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Failed to make the Sunday Times Rich list again. Can’t believe I’m not in the top 100 most famous people called Rich.
Back to where it all began today for a double dose of single balls. I woke up early, of course and my brain was a bit fuzzy for the first gig. I made a few mistakes and missed a couple of mildly crucial bits, but the audience were behind me and it was still a fun gig, even if I felt like it was all slightly out of my control. You'd expect me to be more tired for the second gig, but I'd kicked into gear by then and was much more present in the performance. Perhaps my brain doesn't kick into stand up mode until the evening.
I don't think anyone would really have noticed the difference from the audience point of view and even when I get a bit out of my depth the show is pretty solid, but it's weird how you can go be the duck underwater and the duck on the surface so quickly in the same room.
I had idly thought I might try and visit my childhood home in between gigs, but I hadn't rung my parents to get the address and it was better that I just chilled out. I doubt that many memories would have been stirred. Pocklington seems lovely, but there's really not much connection to the past for me. Half a century ago, I suspect, there were no kebab shops or out of town supermarkets, so that place has changed as much as I have. I have no right to complain - I am almost unrecognisable as the 4 year old with a broad Yorkshire accent who left this place in 1971.
They are all about William Wilberforce here - a man who wasn't even born here, just went to the school. And what did he really achieve in his life? He never even won a single episode of Taskmaster. Hopefully next time I visit there will be a statue to me outside the weirdly empty and odd-smelling Costa. I nearly had my lunch there but the awful selection of sandwiches combined with the strange stink sent me scurrying for the door and I found a nice secret cafe down the back alleys so it was a win win. Good to see the people of Pocklington eschewing the stinky Costa.
Puppet master Richard Ison came to the second show, bringing with him a bag packed with Right Bollock stress balls. They are things of beauty and extreme ugliness and I am not sure if people will want to buy them. But they're hand-made and less than 100 have ever been made, so they are something for dedicated fans of my bollocks.
There's one for sale here, but the finger puppet one is considerably rarer so if you want to sink your money in the gonad market and see your investment grow, that's probably the one you should go for!
Two RHLSTPs in a day (4 interviews) would have destroyed me, but even though I started the day tired, I ended it pretty full of beans. Even the show that almost got away from me was huge fun. Hopefully I can do a better job of balancing podcasts with stand up (and maybe even some writing) in the future. But stand up is the most fun for me (at least for the moment).
It's still tough being away from home though - and a part of me wondered why this Pocklington gig was out on its own on tour, when moving it to next Saturday would have meant we had a run of four gigs in the north east, rather than three. But that's the way with touring, especially at my level. You don't get to pick and choose. Phoebe had her football club awards ceremony this morning and I was sad to miss it. Catie sent me a video of her receiving her trophy for being the best defender. Her team mates starting pointing at her as soon as the category was announced and the coaches gave a glowing and accurate assessment of her skills and commitment. I teared up watching it, out of pride for my fabulous girl and sorrow at missing on being there. She will be moving on to a new team when we move house, but it's been an incredible couple of years in the village team. She's always been the only girl on the team and to begin with the others were sceptical and wouldn't pass to her, but she's won those sexist children round. She's a superstar and she knows it and I hope she can maintain that public school level of self-confidence without going to public school!
