I attempted to remember any of the day’s jokes from Twitter they would generally not come out right. It was better when I just let Ally go, singing his supposed Music Hall songs, which sound suspiciously like he’s making them up as he goes along. But surely no one could improvise anything that good.
I was done in time for Taskmaster and it’s a very strong line-up. I thought that Fern might win this series, but Dara is great at thinking laterally and Sarah is fantastic too. All I can confidently predict is that John Kearns is coming last. I like to kid myself that I would have spotted the grapes. I do have to keep myself in Taskmaster shape for the Champion of Champions of Champions in 2028 (If I don’t make it that far I’d like to nominate Ed Gamble to take my place - mainly because it will be funny to see him come last again- from Heaven). I am also hoping that given the number of overseas Taskmaster shows that are being set up that they might do a World Cup at some point. I’d hate to think that my time in the Taskmaster house is truly over. I was just getting into it.
You can now preorder my new book for Go Faster Stripe. Every copy will come with an exclusive signed postcard of me with Right Bollock and if you are prepared to pay a bit more then you can be the owner of a limited edition Right Bollock finger puppet, made by the fair hands of Richard Ison (but you’ll have to paint it yourself- instructions provided). Only 100 have been made, so be quick. Head to
Gofasterstripe.com/ball
