In the interests of balance I include my review from the Metro. I knew the review was likely to be out today, but was going into the library quite late and didn't get on the tube til about half one. All the copies of Metro were gone and I couldn't find any on the train itself. Then an old lady got on with one folded on her lap. She wasn't reading it. Could I just grab it off her and then run off laughing?
Not really as I was on the tube, which was moving and thus my escape routes were minimal. I bumped into a friend and told him of my dilemma. He offered to create a diversion, but I felt stealing an old lady's paper was morally wrong. As I approached my destination I figured this might be my last chance to get the paper and there probably wouldn't be any left at King's Cross, so I asked her if I could look at the paper quickly and gave her my Daily Mirror as compensation. I saw the two stars of the review and laughed to myself, before asking if she'd mind if I pulled that page out - so I could have a copy, not to prevent another person reading about how bad my show is. She didn't mind, saying she had another paper in her bag and I could keep the paper. But I didn't want any paper that wrongly thought that I wasn't better than a genius, so I gave her most of it back. Of course the Metro in Edinburgh had given me my only ever 5 star review, but now on average it had given me three and a half stars, which is much more of the level that I am used to and deserve. According to this review I have too much material and yet still somehow manage to spread it too thin, which is quite an achievement. It's actually very similar to the Guardian review I got in Edinburgh. I'm not suggesting that Dominic Maxwell just copied that review and changed a few words though.
The good reviews of yesterday and the programme distribution has all been for naught. I barely got thirty people in yesterday. It is hard not to let your head drop, especially when I was tired and a bit ill, but I hope I gave them a good show.
I went home and watched a little bit of what passes for comedy on a Friday night and felt old and bitter.
