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There are three more live RHLSTPs this year at the Leicester Square Theatre. The first one on 28th September has a pretty strong line-up: James Acaster and Isy Suttie. I am working on getting guests of that calibre for the other two so it's worth booking now.
But you might also want to come because I am pretty certain that these will be the last three live RHLSTP shows I do. At the very least I am going to take a break from it, but I think it's probably time to move on to do something else. My plan is to continue doing Book Club episodes and releasing old RHLSTPs each week, but all the signs seem to point towards it being time to bring the main show to an end.
Firstly I've done a lot of them: we're closing in on 1000 eps if you include book clubs and Edinburgh shows. Secondly there is so much competition now, (mostly shows hosted by huge household names), which also means that it's much harder to attract guests, listeners and audience members. Thirdly and linked to that it's a lot of work for my team of Evanses and Ben Walker and George the incompetent sound man and me and we're no longer really earning enough from ads to pay everyone properly. Much as I like working for free (as I did for most of the first ten years of podcasting and continue to do with my other stupid podcast projects) I do have to feed my family and feel that maybe my time might be better spent on other projects. Even though those projects may turn out to be just daily unpaid conversations with my ventriloquist dummy.
I know how much the podcasts have meant to some of you and I am still very proud of them and enjoy doing them (though booking them is a hassle I will be glad to be rid of), but I also think I should get out before the quality starts to dip (from an admittedly low start) or I become resentful of doing it.
It's possible I will miss it and that all I actually need is a break and it might come back, but my feeling is that that won't happen (unless an eccentric millionaire wants to inject a huge amount of cash into the project). It's not going away straight away as with Edinburgh shows, the London shows and studio records we already have enough to get us to the end of January 2027, which will mean the show lasted for almost 15 years (well over, if you include the original RHEFP series). The end of January 2027 also marks 19 years since the first Collings and Herrin show where all this began.
Though the Book Clubs are a little bit less knockabout, I love doing them and it's much easier to book. The downside of the live podcast is that guests have to be available at very specific times, when we have the theatre slot. With book clubs I can do them pretty much whenever the guest is available. As long as we don't haemorrhage money with it, my interviews will continue.
I don't know who will be the final guest (I know I promised it to Tim Minchin, but I doubt he'll be around in November). If anyone knows Paul Mccartney can you ask him if he's around on November 16th? But if you want to express appreciation for the show and help it go out with a bang then it'd be lovely to see you at one (or all) of these last three shows.
Tickets here.
Book Clubs will keep me busy enough. I am doing five in the next eight days (and also listening to a sixth book on Audible) and so far I have only finished one of the tomes. I have at least started all the others and luckily they're all quite different so I am able to dip in and out of them. I think I will get through them all, but I guess I will be OK as long as I do a chunk of them all (though I do nearly always succeed in reading the whole book for Book Club).
The book I thought might be the hardest for me to get into was King Zero by Charlie Higson. But only because I'd never read a James Bond book before and wasn't sure it was my thing. But I started it this weekend and was immediately gripped. Higson is a great writer who seems to know a lot about tech and the life of billionaires (can't wait to ask him about his research) and is not only as witty as you'd expect, but knows how to keep the action moving.
I like the way that like the Simpsons, James Bond and his cohorts have to basically stay the same age, whilst living in different decades. It's possible that he and M are different people with the same code names, but surely Moneypenny has to be the same person.
The books are not as politically incorrect (is that the right phrase for being openly racist, homophobic and sexist?) and Bond now has a bit of a conscience and does not sleep with women just because they throw themselves at him and considers the psychological impact of one-night stands. But they still throw themselves at him and he'll occasionally catch them. I don't think you can call him woke, though the more vociferous Bond fan probably would. He's still Bond, maybe a bit more troubled by conscience and more into booze than anything. It's still escapist nonsense that will appeal to people who like brands and gadgets and cars. I don't really like any of those things (well maybe gadgets) but I still like this book and am keen to find out what happens.
Charlie Higson can do it all: comedy, music, painting and decorating and writing. Also as I say his knowledge of everything is amazing. A couple of characters die gruesome deaths but do not feel pain as the awful things are happening to them - how does Higson know about that? Is he God? I will be sure to ask him. That's the kind of question you only get on RHLSTP Book Club.
