4849/17508
Happy International Wassocks' Day everyone. This is the day for all the people who ask when's international men's day on international women's day. No one can question them or call them stupid and have to tell them how brilliant they are for making their brilliant (though wrong) joke.
I wasn't really in the mood.
I got a whole day to work, which is a rarity since Phoebe came along and I made some slow progress on bits and pieces. I put together the second episode of the Happy Now? podcast, which includes a complete expunged routine that's no longer in the show (which is a shame, because I kinda like it). You can listen here.
I also started working on a short film (that I might try and film as part of the As It Occurs To Me show) called Silent but Violent. I've mainly only got the title so far, but you have to agree it's a good one. I don't have any pressing work at the moment so am going to try and get some scripts together for AIOTM in the hope that it happens. Although we're not going to leave the past behind entirely with it, I want a mainly fresh start. Someone said they liked it as it was, as a rough-edged audio thing that's done at the last minute, and I am sure many of you feel the same. But we've done that and I am not interested in doing the exact same thing again (there will undoubtedly be some of that still in the “studio†sections). It's certainly an experiment but I want to see if we can make a TV quality, six part, stand up and sketch show, independently, for the ridiculously cheap price of £12,000 an episode (Ian Kickstarter and Ian VAT will immediately take 25% of the money we raise and as usual I will hope the goodwill engendered will lead to me somehow making money down the line - seems to be working somehow). And I like the idea of it being a patchwork quilt, some bits that I film on my own with my phone and some with higher production values. So whilst cumpkins might get the odd mention and we may attempt to film the motorcycle clothing sketch six times in every more outlandish situations (we may not), I want to push onwards and outwards and see what we end up with. So a funny but arty short film every month would be a welcome addition. My work on Mosquito and “While You Were Away†has shown how much you can achieve in a day with a small crew and limited locations and where everyone is dedicated to making something that is good and not necessarily profitable. I am hoping I can draw on and showcase some of the amazing talent in the UK, who are just getting on and doing things themselves and give them a profile that whilst not exactly high, might reach a new audience. But we're going to make every penny count. If we can do more than six episodes or make the six episodes longer than 30 minutes for the same money then we will do that.
Anyway it's quite exciting and we've made a promising start on the AIOTM Kickstarter, hitting £17,000 in just two days. But we need about another 2000 people to get on board to make this happen. I know the podcasts get a lot more downloads than that and I know there is a hard core of you who contribute to everything (and I am very grateful for that), but I hope that some of the people who've never given anything will step up to the plate for this one. What I like about crowdfunding is that you only have to give a tiny amount to get loads in return, as long as enough people give the tiny amount. I am getting more prepared to find other ways to raise money, but I would love it if we could make all this stuff from fan contributions of a pound.
Anyway, it felt good to be back at my desk and working towards something and I also got time to go to the gym, so maybe I can start to get fit again this year as well. We're also continuing with our attempts to move home, but with no luck so far. A couple of weeks ago it looked like we might be about to do it: we had some strong interest in our house, as well as an offer accepted on a house we wanted to buy. But the offer on ours wasn't as solid as we'd hoped and today we found out that someone else had managed to wrangle the other place away from us. It's the second time we've lost out on a place (though things can go wrong so it's not totally over) and it's a bit of a kick in the teeth. You have started to imagine your new home and the changes you're going to make (both to the house and yourself) and then it disappears in a puff of smoke. Worst of all, we've now got to get back to looking round houses again (but what celebrity chefs and disgraced politicians' lives will we get to intrude upon).
I am quite fatalistic about the house search though, not that I believe there is a special house out there waiting for us, just that we will find somewhere eventually and it will become our home and we'll almost certainly feel glad we're there rather than anywhere else. We're in the incredibly fortunate position of having a nice house in London already, so we'll be able to get a nicer house outside of London. And moving is scary and uncertain and there's a part of me that doesn't mind staying where we are.
On the plus side, once it's certain that we don't get this house, then I am going to be able to tell you about the amazing and ridiculous things about it that I would have had to keep quiet about otherwise.
Sad to see that potential future for the Herring family disappear, but there will be a different one to replace it. Which will almost certainly involve me staying in Shepherd's Bush long enough to get caught up in the zombie apocalypse and become one of the living dead. Which won't be as nice as living in the countryside and having a composter. But whatever will be, will be. And I am sure we'll be happy as zombies.
Oh and Phoebe, arguably, took her first steps today, staggering a couple of paces, unaided from the playpen wall to her mother. That's the stuff that makes a home. Doesn't really matter where you are. And good to know she's got a shot at being a walking zombie and thus in with a chance of “survivalâ€.
The retro video RHLSTP with Stephen Merchant is now up on youtube - (and vimeo and iTunes).
