Oh fuckin ell i had one of those days a comedian dreads. i did the banana cabaret last night, it was great. stayed over with Ray in hammersmith. then, woke up this morning, went back to swansea to do an afternoon gig, what a piece of- utter joy to do. Blokes, mates, not paid to watch comedy, just sitting around drinking and eating. been told there’s a comedian. it had its moments, but overall it was a bit tto nasty for me in the end. there were some old blokes at the back, they kept their vileness to themselves until the end. when i went to unplug the extension lead – it was my own sound system oh the sacrifices i make – they had to pipe up as i was earshot: ‘that was terrible’ ‘you’re the worst i’ve ever seen’. like so what, do u need to share that with me, in that way ? are you sadists? I been paid my 300 then eleri drove me to swansea train station. the fuckin train to london was over an hour late. i phoned dave to forewarn him and even said that i thought i might not make it to balham. ah the joys of doubling. turned out the trains were fucked all day, in fact my train to swansea earlier had been over an hour late.

anyway, long and the short of it is i never made it to london in time, so missed the exquisite opportunity of playing the amazing banana cabaret.

what a fool! but it was a risk involving what shoudl be a reliable odds..i mean we are talking about trains working. working normally, more or less on time. is it such a big ask?

best welsh language soap opera in the world….well, pobly.

L:ife does have its moments of unexpected drama. i’ve had a quite a bit this year, i’ll be glad when it’s all over. I left my nice guitar in suffolk. Harriet knew a delivery man who lives back in wales. i talked to him and thought he’d putt he guitar in his van more or less for free (as a favour), and then i’d drive up to Powys to pick it up. But of course one must never make assumptions. i’ve been called entitled, and maybe i am. anyway i’m on the phone to this delivery man a few weeks later. money raises its ugly head.

Why didn’t you mention that when i spoke to you a few weeks ago,

Tell you what – he says – i’ll take it back to suffolk and you can pick it up your fuckin self!

Aooowwwww

Blog has suddenly changed its name from Blog to Despite. ah well i’ll pretend it was deliberate.

did a chat show – unpaid – for local Swan TV. had 4 guests. it went pretty well and will try to supply some links here.

been busy of late, despite my having been kicked in the teeth, despite losing 5 gigs and 700 pounds worth of work…despite all that i am getting gig offers still.

got a show in Cwmbran tonight, with other BGT performers.

Adam Bloom interview appears today in the Western Mail. Finding Your Comic Genius no doubt mentioned.

did a series of fun gigs the last 3 weekends. tony j brown gave me a last minute one in doncaster, nice theatre. trying more and more not to use the guitar or the guitar case gag. the constant dilemma of a comedian, when to drop old jokes and put new ones in. I got so many good ones but i just can’t remember them all the time.

spoke to adam bloom via email. he quoted one of my jokes in his new book ‘Finding your comic genius’, and a very fine work it is. did a workshop in abergavenny a coupel of weeks ago which went went, even though it was only 5 people present, gareth came with me to give me some moral support. The melville centre currently doesn t have anyone in charge, but i hope it will have soon so i can organise a longer course.

did Oktober Fest in shrewsbury – so atmospheric i almost burst out into Tomorrow Belongs to Me. apart from the parking it was good fun. though the second show was harder than the first: a marquee with noise from other tents, and the people moving in and out, changing throughout the day. went onto to do a Bobby Murdoch gig in the evening – that went pretty well except for the woman who said ‘ you’re crap’ towards the end. but everyone else – outside her table – was on my side, even got a nice FB message from one audience member.

did Blue Sky bar in Bangor – went terrific! and gavin the booker of the club helped me out by giving me the gig, boosted my esteem a bit. God bless Ian Cooper. also did the first of Britain’s Got Comedy shows, in shrewsbury Severn theatre – seems i’ve been to that town a lot this year. It went pretty well, and anna and jade and gabriel of Abel’s Harp came along as my guests.

Terrible shit going on in the world right now. everyone getting cancelled. what happens when more people are cancelled than not ? do we seek counselling?

I have to go to an island in scotland soon, to do a gig in the afternoon – bit of a logistic nightmare.

The last Cu Mumbles show with ali mcgowan went great – 80 people sell out, paul james was totally on form as were the 2 middle spots. Alistair got a clap for every other line.

I had a hearing test recently and i went to the dentist. well i got my teeth knocked out didn’t I?? methaphorically and literally – well loosened anyway. it was in llanberis mid september , i did my frog tongue joke to a woman in the front row and she pushed the plastic prop back into my mouth – Aooow! so ended up going to the dentist twice and having a loose tooth taken out each time. eventually i’ll be getting a ‘plate’ to fill my lower front.

and if i weren’t having enough shit experiences in my life right now Wales got knocked out of the rugby world cup yesterday by – yes a southern hemisphere side – Argentina. Bastard! i put 100 quid on them getting to the final as well…oh well…

Fab weather yesterday, i suspect the last warm day of the year. went for a walk through the Garth farm. saw some squirrels, and puppies. Gareth Richards gave me a copy of Llais. i’ll probably end up doing the distribution for the local paper.

Came back over the A453 the other night from chester. some car passed me real fast in the dark, and shortly afterwards i noticed he had to brake as a big deer walked into the road. then, later when i got down to Ynysmeudwy i saw a big police van parked and on either side of the road about twenty police officers, they were doing a fingertip search. i wonder if they found any…