After recording two podcasts-
Collings and Herrin 95 followed by Perfect Twelve Christmas Special number 2 with Phil Wilding and Phill Jupitus (which will be out on Monday), I headed to the Bloomsbury for the second of Robin Ince's "Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People" shows. I had had a lot of fun there last night, both with my seven minutes on stage, but also down in the green room eating chocolate, drinking beer and talking to the likes of Barry Cryer, John Otway and Johnny Ball (who would later
cause a little controversy, though I had headed home by then.
Tonight was equally lovely, but with the additional excitement of the presence of living legend Alan Moore. Dressed in a fabulous purple robe and carrying a gnarled walking stick, with his wild beard and hair he looked like a wizard or a warlock or some kind of crazy holy man or a living, walking god. And everyone who saw him reacted with muted awe.
Though unlike some of my friends I didn't spend my childhood reading graphic novels, I am a fan of Moore's work and after re-reading Watchmen recently was incredibly excited about meeting this intelligent and talented genius, but decided I would probably be too nervous to talk to him. So it was a bit of a surprise when he walked into the green room, saw me sitting on the sofa and said, "It's Richard Herring." It turned out that he was quite a fan of TMWRNJ and we got chatting quickly and easily about how our various work had corrupted a generation or two of children. I told Alan that I was not as into graphic novels as other people I knew and that as far as I was concerned he was the only person working in the medium. He agreed with my analysis - he was the only one.
I think I saw Chris Addison tweeting later that Alan Moore disproved the saying about never meeting your heroes and I would concur with that. He was remarkably down to earth for a supernatural wizard and charming and friendly, not only happy to talk about his work, but bringing up the Watchmen himself, which I was too self-conscious to do. As is well documented he was not happy about the film version, but did admit to very much enjoying the youtube parody showing it as a
Saturday morning kids show, which I felt he would quite like to have seen as a genuine series. And he was also chuckling about
this Watchmen based Downfall skit , both which facts would surely make the creators of the pieces do a little wee of excitement.
Moore was also awesome on stage, addressing a room of rationalists and atheists and explaining why there might be a god and why the Universe could possibly be conscious, as well as gently mocking Stewart Lee's militant atheism, meaning that Lee has now been derided on stage by two of his childhood heroes (the other being Mark E Smith of the Fall), which probably makes him do a little wee as well.
Hopefully the whole thing will be available for public consumption at some point. It was wise and funny and interesting and challenging, in exactly the kind of way that Johnny Ball probably wasn't yesterday (though God bless him for coming back tonight and lightly mocking himself and getting on with something different - for me there is no problem with people challenging orthodox thought and Ball has managed to at least get everyone discussing climate change which is all that really matters).
It's a massive privilege to be involved in these shows, which after just two years already feel like an institution and to get to meet the other people involved. It's hard to be sure which of them are merely eccentric, which of them are crazy and which of them are geniuses, but there's not a person here who isn't interesting or spectacular in some way (with the possible exception of Andrew Collings). All the Bloomsbury gigs are sold out, but there are still tickets left for
the Hammersmith Apollo spectacular on Sunday. If you even remotely in the area then you really should come and see it. I don't think Alan Moore will be at that one, but it's still an astonishing line up and I am very much looking forward to having another crack at a short set in that amazing theatre.
And if you're looking for a great Christmas present then why not buy
tickets to my forthcoming Hitler Moustache tour. All confirmed dates are now up on that new easy to view dedicated page. A few more might be added, but I think we're up to 57 or so nights, so I hope not too many more. As you can see it's going to be quite a punishing schedule.
Hope you can make it to one of them.
