4089/17008
Whoever said the Swiss are efficient was talking out of their cuckoo clock. Don't go there to commit assisted suicide - you'll be queuing for so long that you'll end up killing yourself before anyone can help you. It took us 45 minutes to get through check-in (more the fault of EasyJet than Switzerland perhaps), but then the queue for security was equally long and our flight time was getting closer and closer and we hadn't had our breakfast yet. We'd been up at 7 and didn't get to the boarding gate until 11, with only just enough time to pick up an expensive sandwich. If the people of Geneva think I am coming back to their stupid city again then they have another think coming. I will just kill myself at home and buy my cuckoo clock from Korea and bore my own holes in my cheese. And all they will have is their Nazi gold to get them through the economic repercussions of my withdrawal of custom.
We were both still poorly too, though my wife was suffering a bit more than me. But it only took us eight hours to get from snow covered Argentiere to shit-coated Shepherd's Bush which even with all the queuing is quite remarkable.
And most remarkably of all in spite of my veins being full of cheese I had not put on any weight during the trip. In fact I think I've lost some. Maybe eating nothing but cheese ham and bread is the way forward. But only at high altitude.
I've been enjoying reading on holiday having completed Breakfast of Champions and Simon Singh's "The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets" and most of Vonnegut's "Time Quake". When I got home there was a parcel waiting for me containing a book called "Look Who's Back" by Timur Vermes which has the unusual conceit of being from the perceptive of Adolf Hitler who finds himself waking up on some wasteland in 2011 and observing and interacting with modern day Berlin. Obviously due to my own Hitler based work the publishers felt my interest might be piqued and they were correct about that. I dipped into it and was 100 pages in by the end of the evening. It's done very well in its original German, though unsurprisingly divided critics a little bit and it's a bit too early to for me to say if it's an ill-judged idea (but so far I'd say the satire outweighs the weirdness of a first person account from a slightly likeable, though clearly ridiculous ex-Fuhrer). It's got some neat satire about modern broadcasting. But it reminded me of my own (as yet unwritten) idea of a play in which Hitler has won the war and has taken Charlie Chaplin prisoner. It would be interesting to see how Hitler would have responded to the man behind "The Great Dictator", as well as giving Chaplin a chance to accuse the Fuhrer of stealing his moustache. I haven't yet 100% committed to the "I Killed Rasputin" idea for this Edinburgh, but if I do it and it goes well then maybe I can have a crack at Hitler/Chaplin next and continue the comedy/history theme. We'll see. I think "Look Who's Back" is going to be published in the UK in a couple of months. Although it benefits from the Hitler-obsession that it mocks, so is having its cake and eating it a little bit (maybe you could argue the same about Hitler Moustache), it is fascinating that this character still fascinates the world when no one else from World War II is really held in the same esteem. The Germans see Hitler as a comic figure initially, assuming of course that he is a satirical impersonator, which in itself is interesting. Monsters become clowns given enough time. Though I imagine the monster might reemerge before too long.
Another guest confirmed for the new run of RHLSTP. Adam Buxton will be returning on 17th February (there will probably be another guest as well). It's nearly sold out already, so book fast.
And the We're All Going To Die! tour kicks off in earnest this month and is selling well. There's only one ticket left for New Milton on Saturday, a handful of tickets for the Leicester Comedy Festival next week and Reading and Liverpool (and I think Bristol) are sold out (check with venue for returns). Don't let my previous unpopularity lull you into a false sense of security. If you want to see me over the coming weeks then BOOK NOW.
