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Wolverhampton in the Winter

Posted Thursday, November 18, 2004

As we make our way to the city centre ,we pass through Bilston which triggers a whole memory fest for me. Bilston Steels factory is where I did my first couple of gigs. They used to have a social club there and I would go there and ask the organist to play Jailhouse Rock from this big Elvis Play in a Day' book that I'd bought. I'd get up and do some impressions and sing the Jailhouse Rock to get off;I don't know if you've ever heard Jailhouse Rock played on a Bontempi organ ,but it is not the raunchiest of sonic experiences.

This was a really weird time for me I had been on stage at the Queen Mary Ballroom ,and the Summerhill but I hadn't worked to older audiences Bilston was going to be the acid test. It failed miserably. To them, I was just a cheeky kid from Dudley with a so-so talent for mimickry. I can honestly say that these performances were possibly the worst experience of my very young career so far. It was all pudding everything , the impressions :pudding, the jokes :pudding ,the face pulling : pudding In the village of Pudding there was a statue of Me.

Shortly after this experience , however I was taken to a pub in Kingswinford called the Fox and Goose this was a different matter altogether it was a lunchtime disco ,so I was working to people who were my age and thereabouts (sixteen-ish) and so the frame of reference was very similar Hannah Barbera Cartoons, Mike Yarwoood show, Tommy Cooper , Elvis , Dave Allen girls laughed til Babycham squirted out of their noses .

I felt fantastic but because I had been driven to this Comedy paradise, I didn't actually know where it was. I tried to find it again, by taking the bus to Kingswinford , and then walking no goodI just wanted to repeat the experience. Nothing-I was bereft .

In the 90's my mom moved house from Dudley to Kingswinford, there's posh isn't it? I drove around , trying to locate things like a chemist , off licence , grocery store etc..and lo and behold the Fox and Goose! It was right here all the time! I went into the pub and had a look around and managed to locate the back room where I'd had such a mind blowing comedic experience. It seemed tiny to me now ..but the smell of it made me very happy indeed.

I've done a few more gigs since Wolverhampton ,but not many of them have matched the enthusiasm of the midland audience and for that I thank the Wolves posse. I'm glad we filmed the DVD at the Hackney empire because of the whole cyclic thing Live and Unleashed was filmed there also ,BUT , there is nothing like a home audience to make a comedian feel comfortable ,improvisational , and funky.

Hackney was very stressful we had a lot to do in two days . The first day was intense ; I arrived and freaked a bit loads of extra lights had been put in , lots of people talking loudly , cheeky Charlies with their bum cracks exposed out the back of their shorts , striding around purposefully. Ken and John and Gar (my team) all looking a bit swamped and overwhelmed by it all.

When TV people arrive they tend to dominate.

I had to go out and clear my head , so I chose to nip round the corner to buy shampoo , toothpaste and the like. As I'm rounding the corner , I see a guy on a motorbike facing me , he's on the paved area engine running. I then hear an anguished female wail from around the corner ,and then I see a young guy hurtling round the corner , tucking a bag under his arm as he does so. He leaps on the back of the bike , yells Go!' and they take off past me , almost knocking me over.

I did something I've never done before I took the bikes registration number and repeated it over and over and over again until I knew it off by heart .

The poor victim of this crime was being counselled in an amusement arcade round the corner an Asian woman with big tears coursing down her cheeks. The policeman and woman were trying their best to calm her down but it didn't seem to be working. I stepped in and gave them descriptions and the number plate. The Asian lady smiled and shifted gear from out of control shrieking into a kind of snuffling noise. Job done.

The shows were good Friday night was a mad one because the TV people decided they wanted the lights on the audience. This is very difficult for a comic , I don't know any pleasurable experience that doesn't benefit from having the lights off-comedy is no exception. So I had a bit of a roller coaster ride on the first night I could see everyone's faces AGGGGH! ( I love you guys really ,but for me to see all of you is a bit of a shock. I like to be in the dark , and I can fantasise about who you are..)

Anyway , I moaned a bit about the illumination and on Saturday night , it all went off ! It was great and hey..I've seen the Video and with a bit of pruning I think we're gonna have ourselves a party! It should be out next year on DVD I've also done an interview solo and with Kim Fuller and Simon Mcburney. It's all a bit intense but funny and hopefully, interesting .

Now-I spoke to Neil Gaiman last night and there is very good news firstly his fantastic 1602 comic (Marvel superheroes in the 15th century) is a) out now and b) dedicated to Me and Jonathan Ross !!! How bout them apples? Also Coraline has been snapped up and will be made as a stop motion movie ..out in a couple of years , I should think. For more details of Neil's thangs go to Neil Gaiman.com. I'm gonna see him next week for tea and buns , If it's groovy , I might tell you about it.

I've got eight shows to go ,Warwick Arts Centre tonighthere we go , here we go , here we go.

Big Love

Len.

(I'm liking Destiny's Child. I'm liking Steve Wright on Radio 2 , I'm still liking Jo WhileyI'm loving Spooks BBC 1 , I'm loving Blackpool on BBC1 I'm reading Katherine Mansfield Selected stories (fab..) and I've also just taken delivery of Seinfeld series 1 3 on DVDHow happy am I?)