A New Era

Its a big day for the world today. The sort of day that heralds the dawn of a new era. Yes, thats right, its the return of Fat Tuesday tonight after our blissful four week hiatus. Its looks like it'll be a sell out show and its a truly great line-up, but as usual I'm full of stress about it all. You'd think that after running a night for four years I'd be used to it by now, but I live in eternal worry that the gig will go wrong for some reason. It has in the past. The reason we are in the venue we're in now was because three years ago we got booted out of our previous home due to the landlord getting into fisticuffs with our headliner. Thats not what you want at a gig ever. 'Yeah tonight I fancy a comedy night. What would be great would be some food, laughs, then brutality.' Its almost a flyer for some sort of back alley Jongleurs. Or just any Jongleurs. 

I love MCing my gig but I hate all the other aspects of running a gig. All the admin and cash issues are a pain, and booking it is a nightmare. Especially when you receive emails and calls on a daily basis asking for spots. Now I'm all about introducing new talent, but I receive some stupid stupid requests. Last season someone sent me an email stating that they had done 50 gigs (proper veteran of the circuit then), and were doing spots at the Comedy Store (The Gong Show, not the proper nights) among others and saw our line-up and thought they would fit perfectly on the bill, complimenting the night. Our bill that night was Stewart Lee, Phil Kay, Tom Deacon and Nat Luurtsema. As far as I was concerned that person's head was so far up their own arse they could kiss their own face. I'm not sure how that would work but I'd like them to try. 

I have a feeling tonight will be good though. Its a good line-up and I've actually got some new jokes so our regulars won't hate me for churning out the same old crap which will be nice for them. Unless the jokes are rubbish in which case I will be as tiresome as usual. 

Oh and its Obama's Inauguration today, which I suppose is fairly big news. I'm not sure which is more monumental. The fact that America gets its first black president or that finally after 8 years George Bush fucks off and leaves the world alone. I'm hoping we can enjoy both elements and as Obama delivers his speech there will be a moment where Bush is led onto the stage and then kicked off it as a symbol of a new America. I'm sure Obama will be better than Bush, although that's not very hard when you think about it. A button pushing chicken would be better than Bush, so Obama doesn't have to try very hard. Already he can other countries on a map, so he's winning. I'm just worried that because Bush was so bad, Obama recognise will seem like a breath of fresh air whatever he does. He's already pledged lots of money to the Israelis, which he did just days after the number of innocents dead reached 1000 and then they hit the UN building. Rather unlovely timing I think you'll agree. Lets hope he doesn't 'Not Bush' excuse to his advantage and decide tomorrow to bomb Iran, while spraying deodorants in the air and driving his 4x4 round and round in circles.