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Up and away. I listened to Christ on a Bike quite a few times today and realised how little work I had done on the final part of the show. Because the beginning and even the genealogy had seemed to be coming out quite easily I had usually got a bit bored of listening to it and stopped before I'd listened to the last 20 minutes and not said it out loud. So there was a bit of a last few hours panic as I tried to remedy this, whilst at the same time loading an exercise bike and boxes of programmes into and out of a cab and then putting the programmes out on the seats.
I was surprisingly nervous about all this, partly because I rarely get nervous before performing any more and partly because I think I am largely on top of this weekend's shows. I hate to think of next weekend's and actually the Headmaster's Son/Hitler Moustache combo that might be the trickiest to get through.
To add another spanner to the work I realised that the Leicester Square Theatre, which likes to pack in the punters on a weekend, had given me a slot that was 90 minutes in total for all these shows (I think only because that is what my management had asked for). I had assumed I would have two hours or at least 90 minutes, plus an interval. All the shows are at least that length and a couple of them are up to two hours, so even if I am allowed to sneak things up to 100 minutes including interval I was going to have to make some cuts. Tonight I was unable to do the Tancredo Nevis email which I had screwed up during the Christ on a Bike DVD record and I was looking forward to doing properly. I will attempt to record it for the podcast version (though I believe I did it in one of the RHMOLs, not that any of you have watched those).
So there will now definitely be some editing to be done, which is not all together a bad thing. Most of the shows could do with some pruning, but I am a little sad that it's not going to be the full versions. Yet all these shows came in so many incarnations from hour long Edinburgh shows, to longer tour shows, with bits added and dropped throughout that it would be impossible to do a definitive version. And at least this way I will save myself learning a couple of hours of stuff (but will still be looking at 18 hours of material).
We're recording the shows and will make at least the first 10 available for download for a small fee (in order to pay George the sound man's wages) for download (I don't want to damage sales of the upcoming Lord of the Dance Settee or spoil the Happy Now? tour by putting these out yet).
I was delighted that over 250 people had come to see the show. If I could get that many for all the performances I would be properly chuffed (and although a few of the shows are still around the 100 mark I think we might make it with a bit of a head of steam and the final show looks like it's heading for a sell-out). I am hoping word of mouth will get round. But only if the shows aren't stumbling and embarrassing.
And tonight turned out well. It was mostly pretty assured. I forgot a little bit of the original dream sequence (though managed to reincorporate some of it) and then in the second half threw myself by ad-libbing about Booz being the man who was never born (though only missed a tiny little fragment as a result). The audience had been thrilled and impressed by correct rendition of the genealogy, even though in fact, this was much easier for me than the routine itself. The voice in my head was willing me to fail, telling me I would forget where I was going, but I ignored it and didn't think about it and that all came out really well.
And the complex ending more or less came together. A few of the more scholarly points were missed but I got to the end without too many fuck ups and even felt a bit emotional about my intellectual tussle with Jesus and my realisation that I loved him.
These early shows are rather charming and sweet, but then are followed by a slight wilderness period of anger and nastiness (with a bit of residual charm). It's really interesting (for me) to go back over my life and see the different places that I was at. But in Christ (and in Cock tomorrow), in spite of my desire to sometimes say the wrong thing, there is a sweet heart to the show and Cock has a message about equality and redefining what is expected of men and women for a modern world, which is quite progressive (especially given the obvious way to go on that show would have been a defence of masculinity against rising feminism). I wonder what happened to me to become the somewhat more bitter protagonist of the late-30s shows. I know what it was, I was lonely and my career wasn't going that well. I am glad the sweetness returned, though I have never lost the desire to say the stupid and wrong thing.
Anyway, aside from some minor fluffs it was great to get one show done and to have had enough people in to make it worthwhile, both in terms of getting a good response and the chance to make some money.
And I got home by 9.30 and watched some telly with my wife and was amazed to realise (as I watched the unsettling and awful “For Your Eyes Only†watching a 54 year old Roger Moore snogging a woman 30 years his junior - if I want to see something that awful I just look in the bedroom mirror) that all the actors who have played James Bond in the famous movie franchise are still alive. That's pretty impressive and surprising. And most of the actors who played the baddies have died. So I can only conclude that playing James Bond in one of the films that are considered canon (not including Casino Royale spoof, radio or TV versions or stuntmen Bonds) makes you immortal.
I confidently predicted that one of the James Bond actors will die this weekend. You see if I am wrong.
