And I will be the father to a 21 year old son.
21 short years and so much accomplished (by him I mean, mainly)…
Without doubt, it has been a bad week for tigers.
In a UK zoo, a real tiger does what it is programmed to do and a warden is mauled to death.
And in the US, another Tiger – albeit not a real Tiger – is laid low by the frailties of being a human being.
This week I am hosting a conference in Munich, Germany for 600 IT professionals.
And for such a short sentence, anyone who knows me will understand just how far outside of my comfort zone that I find myself.
Nothing quite as communal, galvanising and compelling than a jig saw puzzle. A story that I regret omitting from Eclipsed involves The Impossible jig saw puzzle. Bought in Spain but started and completed in Thailand, a 2000 piece intricate beast exercised the efforts of the entire cast and crew over many many weeks. Transcending all languages, people from the world over got drawn in and helped to complete it.
Funny is fiercely competitive with winners and losers and toxic jealousies all too common. Comedians compare themselves with each other almost continually and this is easily done along any number of very tangible parameters. How many gigs? Which gigs? Running order? Size of rooms? Size of fee? TV slots… and on and on it goes.
Having never produced a physical DVD of my stand-up I was unaware that the market for comedy DVDs has long since collapsed.
My bags are packed. Shorts, flip-flops and my act. Have jokes, will travel…
Will blog from Dubai and back home again in 10 days.
Onwards…
Some friends and lots of acquaintances getting in touch abuzz with excitement because they had no idea that the new Spider-Man happens to be the eldest Holland child. Really? My blog and book Eclipsed has some reach I think to myself! These are people I know…
Tonight is my last ever gig in my forties and fittingly is a no fee gig at a school to run in some links and a new routine. A good full stop then to what I refer to as my lost comedy decade!
As I explain in my book, Eclipsed, all comics and most people I meet in show-biz are in the process of writing or ‘developing’ some project or other. In order of ambition; a screenplay, TV sit-com, radio sit-com or play, TV treatment, a children’s book… and in the main, with absolutely zero success.