Warming Up

I recorded three podcasts today and am doing two or three more tomorrow. Talking is surprisingly exhausting and I hadn’t done myself any favours by waking up in the middle of the night, with night terrors, for some reason thinking about the time I went to see my gran in her old folks’s home and we got out on the wrong floor. The corridor looked exactly like the one Grandma was on, but it had a weird feel to it and there was moaning coming from each room and the people we saw were sad and suffering. I wrote about it here. The idea of heading to an old age full of confusion of pain is bad enough when you’re compis mentis, but in the dark hole of a 2am panic attack it’s a bit too terrifying. It passed and I eventually got some sleep. I hope I die before I get old. Too late.

I was in town early to chat to the brilliant and funny Margaret Cabourn-Smith for her Crushed podcast and although I got drenched in a heavy shower on the walk over there, I had a very enjoyable time, talking about the people I had fancied without telling them over the years (though there wasn’t time to get to the puppets and CBBC presenters of recent years). I have the somewhat unusual experience of having dated one of my big crushes and we revisited the oddness of the Julia Sawalha shrine followed by the oddness of my 18 month relationship with Julia. Of course I was playing a character in that sketch (the content of which feels a bit dodgy 25 years on - though that was kind of the point and I think the innocence and harmlessness of my manboy character took the edge off the darkness of some of the ideas) and I had a crush on a character that Julia played and it was interesting to unpick that and consider why it’s a bad idea to get into any kind of relationship with a “fan”. At the very least it gets things started on an unequal footing.

Anyway strange to revisit that and also my schoolday crushes, though those have been on my mind a bit too and I am ruminating on an idea in which I might explore that.

Then over to the Phoenix for two rollicking RHLSTPs, one with Kunt from Kunt and the Gang, which again made me consider how a low status and cheeky character can say the most awful things in the world and somehow get away with it (not for everyone obviously). I’ve been a fan of Kunt’s stuff (and I loved that I had to call him Kunt as he doesn’t reveal his real name) for a long time and it was interesting to catch up on it today and to listen to his autobiography. He’s much taller than I imagined and more sensitive than he might appear from some of his songs, though what makes the character work is the underlying fact that he’s not really making a judgement. In “I Sucked Off A Bloke (I didn’t like it)” there is no homophobia and in fact a very clear undercurrent that he might enjoy sucking off a bloke if his cock was cleaner and the final “I didn’t like it” suggests that he did like it regardless. The more recent chart topping songs have  had a sense of real subversive satire beneath their crudeness. Pointing out basic truths in a way that somehow isn’t done by the actual media. Yes, he is offensive and some of it might feel a bit much, but it’s somehow offensiveness in a safe space and you can tell that his material is being taken in the right way, because his fans are (ironically) not horrible cunts. Quite the opposite. It’s a remarkable comedy creation and one that could only have found success via the internet, but the warmth behind it is what makes it work. It’s just two fingers up to the horrors of the world and confronting them through broad strokes comedy, with the addition of brilliant lyrical invention and unbelievably catchy tunes. I kept singing Paperboy out loud all day. It really is something that isn’t funny shorn of context.

And it was great to talk to Meryl O Rourke who has been doing comedy just about as long as I have and isn’t a household name, but who is a fantastic stand up and whose special Vanilla (available on Next Up) has some great lines and even greater talking points. 

I’d been close to collapse at the start of the evening, but a double espresso and an enthusiastic crowd lifted me and got me buzzing. As always I crashed a bit on the drive home (metaphorically, not literally) and was listening to one of the books that I am recording a book club on tomorrow. But home safe.

Today’s Retro RHLSTP is with Kay Mellor, a little tribute to her as she sadly passed away last month. I really enjoyed this podcast. I think she was a bit suspicious of me to begin with, but warmed to me and gave some incredible writing advice and told her inspirational story. Such a great loss. I love this photo, which I got at the last minute, rushing out to the car park as she was about to leave, but I think it shows how well we’d connected. She was a proper legend. So do give this a listen if you didn’t hear it at the time.