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I’d had to deal with my daughter having nightmares last night, which yanked me from a deep sleep and left me tired. But rather sweetly I fell asleep on her bed because she didn’t want to be alone. Though at 4am she told me she wanted me to go back to my bed. And my son was up at 6.30am and raring to go.
Another packed day of work. I did my prep for RHLSTP with Rhod Gilbert, though to be fair watching an hour or so of him doing stand up and being brilliant on Would I Lie To You is not really too much of a chore.
In the early evening we recorded three sketches for Twitch of Fun (two for tomorrow and another spare Peter Dibdin - I shave off the moustache tomorrow). I did call one of the sketches self-indulgent, but that’s pretty much the modus operandi for Twitch of Fun, so I think it’s OK.
Bookended by dog walks - a long one through the woods this morning whilst listening to Rhod Gilbert in 2012 saying he might give it all up to become a primary school teacher and a shorter one up the hill tonight whilst I listened to Rhod Gilbert and his wife in December 2020 discussing whether she’d once given the kiss of life to a fish. Surely blowing air into a fish’s mouth is like pumping water into a human’s?
The chat with Rhod tonight was one of the best RHLSTPs I’ve done, I think, immediately very open and personal as we discussed whether the occasions we’d lost our virginities actually counted and including a story from Rhod that made me laugh for a full three minutes (I’d estimate) about what happened when he drank 7 espresso martinis. But some nice serious stuff about shyness and comedy becoming more mature (as well as plenty of immature stories)
I felt exhausted before and after the chat, but Dr Theatre still works even when th theatres are shut and the time just flew by. I fancy we could have gone on all night long.
Weirdly Rhod is an act that I don’t think I have ever actually worked with. He said that we once shared a cab, but before he was a comedian and in confused and presumably drunken circumstances. I don’t remember it at all.
Some comedians you are always on bills with and some you barely cross paths with, but even though we had not spoken much before (apart from whatever went on in that taxi) it felt like chatting to an old friend. It’s part of the camaraderie of the job, but I think we share a similar sense of humour and background (both our families are made of of wall to wall teachers and we both get obsessive and angry about trivial things in life). We are also socially shy, though I think Rhod has got it worse than me, yet still both able to stand in front of moderate and large audiences and chat at them for 2 hours.
I really hope we can get Rhod back for an audience one. Not to persecute his shyness and exacerbate his nerves, but because tonight;s chat would have had them rolling in the aisles. I thought I might die. And get a shitty memorial.
RHLSTP with the supertalented Alistair Green is now up
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