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I am continuing to sell my past to fund my future
on my eBay page, and thanks to those of you buying up the old Lee and/or Herring stuff, which will help pay for the editor and cameraman fees for the last series of RHLSTP. I put up some more stuff today, some of it quite obscure, including a very rare Lee and Herring T-shirt (I think these were sold for about 2 days at the Edinburgh Fringe before the merchandise bloke realised it wasn’t worth his time - so not sure there were ever many of these out there) and the Virgilio Anderson T shirts that Andrew and I had especially made for that Collings and Herrin podcast. And for our Time Gentlemen Please fan, there’s a rehearsal draft on one of the scripts with the notes I made at the time. If you can’t afford to buy these things then you have a chance to win stuff like this in the monthly draws
for monthly subscribers.(plus an ever increasingly library of exclusive extras - a fun backstage chat with Trevor Lock and Paul Putner has just gone up)
It’s an odd feeling saying goodbye to the stuff that I have somewhat obsessively stored over the last few years, but it seems appropriate to use the funds for more comedy. I will keep adding stuff weekly as long as I can find things that I think might be of interest to anyone. What a shame that we forgot to rescue things like the Curious Alien or the Curious Orange heads. I still have Histor (though he has been battered about and lost his wings) and Stew has Pliny (which he stored in a basement where he got damp and rotted a bit), but it would seem wrong to sell these. They aren’t just props they are people (so Stew should be sent to prison for what he has done to Pliny). I think we might donate them to the Museum of Comedy (for their safety as much as anything).
The Deadpan magazine is interesting (but you don’t have to bid to read it, t
he interview we did is up here). I think this was the only ever Lee and Herring front cover ever (and I haven’t had one solo either), but Deadpan was a moribund publication, one of a few attempts at a magazine aimed at stand-up comedy fans. The fact that this was the anniversary issue already meant that it had done well (though I have a feeling it may also have been the final issue). We were 26 years old, on the cusp of own TV series and being touted as from the cool comedy underground. It’s a label that sits more comfortably on Stewart, with his ridiculous hair cut and dragging on his cigarette, but clearly not at all on me, a duffle coat wearing, awkward nerd. I can feel my discomfort in the cover photo particularly, or maybe I just remember doing it and recall feeling like a sham. We were aware enough to take the piss and the interview makes it clear that we don’t think of ourselves as cool - hence our bold claim that we wished to be worshipped like Gods, though one out of two isn’t bad on that one (someone commented on Twitter that God’s ultimate aim is to be worshipped like Stewart Lee). But then again I am sure I must have enjoyed being touted as being thought of in this way, however much of a phoney I might have felt about it. I was only human and as a comedy fan must have been over-excited about being seen as the next big thing) I think I managed to retain a good sense of how ridiculous it all was and the outsider status that we boast of in the interview. It’s part of the reason I was never really accepted into that world. You can’t have someone on the inside who thinks the whole charade is ridiculous or it all falls apart. I still find it funny whenever I go to any "celebrity" gathering and stand at the edges laughing. That's why I don't get invited to any of them. Interestingly enough we’ve both carried on our careers in our separate and uncompromising little worlds. Outsiders only trying to get in so we can blow a raspberry and run away again.
Ah, anyway, it was fun stepping back 20 years and seeing who was in vogue then and who still is. There’s a small piece about Brendan O’Carroll in his pre-Mrs Brown days, reviews of 80s stand-up legends Tony Allen and Chris Lynam. The Comedy Cafe Newcastle had rising stars Ross Noble and Paddy Kielty on, as well as names that might not be so familiar outside of comedy circles, Anvil Springsteen and Steve Drayton. And there’s articles on Jack Dee, Lily Savage and the maybe less memorable Kid Tempo and the Ginger Prince. On the radio at the time Paradise Lost in Space and Dry Slopes, starring Nick Ball. In another Universe Nick, Kid Tempo, Steve Drayton and me are big stars. Perhaps it’s random or perhaps there’s a reason why some people do well and others don’t. It might be talent. It might be ambition. It might just be luck.
It’s a good thing to leave the past behind, I am sure. The past is a foreign country, they have different comedy there. Except they still have Jack Dee and Patrick Kielty.
In preparation for my 12 show marathon
over August and September, I am trying to refamiliarise myself with some of the material by doing a couple of Best of Shows at the Udderbelly on the South Bank in July. It will be all different material in the two shows.
You can buy tickets here.I wonder which routines will make it through to my top two hours.
