31/08/07
That's me in the corner -
Categories: So there I am, naked on stage save for my black cowboy hat in front of 800 people for the last performance of Phil Nichol's show "The Naked Racist along with about 30 other people including Phil Kay and Duncan Oakley, when Barry Dodds came skipping over with a flower sticking out of his arse and said "I can see Wilky" Mike Wilkinson was sat on the front row looking slightly embarrassed at seeing a bunch of his friends dancing naked for the climax of the show.
The last two weeks of Edinburgh were a hard slog, with everything to work really hard for out of the way the nights got later as did the mornings. 6am was a usual bed time and 3-5pm was a usual morning wake up time. the festival starts to institutionalise you, comedians and actors, not used to such structure in their lives start to act weirdly. for a week I was wandering round needing to be told what to do, and that's how I ended up naked on stage.
I'd spent most of the month promising Mitch Benn that I'd go and see his music club show at the cow barn and hadn't managed to at all, as the last week of the festival drew near I realised I'd not seen many of the shows I really wanted to. this struck me when I saw Glenn's show for the second time, later that evening stood out in the Gilded Balloon's library bar (which is on the night before my last Blog) I bumped into Ed Byrne and his fiancée who I'd not seen since glastonbury, it was her who confused me with Hannah Gadsby, quoting a conversation that we'd apparently had where I'd apparently complained that people were confusing me with Ed. As I'm not good at socially awkward situations, either my own or putting someone else in them I played along as if I'd had the conversation with her, then adding "Yes it's either that or people confuse me iwht Hannah Gadsby, at which point her face changed as she realised what had gone on. Fortunately at that moment a couple of people interrupted and asked Claire to take a photo of them wiht Dara O'Briain, which she did, they then asked if they could take a photo of us with Dara. This was odd. shortly after that Ralf Little came over and got chatting with Glenn and I. It was really interesting talking to him about all sorts of stuff including the film he's doing wtih Kevin Spacey. He's also got a book that he's written for Shelter the homeless charity which can be found here http://www.thegoldengeneration.co.uk/ it's well worth checking out.
Anyway I was realising that I've not got enough time to do everything so I tried to get to see as much as I could on the last tuesday that I was there, so Tuesday became "Jew day" for at least the first half of the day, I went to watch Hammel on Trial which was fantastic, I've been a fan of Ed Hammel's work for ages and it was a pleasure to get to see him live, he liked my jacket and I blushed. Then I went to see Rebecca Drysdale who was very American in her approach to a one hour show but it was the sort of thing that I really love, and it was fantastic, plus I got to see a hot naked performer, whilst I was sat there thinking about how she must have felt doing that, and what her reasons were I was starting to think about how liberating it must have been to do that, without self conciousness and with artistic integrety.
After this I went over to see Ian Stone's show which was also fantastic (again this is why I don't do reviews!) after that I called Jew day a day and went to see Craig Campbell, Dean Haglund was in the audience and afterwards, he, Craig and I went to watch Tony Lee's Comedy hypnosis which made me laugh my arse off for ages, especially watching some guy think he was doing puppetry of the penis finishing with his "show stopper" whcih he called "The Creeping Hobo" which made me realise that everyone's subconcious has poetry to it.
as the last few days of the festival drew near I started hanging out with Nat Luursema who's a brilliant new comic, she came along with me to Ro Campbell's gig at the Phoenix on a couple of nights. It was a brilliant Free festival late night gig that was rammed with locals, so not like an Edinburgh festival gig at all. Every time I did it I got heckled and managed to work something out from it so it was really useful, on the second time I gigged there it all got a bit weird and frosty and the air felt like violence was about, a heckle turned into a discussion, and peace was only resumed when I jumped from the stage through the crowd to hug the Heckler and kiss him on the forehead. David Cameron would be proud. As I left the gig one of the hecklers was stood at the top of the stairs puking down them and in between her heaves she was saying "sorry". As I walked past her lighting a cigarette and heading off into the night I replied "don't worry about it, there's people paying £10 a ticket to watch that up in the city centre.". On the last night I played there I had to take on a father and son heckling team from Newcastle, I starteddealing with the father then had the son about five minutes into my set saying to the compere "will you go back on she's fucking shit." so I dealt with him by getting him to try and heckle me properly and not stopping picking on him until he had done or I'd proved my point. It was the point proving that won out.
so in between thes I was watching late night comedy, hanign out with friends and waiting for the shortlist to come in. That Jason Cook didn't make it to the short list with his show finally proved to me that competitions and awards really don't mean anything at all.
But anyway we're creeping closer to Friday night, Duncan's been asked to be the Naked Drummer in Phil's band, they're playing the Pleasance Grand which is an 800 seater. It's Friday night and I'm supposed to be going home the next day, which I'm not going to be able to do as I'm teching Duncan's show for the last time, but I've said I'll help out as I can. I've finally made it into Mitch's show and I'm waiting for it to start when I get a phone call from Duncan saying he needs 800 flyers over at Phil's show for the audience when they leave. SO I rush off over there.
As I walk in I ask if I can stay and watch, Dunc says he doesn't know, at which point Barry walks over and says "Oh no, you're not doing the naked dance too are you?"
Right up to that moment I'd not thought about it, I really wanted to see the show but I wasn't too sure about this, but in your life you're provided with opportunities and it's up to you to take them or not if you take them you'll never really regret them provided you don't get killed or permanently injured, and if there's no danger of that happening you really need to take the chance.
"Sure, let's fucking do this thing." So there I am, an hour later, dancing, I hate dancing, I won't do it in clubs incase people are watching me, dancing naked in front of the best part of 800 people totally unself concious free and exhilerated. After I come off stage I'm totally overcome with the emotion of what I've done, the magnitude of it hits me. How far I've travelled as a person.
7 years ago my girlfriend left me and I had a nervous breakdown, I'd spent most of my life hating myself and especially my body, I'd get changed in the dark and how horrible and alien my own body felt to me caused me to try and kill myself, that I came from there to here, to this moment this beautiful moment in the sun, in the spotlight free and unself-concious was too much for me.
I think I need to explain why I felt like I did for those who don't know, especially as it'll explain a lot of things and explain what my Show I'm writing right now is all about, the show I'm premiering on 29th October at the Manchester comedy festival and then taking to Edinburgh next year.
But that'll do for next time.
Until then I love you all
BB xXx
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