Blog 61
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 11:21AM In answer to your question Jay, I wasn't nervous about doing standup but I am a bit more now. I did one of Robin Ince's shows at the Bloomsbury theatre the other night. It wasn't as easy as the thing I did with Stewart Lee in the summer and it showed I'll have to work harder on the material, I can't just use the stuff from book readings without altering my delivery and linking the bits better. I suppose it was foolish to think it would be easy, standup is not something that can be done in a casual manner
Blog 61a.
Hi Dredgi.
Yes Ben did pretty much write me out of 80s comedy history there, apart from a couple of brief clips at the start. This morning I was railing against this when Linda pointed out that I had made him cry on several occasions so it was unlikely that he'd invite me onto his show.
Blog 61b.
This morning I got an email entitled: Stephen Fry sent you a friend request on Flip :)
And the email itself said: Stephen Fry has added you as a friend. Is Stephen Fry your friend?
Yes No
Then three hours later I got another email entitled: Please ignore the friend request on Flip sent earlier.
This email said: An erronerous Flip Friend request was sent earlier on behalf of Stephen Fry. Please ignore the earlier email with the friend request. Apologies for the inconvenience.
So for three hours I was Stephen's friend. It was lovely while it lasted.
Reader Comments (14)
Thanks Alexei :)
I'd like to wish everyone who visits regularly, as well as Alexei and family, a very merry Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever else you may celebrate (if you celebrate anything at all!)
Love and wishes,
Jay
xx
Don't know what went on at the Bloomsbury theatre but it can't have been all that bad, judging on what some people in the audience said on twitter:
- A L E, X E I, S A Y L E, Alexei Sayle, Alexei Sayle :)
- Back from Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People: fantastic show again! (Sorry to Alexei Sayle; I didn't realise I had the flash on!)
- Big thanks to @robinince and Alexei Sayle for the super launch of Dr Hula last night. And to @SLSingh for showing me his Enigma machine.
- Last night I saw some fat bastard doing stand-up. Turns out it was Alexei Sayle. Utterly hilarious.
Merry Christmas to everyone, especially Alexei and Linda.
Just listened to you on The News Quiz from 23-12-2011. Loved the bit about your mum heckling you at a reading. PLEASE do a Stand-Up tour, and come to Hoddesdon (the arse-end of nowhere)! End of grovel. :)
Only just found out that your kind of returning to stand up which is the best news Ive had all year ( well apart from getting the nuclear reactor get under control following the earthquake in japan ).I saw you at stafford when I was teenager and I went on to be a stand up so little late but thanks for that.I hope that you do more gigs god knows comedy needs you
nice to see alexi giving his take on 80s comedy
on ben eltons C4 documentary tonight
oh shit wait...
ROFL @ Linda's remarks! it must be tough for a comedian to have a wife who's funny, at breakfast, hahahaha!
maybe stephen fry mistook you for leo sayer
I bet you unfriended him on facebook right away. Ah, no, wait.
I hate facebook. Even my bank wants to be my friend on Facebook. Why? I'm not their friend and they should know this by how little money I keep in my current account. And what if I go overdrawn - are they going to unfriend me? If I wanted that much cupboard love I'd buy a cat. At least it might sit on my lap and purr a bit. Not something I'm expecting from my local bank manager who's probably just a mathematical algorithm anyway these days...
One slight criticism I'd make of Mr Fry is that for a man who's got so much controversial to say Mr Fry does like censoring the comments on his blog a lot ... from what I've noticed. On the plus side you can shamelessly plug gigs on his forums and he doesn't throw you off.... so since he has created a miniscule volume of internet traffic for me I am hedging my bets and not being too rude about Mr Fry. After all he is certainly a unique personality and one has to admire his bravery in slagging off the Catholic Church for it's attitude to women from the chesterfields of the Garrick.
Hi Alexi, got your book STALIN ATE MY HOMEWORK as a Christmas present from my missus. -she's younger than me and doesn't know who Stalin is; I think she thought it was a cookbook! It had me completely hooked. Not only was it funny but I found it incredibly moving and it made me terribly nostalgic. This really is a disgusting time to grow old, isn't it? I grew up in Birmingham but have spent some time in Liverpool and my favourite pub is The Crack.
So naturally i am now moving on to your other books (don't know why it took me so long to get round to all this, seems you've written quite a few). Is there gonna be another biog picking up the story? I THINK THERE SHOULD. all the great lives are told over several volumes, - it's only coz there's severa; volumes that we think that great.
Anyway many thanks
PS
Peckham High Street, all you can eat only 4.99. I had so many spicy prawns it would've made a whale puke. Happy New Year
Rik Mayall was funny on it though, wasn't he! You've got to love Rik. And as much as most people (on here) seem to despise Ben Elton, I could have watched him talk to Rik, Victoria Wood and Lenny (and Tarby) all day. He was a really good interviewer. And I think his summary was great. Comedy in Britain isn't as thought provoking as it was in the 80s.
Still - it would be brilliant to have watched Elton and Sayle go face to face. Especially if it resulted in awkward silences and perfunctory justification(s).
Aww. Poor Ben. Did Ben ever make you cry, Alexei? I've read a lot about your opinion of him, but I can't recall him having a strong opinion about you?
PS. Nick - I liked the cookbook joke!
At the mention of "Alexei Sayle" @ 2:58. What is Ben is thinking? Does he go a bit red? He looks like he flushes...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLMA7xB4Ls
On 'Yesterday' I saw a programme about Pete and Dud. Alexei was on it (all too briefly). It really surprised me to learn that he wasn't a fan of Derek & Clive. I couldn't believe it. The man who gave us this grotesque comic brilliance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFRcrBneGes
I am confounded.
Am really hoping your gig at the Soho Theatre gets extended. May miss it! I'll be in London in *late* February.