I made some small progress on Meaning of Life episode 1, but also had to get another Metro column filed and go to Cheltenham for my last "We're All Going To Die!" of the year - plenty more coming in 2014, click here to see them + recently added but not yet on sale, Liverpool on 20th Feb, Aberdeen on 31st March and Bloomsbury London on 22nd and 23rd May (DVD record on 23rd).
I had hoped to get a bit more work done in the dressing room, but had another Hellish journey to 'Nam. I have recently got Live services put back on my Tomtom. I didn't rate them much when I had them a couple of years ago as they were wrong as often as they were right. So when the sat nav told me to go via the M4 rather than the M40 I assumed it was probably going to make five minutes difference and ignored it. But the Tomtom was way ahead of the radio traffic news and I was stuck in traffic for 90 minutes and still two junctions away from the problem. But the sat nav saved me and got me to the gig just about on time as it found a sneaky back route to the M4 which was largely traffic free. Even then another delay suddenly appeared on the device, which seemed impossible as traffic was flowing freely even half a mile from where it said it would start, but the satellites were accurate and the jam was exactly where it was on my screen. It took me 4hours and 15 minutes to get to the gig, rather than the two hours I had been expecting (and it was about 1 hour 40 on the way home), so lucky that I had set off early.
I think I may be middle-aged now. Apologies if my blog just turns into traffic reports from now on. It was a fucking nightmare though and I will now blindly obey my sat nav. I for one welcome our 5 inch screened overlords.
But I was frazzled and had no time to do any extra work. So the weekend is going to be an interesting mixture of exhaustion, adrenaline and furious writing/learning. Having corresponded by email with Marcus Chown I think he is going to be excellent value as a guest. If all else fails I can just put out the interview! The downside of doing it all this way is that by necessity budgetary and time constraints mean we can't make it look as slick as our TV competition, but I am hoping we can make up for that in content. I am ridiculously neglecting my proper, paid, script-writing work to get this up to scratch. But I still feel excited by the gamble, even in the face of the overwhelming weekend of work that I face. We've sold more tickets than I was expecting, but there are still a few left. Do come along to this show or one of the others in the series if you can. You support will help us enormously. Though the plan is to give the show out as a free video and audio, if you want to contribute and keep it going then there will be a chance to download extended versions of the show and other extras (and ultimately to buy a DVD). But you can also provide invaluable assistance by letting your friends know about the recordings and the shows (when they're ready). I don't know how long it will take us to put together the first show - and there's every chance we will want to re-record some of the material for show 1 in January. So if you want to be the first to see what's going on with this, then you will have to come to the theatre.
It's the joke that keeps on giving, but pleased to get my Lord of the Dance Settee routine (from TMWRNJ and before that from Emmanuel Infants School in Loughborough circa 1972) into the Metro. I was thinking of naming my next Edinburgh show "The Lord of the Dance Settee" and from the positive reaction that the article got I think I might have hit upon my "Man Drawer" routine long ago without realising. But it's never too late for the big time, so bring it on. I am also revisiting my obsession with the purple-headed mountain from "All Things Bright and Beautiful" in the Meaning of Life on Sunday. Maybe I can do a whole show about euphemisms and mishearings from hymns. I won't do that.
One of the Set Lists that I did in Edinburgh is now up to view on Youtube. Remember this is totally improvised based on previously unseen concepts. It's hit and miss, but given the difficulty of what you're expected to do I am surprised by how many hits there are. And the TV version is finally coming to Sky Atlantic on 2nd December. Don't know when my episode will air.
