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Barley My Dear.


I’m dog-and-cat-sitting for my mum this evening. 

It’s nice to have a quiet night in with the animals and ‘the wife’ (in that order), in a proper house, like a proper adult and everything. In some ways it’s unnerving, as my mum’s pets are massively out-sized compared to my cat and two budgies at home. Her retriever Barley could make a solid case for dwarfing Digby, while her cat Chaser is just too lengthy for his own good; he’s the feline Ford Cadillac to my cat Millie's Smart car model.

I’m enjoying the time away from work, having spent the afternoon holed up in the office, planning a set for a short spot I’m doing in London tomorrow. I feel my time there was wasted as, instead of running material that’s likely to end up in my show – which was the reason I took the gig in the first place – I found myself vaguely working up something to fit the theme for tomorrow’s gig, which appropriately for me, is ‘The Beatles’.

In reality, I could have just stuck in a gag or two in about the band as a token gesture, but instead, I’ve hastily cobbled a brand new set using a few of my Fab Four-related blog posts of the past as a starting point. Consequently, I only half-know it, plus it’s unlikely to be something I’ll use in my show, as it’s probably won’t sit comfortably in that context. Once again, I  lost sight of my priorities, spending too much time on a thing I'll probably never use again

That said, I’m going to see tomorrow as an experiment: trying out something for the sake of it and keeping it loose; seeing it less as stand-up and more as a gentle debate on a subject close to my heart. I could hardly turn down the chance to talk about my biggest obsession after all; if I can riff on anything, I can do it on The Beatles: they’re my proverbial Mastermind Specialist Subject.

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