I felt surprisingly fresh in the morning and the drive home from York was a bit of a breeze, which was fortunate as I had an important appointment with a fucking idiot and 410 nerds this evening.
Incredibly it was 100th Collings and Herrin podcast (exactly 100th) but also
two years to the day since we first sat down at my (or our) dining room table to talk shit.
Tonight at the Leicester Square Theatre we were going to have a party with a selection of our listeners. We had not only sold out, but thirty extra people had paid to stand. I don't think we could have ever dreamed that this stupid idea would lead to something like this. I would later joke (I think in the Q and A section, which is not on the podcast) that the audience resembled a version of "Being John Malkovich" but with 1980s game designer
Kevin Toms in the lead role (it made sense given what we had been talking about). And it's fair to say that there were a proportion of geeks in the crowd, but they were my kind of geek. Everyone I picked out would laugh uproariously as I teased them and mocked them and was rude about their physical appearance. We were a big gang and able to joke around as if we were friends (though thank God I don't have to hang around with these losers!).
But King of the Geeks was a man I picked on in the stand up half of the show who I joked looked like Ronnie Barker playing a comedy vicar, who turned out to actually be a vicar with the somewhat amusing name of Peter Organ, who was remarkably game and absolutely brilliant value.
We all had a lot of fun and Collings was on top form, once again making me question who is the wittiest out of the two of us. Though I genuinely suspect he might have a team of writers helping him, possibly on an ear piece, or maybe just spending the whole week preparing for these things. It's the only explanation of how he can be this funny.
Once again, you can judge for yourself, but we all certainly had some fun on the night.
You can see photos from the evening, and read Collings' thoughts on our shared website (that I have no input into).
My favourite bit was when the crowd were milling in and the manager announced over the PA "Richard will be on in 5 minutes," and then there was a fifteen second pause before he added , "And Colin".
I may be just his friend when it comes to the radio shows, but I am the king of the live environment. And Collings should respect that by not being funnier than I am. I don't go on the radio and act more professional than him, do I?
Hopefully we'll do some more live gigs at this venue. We are thinking about trying to do a tour at some point, and doubtless there will be some gigs out of London, but it might be possible and convenient for us to do a gig at the Leicester Square Theatre on a monthly basis.
We will look into that.
At the moment we're both a little busy. And are trying to work out if we have to take a little break whilst I am on tour.
Thanks for all the support you've given us with our endeavour. My job is a real pleasure at the moment.
And I am back at the Leicester Square Theatre Tuesday to Saturday for the next two weeks. There are tickets available for all performances, but you should definitely book ahead if you want to come on the Fridays or Saturdays.
Book online here, though you can buy on the door if you want to risk it for a biscuit.
