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Mostly Lucy and Jay.


Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was a good one.

It was Lucy Porter’s first visit to the club, though not her first time in Hitchin, having played one or two of Paul B Edwards’ shows in the past. It was also the first time that Glyn and I had met her, despite being aware of her since our first Edinburgh Festival in 2008. She was very nice and did a great set. I meant to tell her how I'd once appeared in a commercial with her husband, but ended up not revealing it until her onstage introduction, which was a weird way to do it, but she used it as a way into her material on marriage, so the trivia went to good use.

We also had Jay Foreman on the bill as a last-minute replacement for Paul Harry Allen, who had to pull out due to the tube strike. While it would have been lovely to have Paul back, the swap worked out well. Jay has played just about every version of Mostly in Hitchin, London and Edinburgh, so there’s a great sense of familiarity to having him on, plus it's nice to close the show with some music. We hope to have Paul back in the Autumn.

Glyn and I played it safe tonight, having had no time to plan anything new. We kicked the show off by leading the audience in a rendition of Happy Birthday for my dad (who's sixty-nine today) while a massive projection of his bus pass mugshot faded in & out behind us. I think he was chuffed to be included. I hope it went some small way towards making up for how often he's featured in my material, as well as acting in lieu of a present.

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