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Back up to our secret studio near Caledonian Road for the record of show 2 for Fubar Radio. Lou Sanders made me laugh a lot and to be fair made herself laugh even more. We interviewed Brett Goldstein from Uncle and Derek who at one point said that if he could he'd give Hitler's mum AIDS. I guess it was less offensive in context. He also had an amazing story about having seen a ghost. You'll have to tune in to find out what the Hell was going on.
I had foolishly selected Debussy's Clair de Lune as a bed for one of our features (ie it would be playing underneath as we talked). This was, of course the music that my gran loved and that my mum sang to her to attempt to get some flicker of recognition. It features at the end of "What is Love, Anyway?" I had thought that this would be a nice, subtle tribute to my gran, but when it started playing it made me well up a bit and I had to stop it. I should have anticipated this because I had watched the video of my show a few weeks ago as preparation for my love "Meaning of Life" and that bit of the show had made me cry. The music is an emotional trigger for me now. It's more poignant now that we've lost Doris.
A crying middle-aged man would not appeal to Fubar's hoped for demographic of 18-35 year-old men. But then I am not sure much of the show would. We had quite a long discussion about how strip clubs made us uncomfortable. But then again surely not all 18-35 year old men are Nuts-reading morons. It's nice that there's something for the more sensitive ones (plus I did plenty for the non-sensitive ones elsewhere in the show). The Fubar show will be on on Thursday night and Saturday lunchtime. I don't know if the site yet has a listen again facility.
Maybe I am just a bit emotional anyway, because on the rush hour tube home a man got on with a guitar, took it out of its case and started quietly playing it. He wasn't a busker as such as he didn't ask for money (at least for the 20 minutes I was near him), but had just decided to fill a tiny part of the world with music. A part of me was thinking he was being a bit presumptuous, but the rest of me was weirdly moved by it. The tube is such an inhuman place to be at this time of day and it was mainly just lovely that there was this tiny glow of humanity in amongst the grey gloom. It's not like I had been locked up in Shawshank for a crime I didn't commit and this was the first music I'd heard in 15 years, I couldn't even really hear what the man was playing or singing to begin with. Maybe I was just a bit tired out.
I just liked the fact that it was happening and that this man felt like entertaining a tiny per centage of London's embittered commuters. Even if he annoyed a couple of them, it was worth it. And for a slightly exhibitionist gesture he was being remarkably sensitive and quiet. It was enough that ten people got to be his audience. Spreading a little joy is relatively easy.
RHLSTP has been nominated for the Chortle internet award. I would be grateful if you could vote for it here.
The first episode of Meaning of Life is now available to those who are willing to pay for it. It's £15 for HD, SD and audio version of the whole series or £6 for just audio. You can also buy individual episodes. Or just donate a sum to help us make more as a one-off or monthly figure (you get a badge and monthly subscribers will get access to exclusive channel with extra content). It's all at gofasterstripe.com.
The free versions will be out on iTunes and the British Comedy Guide on audio and on my vimeo channel on video on Thursday. But you get 43 more minutes of show + some other extras on the paid version.
The first episode of series 5 of RHLSTP is now available for those willing to pay on video and audio at gofasterstripe.com.
The free audio will be up on iTunes and the British Comedy Guide on Thursday. Please support us financially if you can. Enjoy it for nothing if you can't.
And tell your friends about this stuff if you like it.
All this stuff is reiterated in next month's newsletter
