I was appearing on the Adam Boulton show on Sky News this lunch time to publicise
my DVD and
my tour (I don't think I've mentioned either of them). The relentless PR trail has begun. There are a lot of tickets to sell for my 90+ show tour. If you would just go and buy them all right now then I wouldn't have to bother with this.
When we got to Sky reception, toe-sucking ex-Tory MP and Spitting Image puppet model David Mellor was in reception. He was on his phone and was in a pretty bad mood. "I've been waiting here for five minutes," he whined, "This isn't quite the deal we worked out was it." He was playing the right flouncy star just because he had been made to wait for a twelfth of an hour. There were seats in reception. It wasn't all that bad. And it was 2010, not 1990. I am not sure Mellor could really afford this kind of divaish fit. It was a bit embarrassing to see. But I am sure I just caught him on a bad day. His behaviour has always been impeccable otherwise.
The shouting worked (or someone was already on their way) because someone came and got him immediately and took him into the studio.
I only had to wait a minute to be collected. I suspect that the people at Sky were deliberately winding Mellor up. Possibly because they are used to his toy-throwing-out-of-the-pram antics. In hindsight I wish I had laughed in his face while he was doing all this and said, "Stop making a fuss mate. You're only David Mellor. Get a sense of perspective. You're lucky to be working at all."
And if he googles himself, I just have.
The interview with Boulton passed quickly enough without much incident. At one point he said, "You're not one of those sweary, offensive comedians are you?" which seemed a bit like a challenge. Maybe he was willing me on to do a Sex Pistols to his Bill Grundy, but instead I politely explained that I have my moments.
As exciting as it was to meet Adam Boulton and see David Mellor acting like a prick, the most thrilling thing about my trip to Sky was meeting Rob Curling. He is now the sports presenter on Sky News, but back int the 1990s he was a reporter on London local news and the host of Turnabout, a lunchtime quiz show that Stewart Lee and I became mildly obsessed with. In fact slightly concerned by Curling's possibly partisan hosting of the show (or more likely, deliberately imagining that this was the case) Stewart used to write to the show, pretending to be a disgruntled and slightly crazy viewer, giving his commentary on many of the shows. We were silly kids, wasting time (although my memory is that the letters were quite funny).
Rob greeted me warmly, saying he was a fan and saying that he had seen a piece on Youtube where he got a mention on one of our TV shows (we were obsessed). I told him about the letters, but he had never seen them (or had forgotten) and suggested that the wonderfully named Clive Doig (who was at the helm for many a quiz show of those times) may have shielded him from the criticism.
I asked if there was another series of Turnabout in the pipeline, but like most of the best shows of the 90s it is long gone. But it was genuinely terrific to meet Rob. I texted Stewart Lee to let him know. He replied, perhaps jokingly, that he had met Adam Aye the night before. He was the teenage video game reviewer for Going Live, who we also enjoyed mentioning as an obscure celebrity (on the Monster Night show we did we were considering watching a video of Celebrity Arses hosted by Adam Aye). I hope Stewart really did meet him. But he probably didn't. I guess now we're just waiting for Morris Mitchener to bump into us and deservedly punch us in our curmudegeonly faces.
In other Lee and Herring news, we are finally cover stars after all these years (we were also on the cover of the now defunct Deadpan magazine) with the excellent Mustard magazine
printing solo interviews with us both. Please support this venture and buy the mag. You also have the chance to win
some signed Merch from one or the other of us, but only if you know which of our characters used the catchphrase "I am Rod Hull!" Good luck with that.
It's odd that Lee and Herring are seemingly more popular with journos and critics now than we were back then. It would be cool if the shows we did got a little bit more credit, but it's a shame it's taken so long for that to show up. But then the same could be said about Turnabout. Lots of hidden gems are never uncovered. And yet we plod onwards towards our inevitable deaths.
And my Celeb Mastermine episode is apparently on Monday 27th December at 20.30 on BBC ONE. So you can find out if I wiped my arse on another trophy. Or cried like a schoolgirl or an impatient David Mellor when I lost.
