View archive

Meanwhile ...somewhere in Blackpool

with Lenny Barker, choosing the Joke Booth jokes, having a pre show dump (just kidding but it felt like it), walking down to the stage, waiting to go on - and then the show was filmed by a six man crew...with an illuminated audience. AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH! Strange night. First half, I felt as though both the audience and I were finding our feet and then the second half really kicked off - the whole atmosphere changed . The material about the contributors went down very well indeed considering Lenny Barker and I wrote it that afternoon. Making all the notes during filming really helped. I've learnt that as a comic I have to keep an eye on what I'm thinking all the time, so I'm a compulsive list maker - always thinking about what's funny to me on that particular day. So during the filming it was easy ! Plus, I had the wondrous Barbara Lee, (production co-ordinator on the documentary) whose job it was to write stuff down for me. Hoorah! So ( and this is the point) when it came to writing about the contributors , we had a 'Master Documents' of notes dictated during the filming. We could turn to these notes and isolate each segment of filming and boil down the notes to appropriate jokes. Most of which worked on the night, which was a blessing. COMIC'S TIP I'll tell you what was interesting - when you write near a deadline, you're tolerance for weak material goes out the window. The nearer you are to performing the material, the stronger the jokes get. Because your survival instincts kick in. Anything too stupid or clever or complicated gets kicked out for stuff your gut tells you will work. That doesn't mean you shouldn't bank loads of notes about stuff you want to be funny about, all I'm saying is , the closer you get to the show, the better your critical faculties become as you switch from 'Writing mode' to 'Performer mode' The show went pretty well at Blackpool and as it was the last night , we had a VIP do , organised by Nick, one of our BBC Bristol producers. The Sugababes were on at night club round the corner -and Nick had arranged for us to go there enjoy the tune-some threesome. So that was how Lenny's Britain ended. Watching The Sugababes perform at 1.30 in the morning in the gayest night club in the UK.( Terrible music though. What are gays doing to themselves? I'll rephrase that. Why are gay people up North listening to all that techno bollocks? It's horrible. I never thought I'd be so relieved to hear the Sugababes in my life- at least they had recognisable tunes). So thank you Mike and Kate and Tommy and Chris and Barbara and Rebecca and Nick and thanks to everyone who contributed to the whole thing. We had a good time on the show and I think we learnt some things about the National sense of humour...you'll have to watch the show to find out just what we found out though... What's blue and fluffy? Blue fluff. Yeah...I'm out. Lenny Henry Berks UK 6.57 am , monday morning. Pre Breakfast. I got two MAIDENHEADS, a STOKE, a YORK , and a BRISTOL this week. Check out the tour diary and see if I'm in a place near you and check me out , baby! The show's called Where you from? (Brilliant poster designed by Brian Green- I'm the Black Surfer! At last , I am a comic book hero) and it's me doing my thing on stage in a one man show , with characters and stand up. I'm really proud of it and am enjoying myself immensely. Come and see the show!!!!!!