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I'm starting to think that I will never win a BAFTA. It seems so unfair that you have to do something in TV or film to get one. Not just that, but it has to be good too. Ridiculous prejudice.
Another posh hotel (this time also a golf club and thus a twat magnet) that looks nice at the front but lets you travel back in time when you go to your room. I woke up early anyway, of course, but could clearly hear the conversation of the couple in the next room. We didn't have to pay to use the spa at this hotel, but obviously I still didn't use it. We had arrived at around 11pm and left by 10 am - hotels on tour are just for sleeping in. We couldn't even get in a round of golf. Mainly because I never play golf so it would take at least 12 hours to play 18 holes.
Somehow not too weary though, which was lucky as it was a 3 hour drive to Glasgow and I was doing two shows. The afternoon show had sold out fast and so we'd added an evening one, which sold a bit more slowly, but was still over half full. And the various Stand clubs are the best places to do comedy. I do enjoy doing theatres, but it's always good to do a stand up show in a stand up venue.
The afternoon audience were up for it from the start and there was a lovely energy in the room. I still forgot a couple of banker gags, but doing so many gigs in a row has really cemented things and the show is so much stronger than it was four days ago. As I hoped touring a stand up show is much less tiring than touring the podcast. Even though I'd rarely do more than two shows a week with RHLSTP, I'd have to spend all day researching the guests and the place I was visiting and then perform two unscripted chats in a night. A stand up show is a different type of concentration with more guaranteed laughs and leaves me feeling pumped up and exhilarated, whilst the podcasts finished with a sense of relief and I'd be immediately exhausted.
It's great to be back doing stand up and my old body and brain seem still able to cope with the rigours so far. I miss the family though. I texted them and facetimed them and it's bittersweet - so lovely to see them larking about, but sad to be so far away. Feeling slightly glad of the break as well, of course, and then guilty to be not pulling my weight and to get any pleasure from not being with them. I can pretend I am doing this for them - and of course I need to earn a living - but stand up is a selfish pursuit and I am mainly doing it for me. It's an added bonus if the audience get something out of it.
We were staying in an Ibis tonight, rather than a country hotel, mainly because James hadn't booked this one - the Stand provide accommodation because they are legends. Though we were delayed getting there because the whole block of the city seemed to be a building site and it was hard to get to the hotel - I was also sceptical about our chances of any kind of a lie-in with that level of building work going on. We finally got to reception only to find that they didn't have us in their system. It was late now, probably too late to contact anyone from the Stand and I worried that we might have to try and find a room somewhere else, when I just wanted to get to bed. James finally found the booking reference and it turned out we were on the system but the rooms had been booked for the 12th June. I didn't know if I could wait that long to go to bed.
Of course it was just an easy mistake to make and luckily the hotel had rooms and the staff happily moved our booking, so it didn't delay us too much - imagine the blog if we'd been left trying to find a hotel room in Glasgow at midnight on a Sunday. It would be better than this one for sure!
