Tuesday: February 23 and it’s 3:45 in the AM

Tom rang me back later yesterday and told me some more of his stuff. I enjoy hearing it and I particularly enjoy chucking ideas at him. It’s interesting to see what he thinks is good and what he thinks will work. Gave him quite a good punchline for his act that I imagine he won’t use as it’s not a very “Tom” line:

Chamberlain promised the Britsh he’d protect them
From Hitler by giving them Czechoslovakia
Which wasn’t actually theirs to give

It’s a bit like promising Randy the un-reformed rapist,
Someone else’s bottom in the showers…
And then thinking the problem is solved.

(My bit in italics – Tom’s bit probably slightly inaccurate)

It suggests in the book that you find someone to write with and bounce ideas off. Tom’s been an absolute fuc#ing bonus in that respect. Would probably be a few weeks behind myself if not for having him to bounce ideas off.

Those comedy websites are a godsend… they’re also turning into a bit of an obsession. I’ve been trawling through them again tonight. Sillyness. They remind me of the glimpse into the radio world that Media UK (in its prime) and Radiogoss (now defunct) gave me when I was just starting out. There’s an interesting vibe on them that I’m not sure what to make of.

Got a message back from the bloke who does Beat The Frog. I’m on the bill! Brilliant. He wants one Irish joke in there? I’ll have to ask for him to clarify that. I’ll maybe make the Jamie Battersley story Irish by changing Jamie’s nationality? Not sure. I’ve really got no idea what to expect with these “gigs” (hate that word). As far as I can make out it’ll be a fairly big night at Beat The Frog, Quite big at The Spacebar then a bit smaller at The Comedy Balloon then down to hardly any for the arts thing in Preston.

Went to the gym with Matt today. Did about an hour and a half with just me and the minidisc that I recorded the day before. On the treadmill with all my daft fart material bouncing round my brain. Starting to really get the hang of it now. Getting to really know my material. Making slight last minute changes to it but ultimately ready to perform it as soon as. There’s still the possibility of the “Gong Show” in Sutton Coldfield. That’d be on the 11th of March I think. I’ve asked to be part of it, I think it’d work well as a little taster of the big week.

I’m going to buy a camcorder from a cheap second hand store to document the whole thing with. I think I also need some audio recording equipment if possible. We’ll see. I saw a cheap camcorder in Manchester for about £50. We’ll see what’s going on this weekend.

NM