Halfway House

We’ve reached the half-way point of the festival now, and this is the week when everyone has their day-off.  Last year, I had my day off and spent it with family, which (possibly predictably) was as stressful as doing a show. So this year, I’ve decided not to have a day off and so far I feel vindicated. This weekend was quite tiring but now we’ve come to the day off time, I feel fairly well rested.

 

The show is going to plan. It feels more rounded and already more successful than last year. Because it’s actually got something to say, it’s not too hard to perform even in front of rubbish Sunday night crowds where you can’t even buy a laugh.

 

More interesting than the show (which is fun for audiences to see once, but becomes slightly Groundhog Dayish for us performers) is all the other things to get involved with. The second Comedy Countdown was as much fun as the first, and rather worryingly it ended up a tie between Jon Richardson and Henning Wehn. Worryingly for Richardson, as English is not Henning’s first language.

 

Me and flatmate Lloyd Langford hosted a comedian’s poker night last week, complete with visors and medallion costumes. People were slightly late in arriving, so there was a disconcerting half-hour where we were just sat on the sofa in silence in fancy dress feeling like a couple of total plums. In the end Lucy Porter walked off with the cash. I came second, but there’s no second place in poker, is there? It’s just one winner. So hats (and visors) off to Lucy.

 

The weather continues to be festival-friendly. Showers and sunshine, which is OK by me. I got my biggest laugh of the festival on Saturday completely inadvertently. I was standing in the busy Pleasance courtyard nursing a hangover after a severe but short downpour. The sun was shining again. Then from nowhere a gust of wind blew rapidly through the place whipping up the awnings and I was absolutely drenched from head to toe. Just me. And the courtyard erupted into laughter at my expense.

 

I was a guest on Fordy’s Lock-in as well, with Matt Forde, John Robins and Rob Rouse. Lots of fun because it’s so very loose and there’s a good deal of comics in the audience.  Very cunning actually, because they ply you with booze then get you to tell stories about comics that you know that when you’re in full control of your faculties you absolutely know you shouldn’t be telling.

 

I popped along to Mark Watson’s 24 hour show after Countdown today and ended up in a triple jump competition with John Bishop, David O’Doherty and Dan Walmsley representing Australia. I led the field until the final jump when O’Doherty pulled it out of the bag to win for Ireland.  You couldn’t write a better Hollywood script. About triple jumping.