7495/20424
A fun day rewatching
all of Jazz Emus amazing videos and catching up on Jenny Eclair in Taskmaster. As a kid I dreamed that I might one day be paid for watching TV and playing video games. So I think this is a win. Though I am probably not being paid as much as I wanted back then. Who am I kidding? I’d have been happy to earn £10.
Lovely to see Jenny again tonight and remember how young we were when we met (and how youthful she was when she first did Grumpy Old Women) and great to meet Archie, the man behind Jazz Emu, though sort of bizarre to see this internet figure in real life and out of character. His work is remarkable. The music is catching and accomplished and the lyrics verbose and witty and laugh out loud funny. That’s a rare combination. But on top of that he is producing videos with high production values which I assumed cost huge amounts of money. But Archie insists that he does them on a shoestring along with collaborator Hunter Allen. I am certain they will both go on to have very bright futures (and their presents are pretty bright already). It’s inspiring to see such talent, but also makes me want to give up on everything because I can’t see how I can compete. But I have to content myself with having made so very much of my mediocrity.
I read about Jenny not really knowing how to cope with her Perrier win. I must have been sharing a flat with her at the time and though I vaguely recall there being champagne delivered (though I might be making that up) I couldn’t remember anything of that time at all. Which is weird because it must have been a big deal. But it was the Fringe and we were all caught up in our own lives and dramas. And it was a long time ago.
We’ve both managed to keep going in the comedy business, which is nothing to be sniffed at, but both found most success in making our own way, with occasional forays into TV (both eventually getting on to Taskmaster as our most recent success) and there are some similarities in our journeys. Jenny is angrier and fierier about all that, which I admire and she was impressively indiscreet tonight. But on we plough - Jenny having written several fabulous novels and created live shows/podcasts with broad appeal. Like everyone she (and I) might like a little more recognition for our work, but when you stand back from it you have to be satisfied with the work on its own merits.
Archie is a very laid back young man and that interview had a different energy, but this is the beauty of RHLSTP, however much I repeat the same stories it’s always a bit different. It was another smallish but enthusiastic crowd and that makes it a little harder to keep the comedy pumping, but what I liked about the interview with Archie is that there is very little information about him out there and so I was discovering things as we went along. Nice to have this mixture of Jenny, the angry veteran, still out on the road and Archie, this hopeful and enthusiastic new comedian, reminding me of what we used to be. Full of ideas, churning stuff out without too much thought about where it will lead, just doing it for its own sake and hoping for the best. He's going to be fine. Jump on board the Jazz Emu express now if you're not already on it.
I got a little bit tired and bamboozled but we got there and I was alert enough for the drive home. A man was struggling to get into the car park as his phone wasn’t unlocking the door, but he recognised me as I let him and his dad and myself in. He got a photo of us all together later as we bumped into each other down in the car park itself, saying no one would believe he’d met me otherwise. So he has a picture of me and him and his dad in a car park which will impress almost nobody. But I am still glad the image exists. And hope it will be all that survives of human civilisation.
