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Monday 17th June 2019

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It seemed like insanity and was a surreal day in many ways, but I left my holiday of not even two days to get a train back into London to do more podcasts. It had been impossible to find a week that all our family members could make and so instead of doing just one week, we’ve booked the apartments for two and will come and go as we are able. I had originally intended for the whole family to travel down tomorrow, but realised that it was better for everyone else if we did it this way. And it would have been slightly weirder if I’d relaxed into the holiday vibe completely.
It was still weird to suddenly be in London though.
On the train in I’d got an email asking if I was available to go on Pointless Celebrities on Wednesday where I’d be partnering Michael Sheen. Obviously I’d have loved that. I’d have got to hang out with Wesley Snipes for the second time in a week and become his proper friend and also he’s quite clever, so I think we’d have had a very good chance to win. But I couldn’t really justify making another trip away from my family or prolonging my stay away. Had the gig been on Tuesday I think I’d have done it. But I had to turn it down and cursed my family for existing. If only I’d spent the last ten years drunk and alone and increasingly bitter and empty I could have probably won a Pointless trophy and become best friends with someone who could pretend to be loads of other people if I got bored of him.
I had started the day at 5am as my son woke up and felt about as tired as it is possible to feel without actually being asleep, so I had no idea how the podcasts would go. And there was some last minute drama as Michael texted to tell me he’d arrived, but then was nowhere to be seen and it turned out he’d gone to the Leicester Square Theatre instead. I had thought this might happen to an audience member or two, but had been careful to let all the guests know not to do that, but Michael, as a fan of the podcast, had not even checked the email I’d sent to his people and made a fair assumption.
But he got to the theatre in time and was a brilliant guest and as down to earth and funny as I’d hoped he would be. I had planned for NIsh Kumar to come down and come on when I introduced Michael as a funny joke about his last failed appearance, but Nish was ill and couldn’t make it. Which has a sort of poetry to it.
Having got my serious interview out of the way and my brain cells slowly dying from fatigue, I had a traditional giddy second podcast with Ed Gamble, which went all over the place and left me feeling the drunkest that I have been in 2019 - I was not drunk, but hunger and exhaustion turn out to be a good substitute. And my subconscious took over, allowing yet another young comedian to ask me in an interview if everything was OK.
Back to my tiny hotel room in Paddington to fail to make the most of the opportunity to sleep. I was impressed with their use of space; my room being essentially exactly big enough for a double bed and then a little gap big enough to open the bathroom door and another big enough to open the wardrobe. I didn’t need any more though. 
Thanks also to Kings Place and its staff for being so welcoming and helpful over the last two (I mean four) weeks.


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