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I’d had a drink with her and a couple of other Virgilio Anderson T-shirt wearing nerds and she’d bought me a glass of wine. After the show tonight, I went back into the bar alone to raise a beer to her memory. Thanks Tina, I was lucky to know you and grateful for your support.
And it was a day where I felt grateful for the support of all the rest of you who have kept me going over the last decade of podcast madness. I couldn’t have carried on working without you. Now please don’t all die as well. Or at least, try and hold on for a bit longer. And space it out a bit. A parent should never outlive their own children, but even more so a comedian should never out live his fans. I’ll go next.
I actually over ran by about 10 minutes tonight and didn’t do two of the routines I’ve been doing at other gigs. So that’s looking hopeful. And from the lack of RHLSTPs when I mentioned RHLSTP, I don’t think this was a particularly partisan crowd tonight. They were a bit shocked by some of it, but there were some rollicking good laughs and I know that most of the routines have a lot more in them and that I need to shape the show a bit more. But I feel it coming together. People will see me and cry RHLSTP.
Fortunately I am still getting to spend some time with my ridiculously lovely and funny daughter. She got into another mild spat with a boy in soft play today. He must have been two years older than her but she pushed him over. He complained for a bit, but then they became firm friends. For the next five minutes until he had to go home. You have to earn respect when you’re a kid, but it’s quickly won and slights instantly forgotten. She slid down a slide with two other kids and it was gorgeous.
Later she was in trouble with her mum for repeatedly kicking the breakfast bar and told to stop. But twice she couldn’t resist one more perfectly timed kick. I knew I shouldn’t laugh, but I couldn’t hold it in.
At our best we are two naughty kids together and I am so loving playing and splashing and blowing raspberries and singing with her. It’s still best when she sits beside me resting her hand on my leg. My poor wife, having to cope with two of us.
And after much hard work from the team, the first episode of AIOTM is now up on the secret channel for kickstarter backers and people who have bought the series pass (
you can still get that here). This is the hour long version, with about 20 minutes of additional material that won’t be available in the free online version that will be coming out in the next few weeks (and there’s plenty of good stuff in that 20 minutes - the really bad bits aren’t in the long edit, but will appear as extras on the channel). You also get interviews, goofs and other lost material on this channel.
Let me know what you think. So far the response has been positive. There’s some rough edges in episode 1 as we were all learning on the job, but I think we really find our feet by episode 3. There are five more toaster sketches to come (and that segment is being edited down into a short film too), plus more from Abraham Lincoln and Tiny Baby Anus. You’ll all be doing it in the playground tomorrow. A lot of people have worked for not a lot of money to bring this to you. I hope you like it.
And all the first edition Emergency Questions book have now sold out at gofasterstripe.com. We put up the last 50 that Chris Evans (not that one) has, signed at a premium price and they all sold out in an hour) I still have about 100 which I will be selling at gigs and podcasts over the next few days,
or putting up on eBay.
This has really exceeded our expectations as we’ve got through 3000 books in just one month (though admittedly a third of those were kickstarter rewards, but even so). We’re doing another print run and you should be able to pre-order these imminently, though they probably won’t be delivered for three of four weeks. I hope to be selling them during the Fringe. But what we have already sold will go a long way to paying for the filming of this series of RHLSTP and if we sell the next run we might have almost paid for the autumn run too.
I have been working very hard this year (and July, I think, will be the toughest month of all) and I know lots of things are hitting at the same time. But I am very gratified to hear that so many of you are enjoying the stuff that I am putting out. A quote from Steve Martin on the wall of the Bill Murray pub reads "'Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.” I think I might be proving this to be true. And it’s only taken 30 years to be feeling that I might actually be getting somewhere with this nonsense.
I massively appreciate the support that you’ve all given me to achieve these stupid and pointless books and shows.
