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Back to Leicester Square today, where I was faced with the indignity of there being a huge billboard advertising the Off Menu chumps right in the Square itself. You can tell they are threatened by me when they're forced to take this kind of action. I prefer to spread the news of my podcast via cards in Newsagents windows. But if they want to blow money on making themselves feel like Billy four bollocks then that's up to them.
Chris Evans (not that one) had made the bold decision to stream in high definition tonight. Would that bring our empire of live streaming crashing to the ground? No. So far it's all worked brilliantly and we've had total success wit it. Thanks to those of you who have already signed up. We're raising a good sum for charity.
I was surprised to see that it was almost six years since David Mitchell had last guested on the show. Time has flown by since the kids turned up and deprived me of sleep. You'd think time would pass more slowly when you weren't sleeping because sleep is like a miraculous fast forward button on your life that propels you about eight hours into the future every day. But no.
He is a charming and down to earth man, though he sided with the Caffe Nero man who wanted stamps to make up for the lack of plates, so who knows? It was fun to riff with him about baristas and body swap films where there is little to no difference between the people who swap.
Tim Key was the other guest and that was another great scoop. I've been trying to get him on for ages, but he doesn't usually do stuff like this, so was really pleased to finally land him. He said afterwards that he'd been very nervous (not that you'd have noticed - he seemed calm to the point of arrogance!) and he looked like he was going to be a very tricky customer (though in the best possible way as he was being very funny as he attempted and succeeded in undermining me), but we got through choppy seas filled with impishness (from us both) and found a surprising calm as he talked about the surreal nature of landing the job to play his childhood comedy hero's sidekick (I think he meant being on the podcast). Both shows felt like top 10 classics to me, but Tim's especially. He is an incredible comedian and actor and such an original thinker. But he conveys so much with a smirk or a look and is so naturally funny. We both gave as good as we got and I was able to chastise him for
cracking my rib and to thank him for the inspirational gift he gave me to make up for it.
Another sold out show (though a lot of those tickets were sold back in the spring of 2020) and another fabulous audience (with a couple of hecklers which is unusual, but maybe people are glad to be out of the house and they were supportive rather than annoyed). Please keep supporting us with your presence in the theatre or online.
