Okay, so places I’ve been this week. Guildford, London, Exeter, Tunbridge Wells, Hereford and Chipping Camden. I’m glad I’ve got this week to have a cold in before heading up north to Lincoln and Sheffield. Hack hack, wheeze wheeze. I managed to sleep for 11.5 hours last night. I rock.

Now awake, I’m busy trying to get my show/publicity/venue together for the Edinburgh Fringe. That’s right – Wotnot is going to Edinburgh and I have to go too. I’m already bracing myself for it. I’ve been up many times before, the first time ten years ago when I really should have been doing school work.

It is a psychological tightrope for the jittering ego of your average comedian… and no one wants to be average. I’m still unsure of my strategy. Not for selling the show (although I’m lost as to how I’m doing that) but for mentally getting through a month of industry judgment, or worse, apathy. I certainly wont be reading any reviews til I get home… but I will go and see some more shows than I did in 2009. That year my show was free and I had large audiences. This year you’ll have to part with some cash to see me. This means my crowds will not be crowds so much as dinner parties. It will mean I have to work harder, for smaller laughs.

Like always though it is about getting better as a comedian. Blocking out the hype and noise and concentrating on what it is all really about. Me. It is all about me.

x

I’m gigging in Exeter tonight. I was only just down in Penzance last week, taking in the sea, the drizzle and hearty calories.

Certainly better than Ginsters anyway.

I have had a lot of lovely gigs this last week. Lower Brailes (up near Banbury) was jolly fun, I was opening and managed to improvise loads. only downside was getting there which involved crossing a ford. Yeah, a real wet, flowing ford. The car made it though. Falmouth was frankly disappointing, never good when you get to a theatre to find just 20 people there. Despite the tiny audience the gig was actually remarkably fun. Also had the added bonus of staying in a B&B so I was able to have a beer. Like a grown up. Penzance was weird, as Cornwall is likely to be, everyone in the gig seemed to work as an artisan and didn’t take all too kindly to my prying into their tax returns. I was also MC, so spent much of the show wandering around backstage taking idiotic photos of myself.

I had a really good time in Guildford, even though once again audience numbers were down (only around 50 people). Then had a small gig in London at Crack Comedy on Monday. Last night I had a romantic evening in with a kitten and some beans. I also beat A F Harrold at a new board game. Iszi wins!

In other news a new Sundays Supplement is out. Also, it is looking increasingly likely that I’ll be up in Edinburgh this year for the fringe festival… will keep you posted x

Nice lot of gigs this week. Aside from a filthy car journey with Jonathan Elston and Matt Richardson on Monday, I had a good time at the Rhodes Arts Centre and Camberley theatre, both of which either were or came close to sold out.

In other news, Douglas the kitten is getting bigger and bigger, he has a habit now of greeting you when you come home from a gig, purring around your shoulders (he climbs), getting overly excited and farting. Ignore him and he will spend time attacking anything bigger than him. For example:

Sofa videos has been somewhat of a theme today. I shot one below of A F Harrold reading from a poem he was practicing to perform at a Pulp based music night (it went very well). He changed the lyrics to the song by using an arbitrary mathematical rule as a constrained writing technique espoused by Oulipo. Apologies for the shaking camera, I had to stop myself laughing.