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It was so wonderful to have the Leicester Square Theatre packed to the rafters for tonight’s RHLSTPs with Sally Phillips and Reece Shearsmith. The audience is this podcast’s secret weapon and what marks it out from most other interview shows and when there’s an atmosphere like tonight it brings out an extra level from the guests and myself. It was electric.
Maybe the tensions of the week added to this, but of course we had two incredible guests, one of whom (and I’m not saying which) I had a bit of a personal history with. Me and Reece are over it now though.
Sally and I did have a relationship over quarter of a century ago and we had a bit of a public break up (as she ended up doing a show partly about me, whilst still appearing in my show, which was also about me and her to an extent) and I think we were both a bit nervous about what tonight might bring. But of course, it’s all ancient history now and life has moved on and in fact I think it was enormously cathartic to talk about it both on stage and off and to both apologise for the way things had gone. It’s interesting how differently we remember the events though, but doubtless we all create our own truths about our pasts and regardless of the fact that I think in one instant in the podcast Sally conflated the truth with what happened in a sketch, it doesn’t really matter as the gist of both of our behaviours was more or less correct. We both had a lucky escape (especially her) as we were in very different places back then. We’ve seen each other a few times over the years, but it was pretty cool to be able to put the ghosts of the past to (a slightly restless sleep) and maybe everyone should do podcasts with their long ex-partners just to clear the air. If nothing else it is extremely funny.
In truth I have bigger issues to settle from other relationships in the 1990s, although I do feel sorry for the younger me and the things he had to cope with in those early Edinburghs (the earliest being the most damaging), even if to some extent in this case he might have deserved it. It was all so intense and felt so important (and I suppose in some ways it was), but I am amazed that I got through it in one piece (though I suppose in the end I didn’t). Not unsurprisingly being the focus of so much hatred from the profession I wanted to be in in 1988 and then having a show that fairly or unfairly (a bit of both) berated me as a bad boyfriend/person has left some residual feelings and insecurities. My confidence was damaged, but maybe in the long run that was a good thing. And I still got through it all and still wanted to be a comedian, so it can’t have been that bad. Ultimately the problem with Sally was that we both liked each other very much, but neither of us were ready to take it to the next level. And that’s not a terrible thing. I still like her very much and it was a real pleasure to watch stuff from her amazing career today. And to meet her and her son.
And it made for a blisteringly good show too.
Reece also is a man of immense talent and was brilliant from start to finish, playing up his insecurities very funnily and full of stories. He even did some magic tricks that will make little sense on the audio podcast, but which you can watch on the live stream -
which is still available to buy here.
It was possibly the most entertaining double bill we’ve had on the show (not that we do more than one show a week ever) and a reminder of how special this podcast can be, even after all these years. I laughed, I cried, I made peace with at least some aspects of my past.
