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This time last year I was ludicrously busy, trying to get my play finished, write a stand up show and dashing round town going to personal training sessions. Somehow I kept going (though I was pretty fit then which undoubtedly helped a lot). And there does seem to be something inside me which relishes being busy. I woke up before my daughter today, which was lucky as I'd been called in earlier than expected to do an interview on the Victoria Derbyshire show. I had thought this was a radio thing, but it's lucky I checked at the last minute as I nearly went along in my jogging bottoms. It's actually a BBC News programme. I was in a bit of a daze and don't really remember much about the interview, except that my phone was on and I kept getting texts and calls from an impatient taxi driver who was waiting for me even before I'd started the interview. Victoria wanted to know why I wasn't doing Edinburgh this year, but was quite aggressive in her interview and seemed determined to accuse me of making my choices based on money. Even though we all do that to some extent (and I wish I'd asked her if she would be interviewing me now if I didn't get paid), but although my huge Edinburgh losses made the decision not to go up this year, the fact that I had huge Edinburgh losses would suggest to me that money is not my main motivation. She asked why I still toured and I said because that was my job and my main source of income and explained that I do all my podcasts largely for no financial reward. She also brought up the storm in a teacup Robin Williams tweet from last year. I did my best to explain what had happened, but this is the problem with traditional media interviews. It's all moving so fast that there's no time for clarification or nuance. My interview guests are lucky that they get more time and that I am not trying to push their buttons (well not in this way). It was fine overall, but I didn't really get to publicise my shows (which was the reason I was going on - because I am obsessed with making money) and I don't think anyone saw the interview anyway (usually even when I have an old show repeated on BBC7 someone will tweet me about it, but this interview got no response from anyone anywhere (apparently it hasn't gone out yet, which should explain that). I was back home by 9.15 which was the only good thing about it.
I got to spend most of the day with my resolutely cheerful daughter. We went to post out some more kickstarter rewards, buy some nappies and food and pay in the last of the SCOPE Lord of the Dance Settee money - we exceeded the £25,000 target so thanks to everyone who donated online or at gigs - and go to the supermarket. I'd planned to sit in a cafe and work, but in all the tired rush I had forgotten to bring the bottle of milk that I had carefully prepared before leaving.This added some exciting jeopardy to the trip. Could I get all my chores done before Phoebe started to get annoyed that she was hungry? This is as thrilling as being a father gets. Someone should make a Hollywood film about this quest. I struggled through the Westfield pushing a pram and carrying four big bags of shopping. Phoebe fell asleep so I could probably have got away with a coffee, but remember the second part of the tortoise and the hair, when the tortoise and the hair are both fathers and the hare thinks he has time to stop in a cafe while his daughter is asleep, but the tortoise goes home with his baby to be ready to feed her. But then it's easy for the tortoise cos he's always home wherever he is. I can't remember how it turns out. I think the hare managed to write a blog.
Our cats have the shits so my wife took Liono to the vets (that's the Hollywood movie subplot) whilst I played with our happy child. Then I had a meeting about a potential project about Rasputin. It's very very far from coming to anything, but the guy I was meeting had read and liked my play and thought I might be a good person to work with - it shows that even something that has seemingly failed can potentially lead to other opportunities. It probably won't do, I've had a lot of meetings like this in the past,but I was impressed by how much I still remembered and how passionate I am about the subject. And I really liked the guy I chatted with too, so you never know.
I was pretty much exhausted by the early evening, but had to drive to Walthamstow for a Happy Now? preview, though I only had about an hour to try and work out what new stuff I might do and in the end did 75% old stuff. It was a great gig though and there is some promise in the half-woked out news bits and typically I came off stage full of energy and didn't go to bed til 2am. As long as you have no time to sit and realise how knackered you are you can get a Hell of a lot done. Which is lucky as I have a Hell of a lot to do.
Final guest booked for RHLSTP. Joining Al Murray on the 20th July will be Paul "The Sinhaman" Sinha from off of "The Chase". The 27th is sold out so this is your last chance to see the show live this series. Buy your tickets here.
