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The big news is that my Wordle stats reset themselves to zero. I hadn’t cleared my history and I’d created a NYT account when I changed phones, so it wasn’t anything that I did. It was all just gone. It was liberating to be free. I was hoping to get to a year since the last failure, (I was up to something like 225) but I am sure if I’d hit 365 I would have wanted 500 and then 1000. I have been freed. There’s nothing impressive about solving the thing - it’s so difficult to fail that that should be the talking point.
The reward for doing all that travelling yesterday was we got to lie-in. I didn’t wake up til nearly 9am! And then, as the car to the studio wasn’t coming until 2.30pm we got to spend the morning relaxing in bed. If they’d suggested this oasis of calm away from my family as payment for the recording I would have been more than happy, but the suckers are paying us actual money as well.
I can’t talk too much about the TV show as it’s not out til January, but it was a fun and only vaguely humiliating experience and I enjoyed it a lot. Catie and I had talked at breakfast about the comedians who seem to never be off the telly and when, if ever, they find the time to spend time with their families, and more important spend all the money they’re making. Katherine Ryan told Louis Theroux in their recent interview that she always went for the money and she couldn’t leave it there if it was being offered and I get that. Most comedians have been through some period of time where they have nothing and no idea of if they will succeed and even if they make it, they never quite know how long things will last, so it’s very hard to turn stuff down. I feel quite fortunate that this kind of thing is an occasional treat for me, rather than my day to day existence, though this weekend gives me some watered down idea of what it might be like, driving from home to Hay and Hay to Manchester and then, as soon as the recording is finished driving home again so that I can do my podcast records tomorrow. But this one weekend means I can take all of December off (and I am going to do my best to make that an almost entirely work free month) and I even with cars being provided to get me from place to place I don’t think I would like to be much more in demand than this.
I think I was pretty good value on the show and in some ways I am surprised that I don’t get offered more panel shows, as I have always been pretty good off the cuff and am especially so now after ten years of RHLSTP and the last two or three years of improvised internet shows, but they have enough 50 something white men already and I wouldn’t get to do all my stupid homemade stuff if I was heavily on this circuit. Just as a morning in bed means so much because it hardly ever happens, I can enjoy these occasional jobs knowing that there won’t be another one for a year or so.
And when you do them you realise how excellent the comedians who do them all the time are. They take a lot of concentration, as the records are long and you have to be on for three or four hours and sharp enough to come up with jokes and call-backs (depending how scripted the show is).
There was a point where they wanted me to sneeze - I have a very loud sneeze and they wanted to hear it - and that’s actually a pretty difficult thing to do on demand so they had got some sachets of pepper for me to throw in my face. I knew this was coming, but hadn’t really thought about it and once it was happening I thought the most efficient thing to do might be to take it like snuff. This didn’t make me sneeze but it gave me a nice spicy nose buzz and so I decided to chop out a line of it and see if I could get a proper hit. I suspect that won’t make the show, but as you might know I was never into drugs and though I have had the occasional line of nose-cocaine, I am not practised at the methodology. I used my reading glasses to chop, which I think might be a first and then had a reasonable crack at snorting a line. And I have to say to all my showbiz pals that they are wasting their money on cocaines. A line of black pepper is, if anything, probably more invigorating and had the added benefit of not turning me into an arsehole (well no more than usual). Plus cafes and restaurants give this stuff away for free.
Most pertinently though it didn’t make me sneeze, so was all for nothing. There were a few tickles later in the show but the problem with sneezing is that if you think too much about it or if you’re trying to make it happen, the feeling usually goes away.
However, if I ended up addicted to crack(ed black peppercorns) it will be the fault of this TV show.
There was no snorting pepper with the other guests after the show though, because we were straight into our car for the three hour journey home.
