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Over to Wells today to do a RHLSTP and an hour long version of Oh Frig I’m 50! I think I did my first preview of this show in Wells last year. Thankfully it has come on a very long way in that time. It might have been symbolically satisfying had it been my last tour show. But there are three more now.
RHLSTP (EATWCF) featured my oldest ever guest, Michael Eavis (a full 11 months and a few days older than Brian Blessed), the creator of the Pilton Pop Festival (better known as the Glastonbury Festival). You would not know he was in his eighties. And he seems determined to stay at the helm of the festival for another decade. What a pleasure it was to get to meet this Somerset legend. Some great stories about Marc Bolan and many more. It will be released in about a month.
I had an hour between shows and popped out to buy a sandwich from a nearby garage with a Spar in it, because, you know, showbiz. As I crossed the forecourt a youngish looking man got out of a white van and shouted, “You can’t even drive!†As I wasn’t driving I don’t think this was a critique. It was a callback to my driving instructor character Peter Dibdin. It’s been a while since anyone shouted that at me. Though (like that great Viz article about Clive Dunn) I am now the age of that character, so maybe I will start to get recognised again.
In hindsight I reckon Peter Dibdin was my shot. Had we pushed that a bit harder and maybe done a couple more sketches, I think he might have entered the public consciousness and tipped us over from cult, forgotten sketch show into something akin to the Fast Show and Little Britain. I think we had enough strong ideas to make that transition. And Dibdin might have been the way into our world for a lot more people. I might have appeared in a couple of poor quality British films.
Maybe.
But one man in Wells still remembers. And I remember at the time, that was all I hope for it.
It was fun bumping into other comics in the dressing room. Elf Lyons was preparing for her show by putting on lots of pairs of pants. She was annoyed because she’d accidentally left her ballet shoes in the freezer. I can’t tell you how many shows I have wrecked with the same mistake. If she was as funny on stage as she was in the dressing room then her audience had a treat.
I did an hour long version of my 50 show. It went well. And then I got in the car for the long drive home to drink champagne with my wife to make up for missing another weekend. But only three more tour dates now. And who knows when the next tour will be?
