It was another late night. Tonight’s I’m rounding off a week of 6 gigs in 6 nights and while it’s been enjoyable, the late nights eventually catch up. Especially when you end up having almost a full meal as I did when I got in last night after midnight. I can’t really eat before a show. You want to be light on your feet on stage so I’m usually just grazing pre-show, bananas (the lack of street bins in London meaning I’ve often turned up for gigs with banana skins to dispose of) and museli bars. The plummeting temperatures the last two nights, particularly on Friday when I found myself waiting a while in the Elephant for a bus to Kings Cross, have been a real challenge and I can confirm the Long Johns were back out last night.
Keeping busy helps me deal a bit better with all the various things going on, especially the sad situation with my uncle. The midweek show in Broadstairs certainly helped to clear my head that night. You shut out the noise and the sadness and you try and live in the moment.
I’d doubled up on Friday and frustratingly, at the end of the second gig, removing my wraparound tripod from the frame of some wall fixture, I snapped the aluminium adjustable gooseneck arm and I spent yesterday applying Bostik and black tape to it. It just about held for last night’s Leyton gig, but while I try to find a replacement, I’ve also ordered some Epoxy glue on eBay which might do the job.
I finally went to sleep around 4am after catching up on Talksport’s entire 3-hour boxing show that I usually listen to on Saturday nights. There’s not a single presenter on that station who doesn’t annoy me, apart from Simon Jordan (all the late-to-the party Jordan fans never read his superb Observer column through the mid-to-late noughties) Martin Kelner who’s simply too good for those guys, but I need my fix of boxing, and I had Match of the Day on the iPad (muted - the only way to watch a terrible show and I always skip through the medicocre analysis). I’d recorded Liverpool’s game at Palace but was back to late to watch the entire game. Once I saw the highlights were towards the end of Match of the Day, I guessed we were looking at a goalless draw.
The Match of the Day running order is always a giveaway. It’s shortsighted thinking on the programme’s part. If I was running that show, I’d be opening the odd week with a goalless draw to throw viewers. The younger generation probably wouldn’t accept that a 0-0 can be a good game, but hey, Italy’s goalless draw with The Netherlands in the Euro 2000 semi-finals before they dispatched the co-hosts on penalties remains one of the finest games I’ve ever seen.
Tonight I’ve got that rarity for me, a local gig in Brixton, so it’ll make a nice change just being able to walk to that, and the MC is probably my favourite MC on the circuit. He’s very funny, curates his nights, and brings a nice and often chaotic energy to his nights. The first time I did one of his shows in Sydenham just under a year ago, was a big turning point for me. I didn’t know the area at all. My bus left me nowhere near the venue. I had to run the rest of the way. Two fights almost broke out at the show. There were all manner of things going on. I came through the night and never looked back.
Below, some sinister-handed stand-up action.
Yesterday, pre-gig, I caught up with my friend Sean, in Elephant and Castle. We caught up for a couple of hours before travelling to the Leyton gig together. I’ve known him for a year now and can say he’s one guy I would’ve been friends with had I met him outside the circuit. Sometimes you just make that connection with someone.
He can be a man of mystery though. Last spring, I gave him my number. There was no number winging back the other way for weeks. I thought that’s odd. If this had been a situation with the opposite sex, I’d have definitely thought, “Yeah, move on. Nothing’s happening here.” And it was only last night that I finally, with some clever questioning, finally got his age out of him. With those taciturn attributes, I suspect he’d make a good super hero.
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