Wow, another remarkable day in internet-land. I had slept badly and was feeling depressed about the Guardian piece. To have my favourite paper malign me and misrepresent me was (to paraphrase Josie Long) like being slapped in the face by a drunken parent.
But although there were a few people who took the paper at its word, quickly it became apparent that there was a lot of support and sympathy out there for me. People were emailing or tweeting all day long, far too many for me to read and lots of people were blogging about the unfairness of the article. Michael Legge proved that he was only fucking Andrew Collings at the weekend to get to me,
in his usual inimitable style and Dave Gorman
took things with a bit more measured grace and outrage as did
Mr Collings. And though it was lovely that my friends were leaping to my defence, most of the responses came from people who'd actually seen the show or heard the podcasts and were affronted that I had been so misrepresented. A few people admitted that they had read the article and assumed it must all be true until they read one of the blogs. Some people just sent expletive filled messages about Logan, but my favourite came from my friend Ben who simply said "Don't worry, he's a wally!" Which more expertly summed it up in five words then anyone else did all day with many more. Got to love the use of "wally" there. Sometimes Brian, less offensive is more offensive.
It all almost felt in danger of going too far the other way. Logan, after all, did not accuse m openly of being a racist, but the article, whether by accident, design or poor copy-editing certainly implied that. Outrage was going in one direction and then the other. I liked it better this way round. And certainly appreciated the group hug from this new community, which I have now experienced twice in a week for very different reasons. It's certainly great that thanks to the internet one can get a response to something like this out to people immediately. Not that all the Guardian readers know the truth. But it seems likely that I will be given a right to reply and maybe to have a go at writing an article about offensive comedy that doesn't get it quite so wrong.
So many people seem to have emailed the Guardian that I ended the day feeling a bit sorry for Brian Logan who is presumably in the middle of a bit of a shit storn. But it's a shit storm of his own making I suppose and it was one that had left me feeling pretty crappy last night.
I also had an awesome gig at King's Place tonight (right next door to the Guardian offices funnily enough), the whole thing taking another massive step forwards and I felt like I was performing it properly for the first time. I also read out some of Chaplin's "Great Dictator" speech at the end and it was surprisingly quite an emotional moment for me. I hadn't anticipated that, though maybe the last couple of days has got to me. But I think more likely that I got an emotional response off of the audience. It was definitely the best one yet and I am genuinely excited about it. Feels like it might be a very interesting Fringe.
Almost as interesting as Brian Logan's one is going to be.
It's all part of an interesting debate that is not going to end any time soon. It's been weird to be at the centre of something like this, where people are making definitive statements based on an article that misrepresents my work and this show entirely. I hope the word will get around that it is a very different piece of work than has been implied. It seems to have done at least on Twitter. And it's rather a revelation to me that I am respected enough in most quarters for people to know that the implications made could not be true.
Strange day. But certainly feel in a better place than I did this time yesterday.
And please take this blog as a thank you for your support if you gave it. I simply cannot respond to all the messages. You guys rock.
Plus I hate all other races. Did I mention that?
