I was a bit spoiled by last week's well attended gigs in Belfast, Bristol (x3) and Nottingham. The last dozen shows are going to be a lot harder work. Tonight I had sold just 49 tickets in Great Torrington in Devon. I am sure it is mainly down to them mistrusting someone arriving from the mythical and futuristic land of Somerset (which many of them still refuse to believe even exists). Clearly the people of Swindon, Hereford and Tewkesbury are similarly bamboozled as sales are looking poor there too. Exeter is looking a bit better.
It was hard work to get the audience going, but they tried hard to sound like ten times as many people and I think they enjoyed it. Though the show was several minutes shorter than it usually is. You don't get rolling laughs with 49 people. I was a bit disappointed with my unsparky performance in the first half, but think I did OK in the second.
It's been a good and positive week, but it's nice to come down to earth with a bump and get a reality check. My appeal remains largely limited.
The news of the idea for paid video podcasts broke (
well, appeared on Chortle) and the response was largely positive. A handful of people have already subscribed and most people seemed to welcome the idea. One man said it was arrogant to charge for a podcast and that I was pricing out the fans that supported me by making them pay. But I am still putting the audio out for nothing and am only really attempting to cover the costs of filming (and I think am unlikely to do so), so it seems a slightly churlish complaint. Especially given how much I do for free. The internet does breed the attitude that nothing should be paid for, but I see the video of the podcasts very much like my DVDs or tour shows. Is it unreasonable to charge for them too? How am I meant to eat? The alternative is that I don't do the filmed version at all. It seems like a valid experiment to me. I am happy to take a punt on it. It'd be exciting if it leads to me being able to bring out more complex ideas. But obviously if there is no demand for it then I will just go back to doing the audio. It seems pretty decent to be still giving the audio out for free anyway when I am trying to make money from the video. Some people, I suppose, are never satisfied.
It was a long and tiring journey to Devon and then another couple of hours for us to get back to Cheddar where we're based for the next few days. We were all blasted by the time we got back to my parents' house and went to bed straight away. My dad had laid an advert from one of the hoardings for a recent Cheddar Valley Gazette out on the bed. It read "Herring: Dad Ate My Lip Balm". It's hardly Freddie Starr ate my hamster, but it's as close as we'll get in this small town. It referred to
an interview I'd done for the Gazette a couple of months ago. Funny to think this was dotted around the town for a week. Though not sure my dad agrees. I bet the paper saw a sale spike that week though.
And to be fair to my dad. He ate his own lip balm.
