27/08/08
Happy New Comedy Year -
Categories: Reading Richard Herring's blog (http://www.richardherring.com/warmingup/warmingup.php?id=2123), I realised that we both had a bizarrely similar Sunday evening, without knowing it. Both of us left Edinburgh after our identically-scheduled final shows on Sunday night, leaving the city at about 10pm, in England by midnight, both of us failed to see a sign telling us this. Both decided to drive till tired and then just find a Travelodge. Both underestimated demand on a bank holiday, and both were turned away from several hotels (for me it was Westmoreland and Lancaster), before, in both cases, a friendly receptionist at a full Premier Travel Inn called ahead to other hotels in their chain to see where there was a room free. The same receptionist? I like to think so. I also like to think that we weren't the only performers doing this, that there was a massive congaesque chain of cars trundling down the M6, popping into every budget hotel affixed to every service station. I like the idea of an overnight hotel receptionist baffled by comedians, circus performers, jugglers, etc all rocking up at 3am demanding a room.
In Richard's case, he was just keen to get home; in mine I was getting to Cheltenham for Monday evening, for my annual rush to Greenbelt Festival. Always a lovely way to round off August with a gig that inevitably plays to more people than the whole of my Edinburgh run put together. Maybe that wasn't true this year, as they got me a smaller venue than last year - a shame cos last year's fit about 300, with at least as many again refused entry cos it was full. The Greenbelt top brass told me that next year they'll put me in Centaur, which is the big venue of about 1200 capacity. Lovely, and at the same time, yikes.
The show this year was fun, though manic, with 3 different shows in 5 hours - firstly the package show Get Up Stand Up at 8:30, then my solo show at 10pm, then finally a 15min spot at the late show Last Orders. All fun, though slightly marred by (drum roll please) my first complaint. One girl was a little offended that I had the N word on the screen at one point (I was quoting Kanye West's Golddigga - I felt legitimately, since he was black, and a Christian, and it's in context, but still it's a strong word and she didn't like it), and she also frowned on a video I played, arguing that it was offensive to blind people. It goes to show that up in Edinburgh I'm considered very much unedgy and safe, and yet I go to a Christian festival and suddenly I'm the edgiest thing some of them have seen...
In conclusion, you can't please all the people all the time. But Greenbelt was fun, and Edinburgh was funnish, and it's great to be home. And now I'm going out the door to my first post-Edinburgh gig. Cos although the bank holiday weekend of August is almost like the end of the comedians' calendar year, we've now had New Year's Eve and today is the equivalent of January 2nd. ie. Back to work.
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