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Back on live Sunday morning TV. Has TMWRNJ returned? No. Though the other day I had a dream that it was ten years since we'd done the last one of those and woke up depressed at the passage of time. Until I was awake enough to realise that it's actually nearly 15 years and then felt even more depressed about the passage of time. (But a DVD release of the series is looking hopeful - if expensive!)
I was appearing on Sunday Brunch, a show that has totally stolen the format of TMWRNJ then added cooking and celebrity guests and taken out all the sketches and the Curious Orange and the Organ Gang. Apart from that, it's the same.
I never really got nervous about appearing on live TV back in the 90s and it didn't phase me today. It never feels like what you're doing is really being beamed into people's homes. Especially on Sunday Brunch where the chat occasionally seems too banal for general consumption (I enjoyed the two minute discussion about what age you should teach your child to make tea and had to ask whether that really happened - but the hosts are aware of what they're doing and I actually admire this subtle comedy). My only worry this time is that I would blurt out some swear word or be unable to resist saying the worst possible thing. And when the first section involved the Olympic Rings (already tempted) and one of them not firing up properly in the opening ceremony and looking like a little puckered arsehole I wanted to shout something about Putin wanting to fuck it. But I kept quiet.
It was a very relaxed show and fun enough to be on and I did manage to inject some comedy without attracting the attention of whoever the 21st Century Mary Whitehouse is. The other guests were finding it similarly surreal. I can't imagine what "We Are Scientists" made of it all, though they remained good-humoured and it was fun hearing Jamie Theakston making risque asides, even whilst we were on air and I wasn't convinced that our mics were turned down.
I got to help make some salmon fishcakes, whilst discussing Stephen Fry's suicide attempt, and risked eating an oyster (even though last time I did that I ended up vomiting on my own diarrhea) and also tried a camel milk latte, though this wasn't on air - the hosts were supposed to ask me to taste it, but there wasn't time. I was interested in any case (I did once pretend to drink different animals' milk every Sunday, but never had) and had a sip. Milk is milk, right? There'll always be milk. It wasn't very nice, a strong earthy taste, like milk that had been kept in a leather saddle bag which had been put on a galloping beast who had run across the desert. I missed out on checking out the Valentine's Day cocktails, but got to eat some duck a l'orange and some very rich cheesecake (I don't like cheesecake, but thought this might be different. It wasn't).
There was some fun had with an American invention called the "Bacon Bowl" which you could use to turn bacon into a bowl which you could then fill with the filling of your choice and eat. There wasn't enough bacon in that for my liking. I think they should have been a bacon lid and then it should be filled with bacon. I will be bringing out my "Bacon Ball" soon. I tried a bit of the bacon bowl with egg in it. Obviously it was nice. I could have told you that already.
I was interviewed about We're All Going To Die! and it also felt odd to be chatting about this subject on this light and light-hearted programme, but we got into quite philosophical places with it, though when I asked Tim and Simon to consider that fact that their atoms were forged in the crucible of exploding stars I think I might have blown their minds a little bit.
This evening I had an enjoyable preview of material for the next Meaning of Life at the Tabard. For once it didn't rain on my wife and I as we walked to the venue and home again. Terrifyingly it's just a week to the recording (buy your tickets here), but I am very pleased with the newer bits and have adapted and extended an old routine from menage a un and that worked particularly well. It feels like the strongest show yet, though to be fair this is partly because I am using a couple of routines from my love show.
