I've had a heavy cold all week, and today a strange irritation in my right eye, which is why I'm feeling a bit grumpy and unsociable and not at the pub with my friends tonight. Instead on this Friday evening I'm working on scripts, getting frustrated by them, so writing this blog post instead whilst drinking lager that is so weak and has some citrus lime thing going on with it, no wonder Tesco had a massive offer on to try and clear it, it's horrible.
And besides, I've not updated this properly for a while now, so I was a due a ramble. It feels like it's been a strange couple of weeks, I think I'm still on a post-tour-post-fringe-post-Lodestar comedown and for a brief while I was a bit concerned about not being busy. You know that fear - suddenly it's October and there really isn't time to do much else before Christmas so you might as well write the year off and think about plans for the next 12 months instead? Well that's probably why I've suddenly over-committed myself. I don't fear time off from stuff, I've got so many books I need to read, films to watch and friends I don't see enough of. But when I look back on 2012, will it be considered a success? I'm not ready to think like that yet, I'm going to do a few more things just in case before assessing it.
There's some nice little projects - the music we recorded with Alister, Steve and Clare for the Christmas story album sounds great, and this weekend I'm going to finish the actual story words to go with it, and then we can get recording and releasing and it'll all be lovely. A story/music album can really go either way, but I think this should end up modestly beautiful, which is what we all strive for, yeah? And we need to re-record last year's Christmas audio offering, 'The 12 Monologues Of Christmas' using a proper microphone, not the mp3 recorder I purchased off my mate Bryan for a fiver. Doing a lot of stuff under the Fat Fox Productions tag now - Fat Fox is awesome, it's the production company I've formed with Izzy, and it's so nice to be working with somebody who is completely on the same page as me, somebody who is not only a wonderful actress but also a great editor of my work to cut out all the crap bits (let's face it, I do go on a bit) and perhaps most amazingly; somebody who, after knowing me for over a year now, isn't that annoyed by my scatterbrain, messy and confusing ways. And she's wicked at spreadsheets. We've got Fat Fox t-shirts, and business cards and everything, and next year's Edinburgh show is already being plotted. Before that though we have our radio sitcom, 'Technically Single' being recorded for a podcast series, 6 x 20 minute episodes ending on a Christmas special - I'm really proud of the pilot/first episode, which is why I'm being so careful writing the other five instalments...although they all need to be written within the next couple of weeks. And we've got our two Christmas shows too, both on the same bill for a four night run at Christmas, and our regular new material nights (the first one of which didn't happen because of the venue being double booked, but that's cool - it just means I have more new material for the next one). And then there's the, well, the slightly strange project...
At the end of a complicated few days, in which I got my wallet 'stolen' (okay, I dropped it outside a supermarket but it was gone a couple hours later) and then went momentarily anxious about something that shouldn't really be explained on this blog, I've somehow ended up touring a solo show called, 'Some Plays By Paul Richards'. Look, just don't ask, okay? And besides, it's not completely solo, the lovely Claudia McKenzie (joining me on the road for these performances) has some lines in there, just not that many. It features two plays, 'The Wallet' and 'Man Versus Ants', I wrote them both last week on my week off work for writing time. I really feel 'The Wallet' is the strongest piece I've written in a long while, years perhaps, and 'Man Versus Ants' is completely heartbreaking if we get the timing right with the song at the end. Izzy is directing, and Chris from Distant Cloud has taken some wonderful promo pictures. It's a very wordy show, I'm a very wordy man. I've got a lot of words to learn. Tour opens on 7th November.
Inspiration is good, isn't it? Went to a really lovely classical/world music/folk concert thing on Saturday with Heather and on stage was Nicky and Gav from the Dowsing For Sound band - the music they were making was just lovely. And then last night, although still as snotty as anything, I went with Heather, Kevin and Elisa to see Piff The Magic Dragon in Bury St Edmunds. Piff was my favourite show at the fringe, and last night it was just as enjoyable - it's such a great act, a glorious mix of comedy, magic, Chihuahuas...everyone deserves to see Piff, he deserves a bigger audience. Pappy's are coming to Cambridge soon, and I'm off to see Ben Folds Five next month, ever get the feeling there's so much creative brilliance in the world you can't keep up? I need to keep on writing, keep on getting my work out there (my work is starting to be performed all over the world these days thanks to a couple indie publishing deals), need to finally get my debut novel out there (both people who I've sent it to to proof read haven't actually looked at it yet/hate it so much they can't work out how to tell me), and need to be drumming more...
Talking of which, some nice gigs coming up with Flaming June - a little run of charity shows for Oxjam (all in aid of Oxfam) in Cambridge, Bedford and Bury, some Christmassy shows with Trevor Jones (note we're not called 'The Trevor Jones Band' these days due to a contractual thingy) and the British IBM continues to be the subject of some wonderful media coverage (everywhere from Retro Gamer magazine to a review in The Sunday Sport) - we've got a few gigs left this year, all out of town, I like that a lot, I like to stretch my musical legs and play in new places. And there's talk of a very special Christmassy project too, but I can't say anything just yet, not because I'm all secretive and trying to big something up that you probably don't care about, but because I've been asked to keep it quiet until things are confirmed and besides, I was only asked yesterday, it shall be awesome though.
So looks like there's enough to keep me going for the rest of the year and I shall endeavour to report back if anything interesting comes of this. Or, if like tonight, I've got a cold and I'm killing time before the good programmes kick in on BBC3 at 11pm.
Currently reading: The Last Party (by John Harris), just finished reading Where Do Comedians Go When They Die? (by Milton Jones)
Currently watching: Cuckoo, Family Guy, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Match Of The Day
Currently listening to: Ben Folds Five - The Sound Of The Life And Mind, Straylight Run - The Needles The Space, Guillemots - Hello Land
Currently eating: the unpredictable results of my attempts at cooking
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