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I didn't get the Death in Paradise gig, though apparently I was down to the last 7 billion. Don Gilet will be almost as good as I would have been. I first saw him back in the early 2000s when he was one of the actors in Scene and Heard (a great charity that encourages young inner city kids to write plays) and I knew he was something special. I cast him in Time Gentleman Please as the Bare-Ass-Nekkid chef who turned out to be wanking in all the food (Al told Jamie Oliver about it and Jamie didn't seem too impressed).
The exec producer of the show Tim Key (not that one) tweeted me to say "Next time" which I am treating as a contract.
Luton Hat Factory tonight, the most local gig on the tour. I haven't been there for a while -
I think 2010 might be the last time and things have changed a lot since then - there's a car park right outside the venue now and I don't have a Hitler Moustache.
I hadn't been sure this one was selling that well, but there were only a few seats empty in the 200+ seater venue, so I'd done as well as I did in 2010! And what a great audience they were - really on board from the start and I rode the wave and the show flew by. This long absence from stand up had made me forget how much I enjoy it. Sales are fluctuating as always and there's no Taskmaster bounce for me, it seems, but that's how it's always been. I might be working for three months to more or less break even (hopefully I'll make a modest profit) but at this stage I don't think I care. This is a good show, people are coming and laughing and being moved and the thrill of a great performance is worth more than money (again, possibly only in the short term). I am no Paddy McGuinness or Stewart Lee in terms of mainstream success, but I am in the company of journeymen performers like John Hegley, who for me is one of the all time greats, who works constantly, has the fan base to support it and is, in my imagination at least, a happy and fulfilled man.
Once I wished for the affirmation of awards and critics and my fellow comedians, but now I am very happy to be working and doing stuff I am proud of and as long as a few dozen people make it along each night then I can keep doing that until I no longer want to.
Anyway, the show is solid, though each performance is finding new delights and Right Bollock is coming into his own (which is the only place he can come now). It's fun to have a malignant force to try and break my own happy solitary bubble. Tonight he quoted Time Out saying I'd spent "decades in the shadow of his former comedy partner Stewart Lee" and I had to question the "decades" part, even if I accepted the shadow part. It's 24 years since we stopped working together and he didn't really find solo success for at least 7 or 8 years, so it's only one decade and a bit at most! Come on Time Out. They were saying I was coming out of his shadow now, but even when journalists are trying to be nice, they still put the boot in!
But the show is partly about not caring about that kind of stupid shit any more. Being alive and doing something I love to a room full (or half-empty) of people who will pay to see it is miraculous enough for me. My bank manager disagrees apparently.
Right Bollock is my own worst critic but it will be fun to put any negative or disparaging criticisms from others in his mouth as the tour progresses. I am overcoming my shyness and embarrassment in doing ventriloquism in front of an audience - or at least embracing the embarrassment. By the end of the tour it might all be Right Bollock and I might not even be in it any more. But that's his plan. I think if you come to see the show at the start of the tour and the end, this is the bit where you will notice the most changes. It's very free form right now! The more I open up in this
It's crazy the psychological lift that performing gives me. I get it to some extent from the podcasts, but nothing compares to stand up. Who would have thought it was possible to have this much fun in Luton.
