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A fun afternoon talking to Helen Lederer about her book "Not That I'm Bitter" and Peter Pomerantsev about his book "How To Win an Information War" - two quite different books by two quite different people.
I first met Helen in 1987 outside the Fringe Box Office where she was leafletting (I think) and I definitely was. I hadn't met many famous people at this point and Helen had been in The Young Ones, so I was in awe. I gave her a leaflet and made the rookie mistake of saying "I'll come to your show if you come to mine." I am sure that's happened to me the other way round a few times in the years since, but it's a dumbass thing to say. Obviously I would have got a lot more out of that arrangement than Helen. Especially as we probably only got a total of 50 people to our lunchtime sketch show. Helen had been neither impolite or polite, though I am sure felt the disdain that I deserved.
I think we've bumped into each other a couple of times over the years, but it was cool to get to talk to her properly for 45 minutes. Her book is one of the most authentic and honest autobiographies I've read, much more interesting for being by someone who hasn't had the success they have deserved (though she's still had more success than she realises, I think). It's funny, but like Lou Sanders hilarious book, it also made me sad. Both those comedians are unique but have a similar vibe, I guess and an otherworldly naivety (perhaps) or openness (maybe) that can be exploited by pricks and both those books have stories that made me angry and unhappy on their behalf.
But both of them are resilient and amazing and do things that no other human being would consider doing.
One can never be sure how other people respond to you or whether you personally have done something wrong. Both Helen and I have worked with people who've gone on to be wildly famous, without reaching those heights ourselves (I'd say she was higher up the middle than me), but was it some mistake on our parts that meant we didn't get taken along for the ride, or bad luck or good luck (I told her about the episode of Girls 5 Eva with Richard Kind in it, which I think is very wise about the notions of success and failure). Helen and I have definitely made some errors of judgement (never together unfortunately), but I think her book has more to say about the nature of the entertainment business than anything written by "bigger" names.
I also think she should be on Taskmaster and have told Alex Horn so. If her or Joe Pasquale are ever on then it will ALL be down to me. Both would create wonderful carnage I am sure.
Peter was a different kettle of fish for sure - we had some tech issues (though he was in Washington DC so it's incredible that we could connect at all) and he was a bit jet lagged, but he has a lot to say about propaganda and how we have to confront it and his book about World War II propaganda wars (but also what we're going through now) is exceptional. He was more optimistic than me about the possibility of overcoming social media madness (though only if we're prepared to confront it in the right way) but ominously pessimistic about stuff that might be coming up for the human race. We might have some difficult years ahead, to add to the difficult years we've already had and are having. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. I hope we all see each other on the other side.
Both podcasts out in May!
But never mind about that. I also played another frame of snooker and it was a magnificent sporting event.
Don't miss it.
