It’s almost November 2024. I’m a writer-comedian. I live in Glasgow. I’m married to Samara.
I’ve been far too busy this year. It’s not my way. Thankfully, things are starting to slow a little. I’m blowing off creative production altogether from next week until the new year. Next year: no new projects and, as Beethoven used to say, chillaxing to the max.
Projects
I run a small press magazine called New Escapologist. I’ve been working on the all-new Issue 17: All the Way Home. It’s almost ready to print and can be ordered for shipping later this month. So. You know. Do that please.
Related to the above, I was interviewed by Appraisal magazine this month. It prompted me to archive some old interviews as an additional way to explain my behaviour.
Work continues on the film I’m making with Mark Cartwright and Anthony Irvine. We’re turning my book about the Iceman into a documentary and it’s been tremendous fun so far. Our most recent shooting block took place at Clowns International, the Bill Murray Club, and the University of Kent’s stand-up comedy archive. It was the most fun I’ve had with the film so far (which is really saying something) and Mark has been sending me frequent rough edits, all of which look amazing.
The Bill Murray shoot was a live performance, which will be used in the film but also released separately as a live performance video. Mark made a genuinely exciting trailer for it.
Reading
The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes proved to be incredibly good. Unapologetically magical but he’s also done the hard work of diving deep into law and statute.
I read Watership Down for the first time last week. I blasted through it over three days because I couldn’t put it [Watership] Down. I have a lot to say about it so I might review it for New Escapologist some time.
I’ve just started The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada and Escape to Life by Erika Mann.
Comics: Woman World by Arminder Dhaliwal was a lot of very beautiful fun.
Travel
After travelling very much this year, I’m preparing for mega-trips to Paris, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Zagreb, Belgrade, Athens, and Montreal. Beat that.
The Montreal trip is booked for December, but I might not be allowed into the country since I’m a resident there. Get your head around that one.
Cultural Devourment
I saw Seymour Mace live for the first time last month. He’s an incredibly skilled stand-up comedian and a seemingly lovely man. On the very same day I was blown away by pole-dancing comedian Siân Docksey who I can’t recommend enough. Both of the shows I saw were recorded will be released as videos by GoFasterStripe soon, but just go and see these artists wherever they turn up.
My pal Marcus Brownlow has an art show at New Glasgow Society right now and recommend popping in if you’re local.
I’m looking forward to seeing Michael Cumming’s Oxide Ghosts at The Stand in Glasgow, but Michael’s touring this show so see if he’s local to you.
I’m similarly looking forward to seeing the Necks three times in Europe because they’re an amazing band of deeply-skilled Australian jazz improvisers currently touring.
I saw The Substance recently at the GFT. If you like horror films, don’t miss it.
For a bit of horizontal bone-idle telly gawping, I’m trying to get into The Expanse but it might be a bit too straight for me so I’m cheating on it with favourite ’90s telly comedy and Porridge.
Eczema
I’ve been getting phototherapy three times a week for my eczema. It’s really weird. I have to stand in a sort-of up-right sunbed-like booth with a welding mask over my face and a jockstrap over my precious Dinklage and nothing else. I’m then exposed to UV light and heat for a couple of minutes. It gives me a couple of days of sunburn, during which I moisturise three or four times a day. It’s exhausting. I think is working but I can’t be sure. It’s hard work but hopefully I’ll be handsome and olive-coloured instead of red and gory.
I walk to the hospital for these appointments. It takes about twenty minutes. Google Maps takes you up some partially overgrown steps, which seems wrong, but takes you to a staff car park behind the hospital and then to a back door. Once you know this, it’s fine and perfectly direct, but it’s a bit confusing if you haven’t done it before. Every time, I help someone find their way up those steps to the hospital. It’s like a job. I even helped a refugee couple carry their pushchair up the stairs this morning. I have no idea how people will find the hospital once I’ve finished my course of treatment. I might start going there each morning voluntarily, just to feel useful.
Physical Form
Here’s a cheerful shot of me at the Bill Murray club, taken by Spencer Wakeling:
Old Now pages (Then pages?) are squirreled pointlessly into the Now Page Archive