Even though we were both up here doing shows last year, there seems to be a sudden press interest in Stew and me this year. Not only have we written articles about each other for the Sunday Times (out this weekend- I am getting nervous about what he might have written about me), today we were interviewed together by the Guardian. We talked about why we werent working together now and what we were both up to. We had a long and relaxed chat with the journalist in the luxury Guardian Edinburgh flat. Then it was time for another photo session.
No fish this time (though if the photographer had been thinking he could have got me to hold up a fish, whilst Stew held up the comedian Lee Hurst a delightful visual pun), but instead we were taken upstairs to the bedroom of one of the other Guardian columnists, where the photographer said he wanted us to take off our shoes and socks and get into bed with each other. Oh, I thought, its just the shoes and socks to begin with, but soon hell be asking us to slip our tops off and the session will take on a different aspect. How many young comedians have been tricked into starting a gay porn career in similar circumstances?
It is none.
You never know what Stewart Lee will agree to do and what he wont. I dont think he would have held fish over his eyes, even if his name was a kind of fish and I would have guessed that he wouldnt want to do a shoot in bed with me, but he was happy to take part and even suggested snuggling up on my shoulder, but later when the man with the camera wanted us to stand up and have a pillow fight, Mr Lee declined saying this wasnt the kind of thing we would do. Which implied that getting into bed with one another and snuggling up was the kind of thing we did. Which it isnt. And anyone who says it is and that our act was based on a sexual relationship and we only stopped working together once we had split up as boyfriends is lying.
The photographer was insistent that we remained serious throughout, but I couldnt stop laughing at the bizarre scenario we had found ourselves in. We were in a big Victorian bed with white bedding and it felt to me like we had both been laid out after our deaths. The notion that if we died at the same time we would be put together in the same bed was really making me laugh. It was like a macabre episode of Morecambe and Wise. I ruined most of the shots sniggering or biting my lips.
I had the same feelings of déjà vu as at our recent session, but at least the photographer didnt call me Ian. It will be interesting to see what picture they use or which bits of the 90 minute interview get used in the paper. If anything. Apparently the same journalist interviewed us six years ago and then nothing ever got put in the paper. I think he might just be a stalker who is trying to get photos of me and Stew in bed together, preferably looking like we are dead.
The audience tonight were more reserved and quite a typical second night crowd. Some of them werent really enjoying it, one bloke didnt crack his face for the whole show and then I picked on him when I explained that everyone had to laugh to make the show end. It looked like he wouldnt do it, but I did finally manage to get him to laugh at the fact that he wouldnt laugh.
I went to see some shows today as well, which is very unusual for so early in the Fringe and indicates again how relaxed I am. Janey Godleys show is an amazingly honest look at her unique life. She is an amazing story-teller and performed with gusto to a small-ish crowd, apparently ad-libbing most of the show. I think it will be hard to top as an experience and is a definite recommend. Book now.
