Going down the toilet

So I'm just back from doing a gig in Shepherds Bush, the old public conveniences in the middle of Shepherds Bush Green to be exact. Revamped and fumigated, its now a club called Ginglik (answers on a postcard if you know what the hell that means!) and every other Tuesday they have a comedy night.

I've done it once a couple of years ago, and had fun, but when life outside of comedy took over I stopped doing gigs early in the week. Now I'm back doing em and back at the Ginglik.

Alun Cochrane is the resident MC, and he's a joy both to watch and to hang out in the dressing room with. We were joined by my Cannuck comedy pal JJ Whitehead and diamond geezer supreme Jeff Innocent.

The vibe was really laid back, literally in the case of one woman who was almost horizontal on one the sofas at the front! She'd had a hard day apparently.

I find gigs like these far more nerve wracking than playing to 500 beered-up punters, you can see everyone's face and therefore see their reactions, scary stuff!

Even scarier tonight was that I forced myself to abandon my tried and tested routine of knob gags, I toned down the larger than life JoJo, and allowed myself to be more real. This transformation is a huge step for me. While all the smut and fiestiness is also a part of me, these days its a much smaller part.

I'm not that hard drinking, hard shagging, man ravager from hell that I used to be, and recently, doing the old material has felt really fake to me. The reality is that these days I am a celibate, tee-total, drug free, meditating every morning Buddhist, and what I want from my comedy is to connect with people. I still wanna be funny as hell, but I wanna be more honest, and tonight was a big step towards that.

I'm so happy, cos while the jokes were still very much a work in progress, they elicited all kinds of wonderful responses from the audience and inspired me to go further than I'd planned.

If you were in the crowd tonight, I thank you for being supportive, and giving me a chance to drop the mask.

The atmosphere musta been contageous, cos Jeff went on and did some highly personal stuff too, and once again the audience responded brilliantly.

To top off a great night, as JJ, Jeff and I were waiting for the tube, I got recognised by two young trendy girls...apparently I'm a legend! I know it's silly and shallow, but fuck me it feels good when people tell you how much they enjoyed a show you did six months ago.