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I have managed to (at least partly) deflect my daughter away from a life-destroying obsession with poker and have steered her towards Uno, a game I happily play against people on the internet for about an eighth of my waking hours. But now I have a human being to play against and she’s picked up the game pretty quickly (it’s a simple game, largely of luck, but she’s already on top of most of the edges you can give yourself). Again eight years in, I discover another small advantage to having kids. You can play Uno against them. Though she does cry if she loses and chucks the cards at me, so I have to throw the occasional game. Though to be fair I think she beats me more than I would beat her even if playing it straight. It’s scary. But I admire her competitive spirit and desire to win, just as I am clueless as to where she might have got that from.
If only I had had a competitive games person training me up from the age of 8. Imagine what I could have achieved with this life. But hopefully I am creating a Frankingstein to achieve that greatness in the next few decades as I watch down from Mount Olympus.
I had a fun morning playing Uno and helping with homework and playing at school (what else would you want to do on a Bank Holiday) before tag team parenting for the afternoon and preparing for my fourth appearance at the Bill Murray doing Can I Have My Ball Back? WIP. I tried to learn some more of the stuff, had a few ideas about new twists and turns and then drove to London to try it all out.
It was another cracking Bank Holiday crowd who jumped on board the testicular cancer bus and seemed to have a fine old time. Being more off book meant I had the opportunity to go off at tangents and discover new thoughts and that’s really how a show gets written and you work out what needs to be in there and what is superfluous. I discovered a new little room when wondering why the word cancer is unsayable, and is in fact used as a jolly name for a star sign - my own star sign as it happens and I found a whole new bit that I was delighted to reveal was also a surprise to me. I remembered to tape this week’s show, but will I listen back to work out where that gold came from and whether I can recreate it?
No.
I got lots of lovely comments in the bar afterwards, both about the show and how much the podcasts have meant to people. One man had brought a Hitler Moustache DVD to be signed and so it’s the only one in existence (so far) that has me writing about now doing my Hitler Ball show. The Bill Murray is a remarkable venue, where they put on 3 or 4 shows every night and have a dedicated following of proper comedy fans. It makes it the absolute ideal place to try out new stuff - the audience love being the first to see stuff (sometimes the only people to see stuff) and to see a comedian working through their process and the comedian gets accurate feedback on what’s working and what’s not.
I certainly feel after the four gigs I’ve done that there is a tour show in Can I Have My Ball Back? and maybe a rather excellent one. I am still dancing around on the surface, but occasionally I plunge through the ice to see the depths beneath and get a feeling of what is possible to achieve with this show.
Right Bollock made his first appearance (in this show) at the end of the performance tonight and even though as usual we dried up a bit when presented with a real life audience, he seemed to be appreciated. I need to give his part in the show some thought, but I think it could add a whole new dimension. I want it to be symbollock of the need to cut out toxic influences from your life, but that might stretch this packed show a bit too far. We’ll see. Using my relationship with my daughter as the thread through seems to be working well. My bollock (probably) in part helped create her, but it also threatened to take me away from her. Eee he’s a right bollock.
