Pantos, producing and amazing bands

The week has started in manic fashion, which was probably not what was needed considering the weekend I had. Friday's gig in Westcliff-On-Sea with the Lunar Pilots was an enjoyable seaside joint (as much as the sea seemed to confuse my Sat-Nav, making me unprofessionally very late for the soundcheck). The band seems to be progressing well after a difficult first year in business, next stop is the Bull & Gate in London in December, which I'm secretly excited about. Got back from that gig at 2am, and then up at 8am to be in the rehearsal room with my old mucker James Burling for our little duo project, Losers. Quirkiness all the way, but in a good way, the Boy Burling knows how to write a tune or two and I'm looking forward to our little acoustic show this Thursday in Cambridge.

A while ago I agreed to produce a couple evenings for my local theatre group, WriteOn, and I awoke in Sunday to glance at my calender and realise I'm actually producing next week's show, which I was very unprepared for. I've spent every spare second today trying to recruit suitable actors for this weekends performance of exceptional new writing; so far the results have been pretty poor, so I'm not sure how I'm gonna get away with this one...in the meantime I'm still trying to promote our Christmas show which I'm very much looking forward to, although I still need to write a stand-up comedy routine for it, something I keep putting off, which is very bad of me. I also need to gain more confidence as a narrator, I'm rushing my lines far too much - either I'm doing this properly or not at all. I've also agreed to write a pantomime, for the lovely Glass Onion venue in Peterborough. It is set to be performed on the 30th December - well, it will be if I can write it in time. I think I have a spare night next Tuesday...

Creativity is something I've been thinking about a lot really, not that it should be analysed. Went to watch Guillemots play at The Junction on Tuesday; the 6th time I've seen them, the 6th time I've come away feeling utterly inspired. Fyfe Dangerfield (the frontman) is a remarkable character, capable of joyous, exhilarating moments followed by tear jerking agony, he's a one-off, and gigs like that make me realise why I love being alive. But it did make me realise I'm doing too much non-creative stuff. I consider myself to be a writer, but I'm working too hard as a producer at the moment (alongside the already mentioned theatre stuff I am organising 2 charity gigs, one for the 10th December, the other for New Years Eve), I have so many ideas; it's about time I was more selfish and actually allocated more time in my life to them. Just as I was having these thoughts though I received a rejection from the BBC for my radio show, 'Becoming More Like Mandy' which was a little harsh, but happiness/good vibe returned with an email from my publishers in Canada - who are publishing my play 'Bed'. They sent over a proof of the book, and it's looking exceptional, feeling proud today...

Ah yes, and I'm trying to grow a beard. Again. In all the struggles ahead, this is the biggest struggle of them all...

Buzzing

What a difference a couple days can make. On Tuesday the Christmas show was in a little doubt, as much as I was determined to put it on somehow. We'd lost a leading actor, venues were not chatting, it looked like being another show which never really happened. Now, a few days later we've confirmed 3 performance dates for the show, and most importantly managed to find ourselves an exceptional new leading man - Colin Woodham. Last night the rehearsals started and this team are amazing - Colin, Heather Yeadon, Victoria Welsh and of course Vaughan Allanson as the world's first ever Northern Santa Claus are just so easy to work with, the rehearsal felt like a delight from start to finish. Still a lot of work to be done before the first preview on the 7th December (before full performances on the 19th and 23rd), for example I still need to write a whole smutty stand-up routine for Father Christmas (never written stand-up before, I need to learn very quickly...), but I'm buzzing again now for the first time in a while. I think narrative comedy could be the way forward - I like the idea of a narrator on the side, connecting with the audience, as the actors do the clever stuff. I'm also going on a bit now, so I'll leave it there.

Christmas

The idea of putting on a Christmas show seemed good at the time but already I'm faced with a few problems; such as lack of leading actor, lack of venue confirmation and the fact that Christmas is getting a bit close. Still; I said I'd do it, and I'd feel silly now if it didn't happen - and the cast members I do have left are amazing. Calling venues has been a problem because they don't open during the day and I'm usually tucked away in a studio in the evening, but it will work itself out - I kind of feel like I owe it to my remaining cast members (Heather, Vaughan, Victoria) for the show to go ahead. I also feel I shouldn't be writing this right now, on my afternoon tea break at work, and instead I should be calling every actor possible to see if they can join us on Thursday night for the first rehearsal...

In the meantime, my head is continually exploding with all manner of ideas, just written a short 5 minute film, and as I've just found out my takings from this year's Edinburgh Fringe are now in my bank balance, I'm going to buy a camcorder and attempt to make a little Youtube short. You can only but try....

The wake-up call

I've started this blog not as an ego enhancement (like my website, you could argue), but as a way to stick to the challenges I've just set myself. Another reason why I've decided to join the blogging revolution, perhaps, is because this year - for the first time since 1996, I stopped writing my diary. Every day I entered some of the day's ramblings (or, 'Every Day I Write The Book', as Costello wrote), but this year I figured I was too old for that, I had to stop at some point - maybe it was time to grow up? Writing a diary was beginning to feel like being a teenager, pubescent, dreaming of normality, naughty hairs, of finding romance one day etc etc. Obviously, those things were achieved, apart from the normality, but I've lost a sense of what this is anyway. But I was wrong; because writing my diary became part of my progression. If I did nothing all day apart from play Pro Evolution Soccer (4) on the Playstation I could almost punish myself with guilt by writing this in my diary - like an apology to myself. And there's only so many times you can apologise before you realise you're doing something wrong, so in a way - a big way, it helped me actually find the will to do good things - exciting things - creative things, with my days, or else I'd have the half a page of A4 to answer to. This year hasn't been good for many reasons, but there's still no excuse for my fucking laziness. It's time for that to change, the diary is gone but maybe this'll help me achieve some simple tasks.

Paul Richards; 27, going slightly grey, not looking his best. Scruffy, Pepsi stain on teeth. Terrible posture, lacking in academic qualifications and with a bit of a Red Bull problem. 3 Edinburgh Fringe shows (plus 2 Brighton Fringe, 1 Buxton Fringe and various other theatrical malarkey) behind him, reasonably well regarded session musician, locally at least. Should probably play more jazz. Still lives at home with parents, often convincing himself that's because he's saving up for a mortgage, but often spending the money he saves on studio time, Fringe productions and snare drums. In a temporary job, very little career prospects or options, especially within the current recession. Shit-loads of ideas on how to make his world a better place, but often these are confined to his notepad as he spends most of his evening watching episodes of classic sitcoms (circa 1974-1989) on his PC.

I have a few simple targets, and this blog should help me stay focused in my mission. By the end of December 2009, I should have achieved the following:

* Been on the recording for a song which has charted - top 50 in the UK singles chart.
* Start to actually make money out of playing original music.
* Take at least 2 shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009, ideally 3. All of these shows should be a touch sharper in script than my previous attempts.
* Toured; either with my own theatre production, or with a band. 'Toured' means a series of dates in a row that doesn't involve coming home at night; give me a dirty old van, different cities every night and service station food now!
* Made a short film for internet distribution.
* Raise my profile as a writer considerably both in the UK and abroad - although this one may be difficult to measure.

And by achieving all of those things, I should be in a position where I:

* Know what I'm doing with my life.
* Be able to afford to live and stand on my own two feet, not from the funding of my parents.

It's a challenge, but one I think is in reach. Time to roll my sleeves up and be somebody. I'm not sure how often I'm going to update this, but probably a lot. If I stop updating this, I've probably failed badly and become a sterile excuse for a human being, I hope it doesn't come to that, obviously.