I am delighted to say that I am back on the telly. By which I mean some of the people who downloaded the video of the Chris Addison podcast from
gofasterstripe have watched it on telly. I am on the telly, I only wanted to be on the telly. And now I am. So I can retire.
Joking aside, this is quite symbolic, because all of this shows that it is now possible to make "TV" shows without having to go through the impossible rigmarole of convincing a broadcaster that it's a good idea.Even the greats have had to contend with this barrier to creativity -
the BBC's original response to Fawlty Towers shows how random this process is. How many possible great sitcoms and shows got strangled at birth? And how did some of the duds that did get made get through this process? I suspect a chimp picking projects out of a hat would have as much chance of telling good from bad. But with the means of production in the hands of the creators it's now the public who can make the decisions about what is good and bad - oh hold on, they've got even worse taste than the executives, we're all doomed.
But I only really need a couple of thousand people to like this show enough to want to pay for it and we have a viable business. We haven't got 2000 yet, but we're on the way. Want to join the ranks of idiots making a little boy's final wish come true? You know where to go. And by the way, we're filming two podcasts on the 10th (one with Mary Beard and another with a comedy legend who is all but confirmed), so if you buy the series pass you are now getting at least seven full podcasts (plus the Machynlleth one) so it's even better value at under £2 a podcast. If you had any issues with picture quality these should now all have been resolved (only happened on one specific platform I think) and you can redownload now - all counters set to 0 (but don't abuse this as we have to pay for every download!).
Tickets are already on sale for my next over-ambitious internet project,
Richard Herring's Meaning of Life. I will be filming six monthly stand-up shows, each taking a different theme (and hopefully with pretty much all new material - or at least not stuff from my tour shows) and then editing them down into half hour shows which can be downloaded in a similar way to the paid Leicester Square Theatre ones (and any profits from the podcast download will go towards making this new show as good as possible). As this will be a bit more time-consuming and expensive than my other internet projects I might also look into some kind of kickstarter thing or other ways to fund it, but I will let you know! But if you want to come and see the records, it only costs a tenner. Exciting times!
I know it's been a while, but I recorded a lethargic (and apparently slightly quiet) snooker podcast this afternoon (but in a way it's evren better if no one can hear it.
Get all the action here. There is some phenomenal snooker in it, though not many laughs. As you'd expect from a serious sporting podcast.
I am not sure any of the Mes hearts were really in it today. I know we all have to buck our ideas up. We're in danger of losing listeners if we carry on in this unprofessional way.
It does start to feel like I might be doing rather too many different projects, doesn't it? Robin Ince tweeted about my impressive saturation of the market with my own stuff. And maybe that's one of the downsides of autonomy, but you the consumer can choose not to consume it all and stop when you are full to the craw with Herring. I seem to still be coming up with ideas and whilst ten years ago there was nothing I could do with them, not I do have an outlet to bring them into some kind of being. But I will not stop until all the world's media outlets are filled with 24 hour rolling me. In fact I might aim for 24 hour rolling self-playing snooker. At least that way people (other than me) might get out of their houses and do stuff. On Monday I lay in my hammock looking at the clouds swirling and evaporating against the blue sky and it was genuinely more entertaining than nearly anything I've ever seen. Certainly more relaxing and enjoyable. The world is out there and is beautiful and is being destroyed. Enjoy it while you can.
Maybe I should make a podcast of that. Oh, no, I've missed my own point.
