North London New Stuff.


I did a ten-minute spot of mostly new material at the lovely Famous First Words gig at the Gunners Pub in Arsenal tonight, making a point of not mentioning my parents' since-the-mid-1960s Spurs Season ticket in the process.

It's a Bed-in.


I messaged the promoter yesterday on a whim to see if he'd be prepared for me to stage an intervention with a bed sheet and a projector, so I could try some of my slideshow-based material; because he’s a decent chap, he said yes, which was great, as with my Bath work-in-progress dates looming on the horizon, the more chances I get to run stuff, the better.

Easily the most pleasing moment for me was when the video-based gag I opened with, which is my favourite new bit (and took a fair amount of time to edit) got a big laugh. This year’s show is at a very early stage, but I plan to sprinkle similar clips throughout it as a palate cleanser - and the fact this one worked gives me the impetus to see this through; not in time for Bath, but hopefully for Brighton.

It’s ridiculous that in all the years Glyn and I have been doing projector-based stuff, we’ve never used a white sheet as a backdrop instead of lugging a screen to the venue. I’d obviously always prefer a proper one, but if I’m travelling on my own it’s easier without, plus I had an inkling it would work at The Gunners as I'd been there before. This morning, I picked up a crisp double sheet (unfitted) from Argos and a few bulldog clips from Wilkinson, which did the trick. I arrived at the venue early enough to set everything up before anyone was there, so I didn’t worry the organiser with the amount of kit I'd brought. Now, I just need to get my head around my Bath dates this weekend; if only bedding wasn't the only new material available in Argos.

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