HeadSpill

So a bloke called Matt Smith is the new Doctor Who and he’s only 26. God I feel old. The second he came on the telly I thought *TOO YOUNG*, with some hostility, but then it looks like he can act, and I’m sure new producer Moffatt knows what he’s doing. Thinking about it, it’s really cosmic karma. In the 60’s the main actor was an old man before I was even born, so to have the show you love still be successful 45 years later it goes without saying your going to pass the target demographic at some (very late) point. Good look to him, he has a very interesting head.

The annoucement was made on Saturday an hour before ITV’s new fantasy attempt ‘DEMONS’, which was a bit average in it’s opening episode, a bit Harry Potter and bit Buffy mixed together. Phil ‘Gene Hunt’ Glenister does a decent american accent, but such is the success of Gene Hunt, it’s hard to see him as anything else.

I’ve started writing new stuff, with an eye toward Edinburgh 09, but I’ll have to get a shuffle on if I’m doing it and save a few grand to flush away.

Wedding
So I’m at the wedding of some friends in Windermere, it’s December, cold, and the ceremony is at the bit where the bride throws the bouquet. As the bunch of flowers flies into the air behind her I try to take a photo but all I can hear is my girlfriend shouting the word ‘baggsied!’ (a term meaning ‘get off, it’s mine’). According to tradition I am now next in line to get married. Apparently.

The Speaker
I’ve done some filming with ther BBC for a new show called ‘The speaker’ (see more here: www.bbc.co.uk/speaker ) which goes out in January on BBC 2. It’s a competition to find Britain’s best young speaker and after every new episode there’s a new short film published online covering a day in the life of someone who’s job is public speaking. One week It’ll be a singer, another week a teacher, and then I’m on week 6 or thereabouts talking about being a comic.

The recording took place at a small gig in Stockport which was lovely, so I’m hoping it shows in the broadcast.

Fallout 3
The last 2 months my life has been sucked dry by the gaming pleasure of Fallout 3. The joy of wandering around a post apocalyptic landscape listening to ‘I dont want top set the world on fire’, and shooting big monsters with bigger guns was the best game I’ve played in yonks. I want my life back now.

Telly
As you may or may not know I’m a massive fan of old and cult telly; everything from Quatermass and Starfleet (the puppet version, not the roddenbery one) to Edge of Darkness and my all time favourite Day of the Triffids (BBC ‘81 version), which is currently being remade, thanks to the success of New Doctor Who and the recent remake of Survivors.
Survivors, a  show from the 70’s was all about everyone dying out from a virus, this time a bird-flu type epidemic. It’s been all been a bit too sexy for my liking, not enough grime and unpleasentness. My biggest problem, however was the last episode didn’t actually end and just stopped as it got going to leave you wanting more, which is a bit rubbish.

Bye Bye 2008
It’s nearly the end of 2008, a time to reflect on what 2008 brought and set goals for 2009. For me the biggest achievments have been my edinburgh show,  despite the successs not being large in commercial terms I feel I’ve evolved as a comic. Also going fully self employed, which as no small task and will probably form the basis of a show in 2009.

Goodbye to the man.
I am now the man. My own boss. In October handed in my notice and filled in my first fax return to go self employed. It was and is a big deal.

Balancing life and work is not an easy equation, you can either have time or money. Ever since I decided I wanted to be a comic back in 2001 It soon became apparent that time was needed to write, travel and perform. This is opposed by work, or more specifically money. Money to travel, pay rent, eat and live generally.

Some comics, even pro comics still do work other than comedy to pay the bills.  It doesn’t make them any less gifted as comics, but it’s merely a temporary means of supplementing their career, nothing more.

I’m a comedian. I’m also a middleweight graphic designer and have been for a while, with a ‘career’ job, the kind agencies advertise for in newspapers, and can pay quite hansomely, up to 30k in some places.

Q. Which of the above titles is more valid?

‘Middleweight’ might sound grand but I never called myself ‘middleweight’ by choice. I was told I was ‘middleweight’ by an agency bod over the phone once when they asked what I could do, I still prefer simply ‘designer’, if at all. It took me years to confidently say I’m a comedian, and anyone can use that title simply by getting on stage for 5 minutes.

A. neither. 

I’d managed to negociate reduced hours to accomodate my career in comedy, which didn’t happen overnight, but even then the more time I’d had the more I wanted to fully capitalise on the gig opportunities I was getting.

I spoke to a few freelancers, most had become freelancers due to other commitments or because they’d never been in full time employment and couldn’t ever see themselves staying in the same place for long time.

People I know who are self employed are the most overworked people I know, they don’t have a pay cheque coming in at the end of the month, so whatever work they get needs to be done as soon as possible. Also while they are doing that work they need to be looking for more work and selling themselves to do when that work is done.

I went to to ‘business start up’ seminar. I thought it would help and it did, but not in the way I thought. The main lessons I pretty much already knew from chasing comedy bookings, self confidence, go out and get the work, have an angle thats uniquely yours.

I liked freelancing, and started doing some out of hours work as well as gigs (no time to socialise), but did nothing to get more, thinking it too unstable and irregular to take seriously. Though suppose I knew the real reason wasn’t this, or abilty, but somthing more substantial. Fear.

Fear is a great motivator. You can do a lot of things with it. I’d never not had a full time job and couldn’t fathom how I’d survive without a regular pay packet at the end of the month. Even though some months gigs and freelance paid plently.

Life had become like ’stone soup’, the story where a traveller puts a stone in a pot, adds water and veg and makes stone soup. He deceives the locals it’s the stone that makes the tastey broth, when in actuality it’s all the other stuff thats added that makes it wholesome.  I was making stone soup and focusing on the stone.

The next day I handed my notice in. That was 3 months ago.  I’ve not looked back.

The Manchester Comedy Festival kicks off this week and I’m not in it because I missed the deadline and didn’t get a venue for my show sorted. Event’s have a funny way of conspiring though, and as it happens the Literature festival runs on exactly the same dates, and I’m doing two things for that, and even have my face in the brochure for the Poetry Slam Final that I’m mc’ing at the Northern Pub. During the fest I’ll be compering a Doctor Who convention (see previous post) on Saturday and doing the late night Asylum next Wednesday. As well as that I’ve got a whole new night kicking off in November, ‘Northern Humour‘, a sunday new material/character/wacky stuff night in the Northern Pub which promises to be proper fun.

The fest appears to be a lot more low key than in previous years, which is a bit of a shame for something that really needs to be as in-yer-face as it possibly can. With no sponsership this year it’s hard to can as much exposure when all the work being done to promote it is more or less being donated by the organisers. Hopefully next year it will be bigger, but that’ll only happen if more people get behind it, promoters and comics alike.

Utter Joy. If you were to list my favourite things in order they would pretty much be comedy, Doctor Who, cider,  comics and animation. So when I’m asked if I’d like to mc a Doctor Who Convention all about comics in a pub, I had to check I hadn’t fallen through a whole in my own mind and mistaken reality for a wish list.

Meeting the organiser Gareth I hoped I did’nt come over as a gob*****, as everything he spoke of I knew something about,  but it’s just true.  Doing my small press comic back in the 90’s I’d been to comic conventions and met some of the artists who are coming. Doing flash animation for the ‘Get Happy’ show a year back, I’d bumped into Firestep, the guys who did the WHO infinite quest animation, and been to their studio. And of course Doctor Who itself, I’d only just rewatched some vintage McCoy the previous night. It’s like it was meant to be, weird.

It’s great news too as ‘forgot’ to put my show in for the Manchester comedy festival, but I am in the Literature Fest Brochure twice, so I can’t complain.

Big up to Brian Gorman for getting me into the press opening for the Doctor Who up close exhibiton which open this Saturday at the S&I museum.

It’s the biggest exhibition of WHO stuff in europe apparently, and they got pretty much all the monsther from series two and a JUDOON!

I helped myself to canapes and bubbley while the curator was attacked by cybermen at the end of his speech and lead away to have his brains scooped out/be interviewed by local radio (it’s the same but different). Then they stomped around some more.

I spotted at least two terrified kids who’d nearly wet themselves with fright, instilled with a healthy dose of fear in the way only Doctor who can do.

Top evening.

Also present was fellow comedian and (for the next 13 weeks) Satuday night sofa buddy, Toby Hadoke who is currently touring with his show (see elsewhere on this thread).
These pics don’t really do just to how impressive and detailed the modelwork is, if you can go and see it yourself, you should.