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A few years ago I was in fairly strong demand for radio panel shows and was maybe doing one a month, but then someone somewhere noticed I was getting work that I hadn't created myself and they pretty much put a stop to that. And I am OK with that. I don't add much to the diversity pot (I'm not even old enough to be properly old yet) and it's good that newer people get a go at this kind of thing.
Today though I did my radio panel show record for 2019, popping into town to go to the familiar Drill Hall to be a part of the new series of Heresy. I've done this show two or three times before and it's notched up an impressive amount of series, but even in the three years since it was last on air the world seems to have changed enough to make me feel slightly cautious about deliberately arguing for heretical ideas, but also for the idea of what is heresy or the mainstream opinion to be confused.
Even so, we had fun arguing that the smoking ban was a good thing and whether we could survive in the wild and stuff like that.
To be fair something like this might once have been a job, but now it feels like a social engagement and it felt somehow heretical to be being paid (though admittedly not much) to chat with David Mitchell, Victoria Coren and Katy Brand in a middle-class dinner party where they'd forgotten to bring any food. We came up with some funny stuff and we'd done our work in under an hour. Now I think about it, the payment was pretty good given the actual “work†was over so quickly. But I'd need more than one of these a year to get by on it.
I then stayed to watch the second show with Lee Mack and Josh Widdecombe joining Katy and Victoria (aside from myself this was a very TV-like panel show casting), so also got a free show into the bargain. Everyone was effortlessly funny, including, it has to be said, some members off the audience. I mean it's just people talking guff, but then that's what I do for a living, so I'm not going to point that out. And the people talked guff very efficiently.
It became a properly social occasion and a dinner party with dinner, as a few of us went out for a meal afterwards. Since we moved you can count the number of times that I've been out without my wife on the fingers of one of Dave Allen's hands, so I threw caution to the wind and didn't worry about eating a big meal after 10pm and enjoyed myself. Tonight was my 150th night without alcohol, but Lee Mack doesn't drink either, so that made it less of an issue and the insertion of booze was not a necessity (though maybe sober me is a bit quieter than the drunk one would be).
By this stage it was just me, Lee, David and Victoria and so I had the unusual sensation of entering a packed restaurant and experiencing the not particularly furtive glances and bubble excitement of being amongst celebrity. Later the restaurant owner would ask to take our picture. I think it will be clear if you ever see this photo that I am thinking, “I know what you're thinking - you're thinking, but who's that guy?†But maybe they'll just crop me out.
I am doing a RHLSTP at the Great Yorkshire Fringe in York on 26th July with guest Rebecca Callard.
Book here.
