Skip to main content

Getting the Shoehorn.


Would it be weird if I started carrying around a shoehorn?  

Thanks to earning my living as an actor (this being a joke in and of itself), I seldom have much in the way of additional funds. As a result, I only own two pairs of decent shoes; one of which used to be my dad's.

(One of the two pairs, that is.)

I don’t want to paint a picture of myself as being destitute. At least not literally; my artistic skills are limited at best. I have other footwear, but these are mostly ‘show shoes’ – or showoes – and not the sort of thing I’d wear out on the street.

I’ve worn my dad’s shoes so many times that the soles now have about as much grip as a snail on a heavily-vaselined window. If you’ve never put a snail onto lubricated glass then your childhood was evidently less deprived than mine; only-children are forced to make own entertainment.

This lack of purchase with the pavement has led to two separate incidents, both of which I’ve covered on this blog (click here and here to read the evidence.) These accidents have become frequent enough for me to resort to always wearing the pair of shoes I consider to be my best – though this comes with its own predicament.

David's 'best' shoes.
Something about the way they’re laced makes it exceptionally difficult to put them on, particularly when I'm slipping on the right one. I say ‘slipping on’, though this is an impossibility; it’s more a case of forcing it, injuring my fingers, thumbs and right heel in the process.

This is particularly embarrassing when I’m with other people, as the ensuing panic over whether I can get my shoes on quickly makes me struggle with them even more. I’m sure that nobody else would worry about things like this.

Perhaps I have an abnormally large right foot? I’ve never tried to measure it.

It think it's time to get my ruler out.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...

Comedy That's Worth a Letch.

Today, I nipped to Letchworth to meet with illustrator (and one-time - two-time - comedy poet) Mushybees, to discuss an event Mostly Comedy will act as surrogate parents to as part of Letchworth’s Arts Takeover in a couple of weeks. Months ago he got into contact to see if we’d be up for co-organising a comedy stage as part of Letchworth’s weekend of arts-based attractions in July; something I’d provisionally said yes to, before things got hectic in the lead-up to Edinburgh and we didn’t take it any further. Despite not getting down to the nitty-gritty straight away, we managed to pull a line-up together in a back-and-forth of emails yesterday, leading to me getting Glyn’s blessing and us deciding we’d officially go ahead with it (whatever ‘officially’ means in this context). In reality, it’s not complicated: from 12pm until 6pm-ish on the 22 nd July, Glyn, Mushybees and I will host four Edinburgh previews from four acts (including me), before Nor...

"Heh Heh Heh Helection Half Hour."

Thursday morning’s a time I look forward to, as the episode of Hancock’s Half Hour that was broadcast that week becomes available to listen to on iPlayer, and consequently becomes the soundtrack to my bath. Today was no different, with this week’s instalment being the frighteningly appropriate ‘The Election Candidate'. In the episode, Tony is convinced to stand for parliament as a celebrity candidate (*cough* Donald Trump *cough*) and while it’s definitely one of the best - though let’s face it, pretty much all programmes that exist have stood the test of time wonderfully - my favourite moment has to be when Hancock is asked who’ll he’ll vote for, before he’s convinced to through his own hat in the ring. “Neither of them,” he replies. “I shall show my contempt by going down to the polling booth, taking my form, crossing both their names out and writing ‘get knotted’ in”. (Some things never change.) The episode was first broadcas...