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Tory party's new election campaign- New Labia, New Danger.
I am on fire with the political satire. Two jokes in two days. Get me on the writing team of Have I Got News For You!
My ambitions have become rather modest in my old age. My ambition now is to play Uno on my phone in the bath for 12 hours a day. I managed about three today, so I am on my way. Can't wait to be in an old folks' home. They must have the time of their lives in there.
As long as they're not on the floor with all the Hellish screaming.
I woke up at 3am today and couldn't get back to sleep despite being very tired, so anticipated a tough day today, but I am like Margaret Thatcher because I hate miners. Also I clearly don't need much sleep. Got through the day fine. Though a big chunk of it I was in the bath.
I started off by interviewing stand up turned author Caimh Mcdonnell for the book club. He has had extraordinary success with his writing and I very much enjoyed "The Stranger Times" but he's also created a successful business with his wife and publishes many of his (many) novels himself. When I wonder if playing Uno in the bath is a good use of my time (of course it is, but we all occasionally doubt our vocation) I do consider that I should be writing books. Caimh gives some solid advice on how to get into it. I've been meaning to write a bit every day for years if not decades (it was part of the thinking behind this blog) but have failed to do so. But writing a novel seems like one of the only writing jobs where you retain control over an idea and have a good chance of making it happen yourself at no expense other than valuable wet Uno time. Caimh has ideas queuing up and a dedicated readership and no longer has to drive round the country telling jokes (though he was an excellent stand up- despite his claims otherwise). He is living the dream and it's all down to hard work. Couldn't be happier for him. He's a really excellent man. The Stranger Times books are under the name CK Mcdonnell if you're interested. His more than three-booked Dublin Trilogy is under Caimh. Don't try to pronounce that unless you know how!
I also had a zoom (well Microsoft Teams) chat with the people organising a book chat I am doing next week. It turned out that the person interviewing me is Paul Thwaite, who I immediately recognised as one of the people who dabbled in comedy back in the late 80s at University. I haven't, to my failing memory, seen him since. He had been slightly press-ganged into doing comedy by Al Murray for his sketch group. I texted Al later and he told me the name of the group and it was truly terrible. It's a good job we didn't have the internet back then so we could make our mistakes in private. Paul is now a top lawyer, though he looks exactly the same as he did thirty-five years ago. It's quite a jolt to the system to suddenly see somebody from that long ago again and to realise how long ago it was. But not unpleasant. Looking forward to chatting with him about my balls.
Benjamin Partridge will be one of the guests at the sold out Cardiff RHLSTP. Only a handful of guests to book now! Some great shows coming up -
all details here.
