11/12/06
Sport awards and cancer -
Categories:
No properly thought out post from me today, I'm not feeling well.
Spare me your mock sympathy.
I'm trying to get myself well for my gig tomorrow (today - Monday) night at Outside The Box in Kingston. You can come if you want? Be nice to see you. Up to you really. It says it's Paul Sinha headlining there tomorrow on their website but it's not, it's me.
So I've just been reading about David Walliams winning his sport trophy on the front page of Chortle which is exciting. Well, exciting in so far as there will probably be a plush figure toy of him holding it aloft in the shops by Christmas.
I actually watched some of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show this evening, as the rugby league team I follow (St Helens RLFC - I believe I may have mentioned them?) were up for team of the year. And they won it which is brilliant given that they were up against that golf team and that. It was a public vote, and thankyou to everyone that I texted asking them to vote (if any of you actually did). It was fucking amazing to see the look on the faces of all the 'proper' sports people in the audience as a rugby league team walked away with it, and double sweetness as Johnny "I done a kick" Wilkinson had to present the team with the trinket. I love it when the underdog wins so so so much. Perhaps the BBC will give a bit more thought to how they market rugby league now?
Yeah, fucking, as if...
As I have been slightly groggy I have been spending a bit of time obsessing my way around the internet this evening.
As is natural for any performer I spent some time googling myself and seeing what people have written about me. I happened to re-read my Chortle review (here)from my Edinburgh show this year "Out Of Character". I think that most reviews on Chortle are by and large relatively fair - although there does seem to be a trend of them going "Oh this act is brilliant, they rule, they do great stuff, but for all that, they're shit". The thing that got my goat with the review from Steve this year was the bit he said about me "telling another comic's story" and the feeling that this felt like "cheating". I wrote to Steve at the time about this (as I have done every time he has reviewed me) and said I felt it was unfair. He said it was only a casual comment about a very small part of the show (or some sort of similar palming off as he tends to, probably sensibly, do with my correspondence).
The story comes from Andre Vincent, and was about the time he supported "The Proclaimers" on tour. I credited Andre in the show, and most importantly, was aware that this wasn't a story Andre did on stage. It was just something he told me once, so I was hardly nicking material - it was just something funny that somebody had said to me (as indeed, were many other parts of my Edinburgh show).
However, the fact that it came from the mouth of a comedian and not from, say, a member of my family, seemed to suddenly put a different slant on it. I bumped into Andre in the Pleasance courtyard one night and really wasn't sure what he himself made of it from a moral point of view. He asked me how his story was going, and I wasn't sure if there was a touch of resentment. I told him that I told it beautifully, and double-checked again that it wasn't something he used onstage as material himself. He seemed to be all right with it. Sometimes you can't tell...
But then today as I lurked around the internet, I happened upon a bit of his BBC3 Hurrah for cancer documentary. I hadn't seen it when it was on TV, but had wanted to as I was interested in it given that much of what happened to him was around the time of rehearsals and the Fringe run of The Big And Daft Christmas Show. So I had a little watch of it.
Great Programme - as was his Edinburgh show about the same topic - but then he started to talk about how he was surprised at how badly comedians had reacted to the news of his cancer, and had Marcus Brigstocke and Alistair Mcgowan and people like that saying unhelpful response lines to camera. Stuff like "how is your...condition?" or your "little problem" (forgive my paraphrasing - it was much funnier than I've just made it sound). Andre then said that only one comic said something in response that he liked. Cut to Ricky Gervais saying "Can I have your dvds?".
I was the comic that said that to Andre - that was me. Technically I have now written for Gervais.
Now, isn't that the same as me repeating something he said to me in my show?
I don't think it's cheating at all - it's just relaying a funny postcard from life. And at any rate - mine was even less cheating because I have always credited Andre at length with the story. He attributed my comment by insinuation to Ricky Gervais, even though I was the great comedic maverick who still went for the laugh, and didn't go soft on him when he was pissing blood. Plus...how do I say this? I sort of meant it about getting his dvd's...
It was a good show though, was enjoying watching it and am looking forward to watching the other bits.
See, I couldn't give a fuck about that being included in his show. I don't really think Andre cares about his story being in my show (not entirely certain - but I gave him the opportunity to say if it was a problem when I bumped into him and he didn't seem to give a fuck either).
Just goes to show you how something briefly mentioned in a review can really get to you though, to the point where you are still moaning about it nearly four and a half months later.
It's interesting, isn't it?
Oh, is it not...?
Comments:
but generally I look at it as a bit of a homage, seriously, it's nice that someone can take the time to do one of your throw-away stories and then also credit you for it.
As far as the DVD line goes, to be honest, at least 5 comics come up with the same sort of comment towards me. Yes, you were the first, but still others said the same. So that's why I used it. Thanks for watching at last as well you little fat freak...
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