This was another hectic year,
where workwise things continued to move slowly (maybe too slowly, I am getting older and running
out of track) in the right direction and there were more big life changes.
"As It Occurred To Me"
continued it’s sick-making writing and recording process. I think we did well
given the limitations of time and budget, but it’s obviously a bit hit and
miss. But we created a huge amount of comedy with the long versions of the
episodes running to about an hour each.
It was finally released in the
autumn. You can see it (and my other podcasts)
on my Youtube page.
My tour of “The Best”
continued through to June
with mainly good houses and some sold out shows. We did not record it for DVD,
but you can download the audio of the final show at gofasterstripe.
I had fun doing the old
material once again and it stayed fresh for me throughout the tour.
During the run I got to play
self-playing snooker at the Reading Hexagon in front of a confused interval
crowd and then due to controversy over the result a rematch was played during
the interval at the St Albans arena. This means I technically made some money
playing self-playing snooker this year. Which is one in the eye for my wife.
At the end of January we
recorded the taster tape for Everything Happens (For No Reason), starring Noel
Fielding, Jessica Knappett and Ben Bailey-Smith. I played an incredulous man in
the background who had two lines, but one of them was cut. Al Campbell
directed. Everyone seemed really happy with what we’d created, but Channel 4
felt unsure of where it was heading, so asked me to write a second script,
which I completed in August. We are still waiting to hear their decision on it
all. I am hopeful that Channel 4 will do it (and the cast are all very keen),
but if not we will be able to take it elsewhere. It’s the best sitcom that I have
written in my opinion, but the slow process of getting it to screen (or not)
reminds me why I have concentrated on podcasts in recent years.
In March we recorded a
four-part series of a “new” sitcom Relativity (very much the bastard child of
You Can Choose Your Friends) for Radio 4. The cast was phenomenal and included Alison
Steadman, Phil Davis and Emily Berrington. With me as an incredulous man. The
show was broadcast in September and it seemed to go well. Radio 4 have asked
for another series in 2018.
RHLSTP series 11 was recorded
in June and July, with guests including Paul Merton, Adam Buxton, Sara Pascoe
and a mildly awkward reunion for Collings and Herrin. Series 12 following in
October and November with Armando Iannucci, Richard Osman and Ed Miliband. We
were able to fund this once again via Kickstarter campaigns and the runaway
success of the Emergency Questions book. Sales were so good that I wrote a
second book, “Christmas Emergency Questions” which came out in November. We also released an Emergency Questions App
for Apple
and Android
and even an Alexa skill.
Along with the kickstarters
and the badge scheme that have served us so well with these podcasts, we were
asked by a new service called Drip (run by kickstarter) to be one of only 100
projects world wide to try out their monthly subscriber model. After a month we had over 1000 people backing
us and with the monthly badger and Emergency Questions book money I think it’s
likely we can pay for RHLSTP in 2018 without another big campaign. But it would
be great if we could earn enough to do ever more ambitious stuff. So join us if
you like and get loads of cool extras and help us make more podcasts.
Once the tour was over I
started work on my new stand up show, “Oh Frig, I’m 50!” which came together
pretty quickly and had a very successful run at the Pleasance One at the
Edinburgh Fringe, my 40th show at my 30th anniversary
Fringe. It was good to be back, though also good to know that I don’t have to
go. I toured the show to Halifax, Manchester and Bristol, but the main bulk of
the tour comes in 2018.
I also recorded four
Edinburgh Fringe Podcasts with some great guests, including comedy heroes the
Doug Anthony All-Stars and possibly the funniest man in the country right now,
James Acaster.
Not much TV work this year. I
had a mildly humiliating encounter with Michael Portillo on the already
embarrassing This Week (I didn’t get over the shame of appearing in a sketch
with Nigel Farage) and an exciting, but ultimately disappointing appearance on
Pointless Celebrities (recorded last year) where Citizen Smith and his daughter knocked my wife
and I out in the head to head, by just two points in the final category. I was
also on Sunday Brunch, but I tried to keep my head down and just get drunk.
And two (or three) massive
bits of personal news – the family moved out of London in July. We have
relocated to Hertfordshire, though delays with building work meant that we did
not actually get into the house until September and only by Christmas was it
feeling like a home.
And because moving house
wasn’t stressful enough on October 5th my wife gave birth to our
second child Ernest Christopher Patrick Herring (his first Edinburgh show will
be called “The Ernest Herring Way”). We
foolishly also got a new puppy called Wolfie, who we had planned to have in the
house in July so we could train her and settle her in, but who also turned up
in September.
But life in the countryside
is going well. We have a big real fire and are about twenty metres from a field
of horses and I am not only not missing London, but feeling mildly aggrieved to
have to go back there every now and again for work and to ask Stewart Lee if he
has any cocaine.
After all that I took it easy
in December, only appearing on Andy Parsons’ Slacktivist Podcast.
So I feel hopeful for the new
year as me and Chris Evans (not that one) seem to be part of an elite group who
are managing to make podcasts pay (if only for themselves). The possibility of
the Channel 4 sitcom and a TV version of Emergency Questions hang in the air.
Only those of you reading this in the future will know if these are yet more
false hopes or if they have come to fruition. Come back and let us know if not,
then I won’t waste any time trying.
