Monthly Archives: May 2017

I am not an arena comic, but for the last 22 days I have been an arena sidekick. I’ve been a Sid Little to Brian Cox’s Eddie Large. Except it has been Brian looking plaintively at me, as I run … Continue reading →

A I wrote this piece for The Big Issue a few months back. It isn’t up in the archive, so here it is. I first saw Iain Lee in an Edinburgh comedy club, duetting with Mackenzie Crook on an easy … Continue reading →

By the third day of earache and gum swelling, the tumour fantasies began. Actually, it might have been the second…or even the first. My pain memory plays a trick on me. It says,”haven’t you had this pain for months? Hasn’t … Continue reading →

One of the most important, engrossing and pointless tasks of preparing an Edinburgh fringe or tour show is compiling the audience walk in music. Almost before I have conjured a title or theme, I have started composing a list of … Continue reading →

Standing opposite some Eduardo Paolozzi collages, I wanted to do turn to the woman three frames width from me and beam, “isn’t this fun!” The first room in The Whitechapel Gallery’s Paolozzi exhibition is rammed with an excess of creativity, … Continue reading →

Sitting opposite each other on the train from Edinburgh, Professor Cox laughed as he watched me take out a pile of books, my creased notepad and pencil and pen in preparation for the 4 hours and 22 minutes until London. … Continue reading →

What do you want? Sitting on a bench by the porch of a rural church, the sunshine lighting the pages of my Walt Whitman book and with a soft soundtrack of birdsong around me, I realised that I was one … Continue reading →