20/09/06
Busy old day -
Categories: Busy old day today - feeling pretty fucked right now but am keeping good on my commitment to write this. I have a week on the road from Friday night so thought it best to do it whilst I can.
Went for a casting in London for something or other this morning.
I quite like going to castings - I used to get pretty nervous in them but I really enjoy meeting people that are working on stuff that's about to be produced. It's interesting and helpful to get to see the sort of stuff that is being commissioned and made. I used to get put up for a lot of advert castings which I'd go to despite having no intention of ever doing the job (I was advised this was a good idea because it meant I got to meet the casting directors) but now I don't go for things I don't want to do and feel much better in myself about it. There's only so many times you can bite your tongue whilst someone asks you to read it "a bit more like Jack Black" and there's always a risk that you'll actually get offered a job you don't want and then you have the torture of financial temptation to deal with, so I've found it best to just leave them be.
I had some real horror castings for commercials. I went up for those WKD adverts that Johnny Vegas does the voice over on at one point to play, I think, a dentist. As I walked through the door, one of the panel of about 10 said very loudly "Well, he's too fat".
I'd not even said "Hello".
And the thing is, that is a perfectly valid reason for me not to get the job if they are looking for someone svelte, but they could have at least waited till I'd left rather than saying it as if I wasn't there. Just fucking balls out rude. I suppose that's the advertising world though...
Anyhow, today's casting had none of that, it was a real pleasure to do. It was for a sitcom pilot (as these things tend to be) and was a lovely laid back affair. I've never understood why some production companies make castings a stressy, clynical affair - they're never going to see people at their best under those conditions. Today, at the end of every scene that I read, the panel gave me a round of applause which I thought was a lovely thing to do. It wasn't just me they were doing it for, they did it for Jarred Christmas as well (he was in before me). They did it louder for me obviously, but I'm sure they will bear Jarred in mind for other smaller roles in the future. Had a nice chat with Jarred outside before we went in, he was on good form and seems very happy. I've always liked him. Hard not to really.
Onto tonight.
Compered a big freshers gig at Univeristy of Surrey in Guildford this evening. It was a marquee job. Now, in the past I have never enjoyed these sorts of gigs (either the marquee part of it or the freshers part of it), I've always found freshers to be a bit of a tough nut to crack. My theory is that they are so keen to be on their best (as in, most impressive to new people) behaviour that they can sometimes be quite reticent when it comes to laughing at certain things, just in case it says something about them that they don't want known.
And I don't like marquees because they are shit.
However, tonight the gig worked really nicely - had an absolute whale of a time compering and enjoyed the company of the audience (five or six hundred folk) greatly. Not least because I met a lad in the front row of the audience who wanks during night shifts at Woolworths in Camberley. That's what was said anyway - just repeating what was discovered at the gig! Don't shoot the messenger. At least I haven't said your name, have I Pat?
I think compering the Free Beer Show up in Edinburgh has done me the world of good really. I am approaching my compering jobs with a much greater sense of relaxation, and with a far more open mind to just go with what's there in the room already rather than trying to crowbar in material. When I was offered the Free Beer resident compere back in June I immediately called Russell Howard (who, of course, was my equivalent number at Late 'n' Live at the Gilded Balloon) to ask him his thoughts on the resident compere thing as, to be fair, I was stressing slightly about it. He very much favoured the approach of playing it by ear/blagging it - that opportunities to do material may arise naturally but not to do it unless that was the case - he said that once I found my feet at the gigs it would be very easy to do that. Sound and spot on advice - that was exactly what happened, but it still felt weird in my mature years taking advice from a pretty-yet-boss-eyed child.
The other good thing about doing the Free Beer Show was the fact that it allowed me to rebuild my stamina for compering. Now, this may be partly to do with the mature years (33 me now), but I was finding that I was really running out of energy when I compered gigs, normally about halfway through the middle section. By the end of compering nights I was practically on my knees with exhaustion, which is ridiculous - but it was happening nevertheless. I wont argue that I'm not the fittest of chaps, but I reckon a lot of it was to do with not being at ease with the job and thus stressing and becoming tired much quicker. Since my confidence shot from the Free Beer Show I feel I am firing on all cylinders (more or less) as a compere again.
Speaking of fitness, I am genuinely trying to get a bit of weight off at the minute though, a culmination of finding out how high my blood pressure is (medical) and the fact that I was so fat on telly last week (vanity). The problem I have is - I don't actually know how to lose weight. I've hardly eaten a thing since Friday but I was told today that starving yourself is not the way to lose weight. I'm not so sure - it worked for that bloke in the film Se7en.
I think what people mean is that it's not the best way to go about it. Thing is, believe it or not, I don't eat an awful lot anyway. I really don't though! And I know you're thinking "yeah but I bet you eat shit stuff when you do" but again - I really don't. I don't touch fried food at all (maybe a greasy cafe breakfast once every six months) and I eat sushi most days (which is supposedly a good thing).
No, my problem is the lack of exercise. Playstation, no matter how I try to convince myself, simply isn't a sport. So, I'm gonna try and do a bit of walking and what-have-you, just to see how I get on. I'm only at the planning stage at the moment, but I'm starting to get a bit of drive about me to sort out things that need sorting. I might build up to swimming at some point. I'm a really good swimmer but get embarrassed with my top off (contrary to my Edinburgh poster) plus I'm not blessed on the slack. Reasonably fine when standing to attention - just rubbish on the flop.
Plus, just imagine how incredible my breakdancing will be at next years Edinburgh fringe if I lost a stone and rebuilt some stamina.
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