Friday 30th January 2015

Now that my book has COMPLETELY SOLD OUT (a hundred copies, sold out within 8 months...not bad, I guess) I realised I needed to somehow have something to sell at shows so I spent the morning recording short stories on my phone. It's really easy to edit and touch them up to make them decent audio quality, but that doesn't help the poor performances of them - which they were. They sounded like a tired man, in his pyjamas, reading from a laptop - which they were. I then remembered that I had a really good audio release, Short Stories for Lanky People, already nailed - it was a live recording from a year and a bit ago, that I could just burn more copies of so I shall do that. That was a really good recording of a good night - there was a nice buzz in the audience that evening. Slightly annoyed though that I spent 4 hours today working on lesser material.

Made up for it by going on a bit of an admin drive, sending out more emails. Confirmed show offers for Northamptonshire, Louth, Oxford, Norwich and Sutton - productive stuff!

In the evening Izzy came over and we read through The Terrible Date. An odd one, structurally it's fine, there's some nice lines, the characters are defined. We decided to not film it because we just weren't excited by it. We've done a lot of good projects together over the years, this one was nice but as soon as we finished reading we just looked at each other and decided against it. I can't put my finger on it, but it just didn't feel right. It's a nice script, I'll come back to it another day work out what ingredient it's missing. 

Thursday 29th October 2015

Last night's performance really was substandard, you know. The audience wanted to like it though, which is always a nice thing. I like people.

Read over the scripts for The Terrible Date - they're quite nice, if played properly. Very short though, so we decided to have just the one night filming rather than two, so we'll do that tomorrow night.

Wrote a couple more sketches for Saturday, with those and the ones we didn't get around to doing last time we should have a really nice episode 2 on our hands.

Launched the concept of Lounge Shows properly as a business - but still with a 'pay what you want' thing going on, which is something I really believe in. Promoted extensively on email (to pretty much everybody I know), Linkedin, Facebook (my professional account, my personal account, and the Dowsing wall as there's hundreds of people on there) and Twitter. Gotta try, haven't you?

Would like to experiment the whole 'pay what you want' thing with some tour dates, maybe I see myself as one of life's perennial buskers? Will email some more venues now, if there is actually any venues in the UK I haven't emailed yet...

Evening; a nice chance to catch up with Erin as we watched Esther sing blues at Relevant Records, fast becoming one of my favourite places in Cambridge. Lovely evening, that.

Wednesday 28th January 2015

Not that I expect replies, from the hundreds of emails I send, but just one would be nice? Perhaps? A polite rejection would even be an improvement from the silence I get from agents, venues, press, potential sponsors.

Creative day, wrote the three short episodes of 'The Terrible Date' which I'll be filming on Thursday/Friday with Izzy. Spent quite a few hours on them, these won't 'make' me but hopefully they'll help build the brand.

Evening lounge show around Lee's. Lee is a great, and welcoming host. Felt weird having a girl I dated for a short while in the audience, but she laughed more than most to be honest. I was very fast tonight, flustered, lost my flow a bit...I quit my job for this, I should be professional, pacing really is a problem. I panicked, I was so fast. Certain bits that haven't worked so well really did tonight (the cajon stuff in particular) and especially the feminism stuff (Erin, a friend, very kindly looked over that bit of the script after the show the other day and we discussed emphasis on certain words). It ends well, it has a punchline, people seem happy enough, but I need to get my act together on the performance side of things.

Tuesday 27th January 2015

A better day. Decided corporate sponsorship may be the way to go - I have a lot to offer a company, their logo on 10,000 flyers, a whole bunch of UK tour dates where their blurb can go in the programmes, private performances at company socials etc. Sent 157 emails today, whilst listening to the Dad's Army radio series. I like productive days.

Diary not clashing with Fred's House/Dowsing anymore, we've all worked around each other very well and filled up my schedule without any problems. Then I realised I'm supposed to be rehearsing with Steve ahead of the recording with him and I have no time. At all. Bugger.

Evening prog/jazz session so much better; loved it tonight actually. We'd all drank a lot of caffeine, always helps. It's a concept album about London; tonight I finally saw the vision and it's a good one. Got to do a 6 minute drum solo. I like it and hate it in equal measures.

Confirmed another London performance of the play, got Alister and Edd to be my backing band - doing this show with a band could work.

Got back and send out a load of press releases.

Monday 26th January 2015

I just couldn't get started today. I previously would have blamed this on the fact it was a Monday, but I don't really do days of the week these days - every day is different, I'm an artist. No excuses. Spent the morning trying to book up more shows, it's amazing I'm still finding places to email. Got stroppy with a promoter in Stamford before apologising, and he apologised too, and I've ended up confirming a show there. Paid in a cancellation cheque from the Christmas show, it's great being paid to be unpopular, isn't it?

Evening session with the jazz/prog band didn't work at all. I accidentally said outloud that I was bored and they got offended by this. Basically, two of them working on chords and stuff whilst I sit in the drum booth playing with my phone. For hours. Grumpy day.

Sunday 25th January 2015

Up early, went to a naming ceremony for a friend's kid. Nice vibe, lovely to catch up with everybody again, and quite nice to be somewhere (Hemingford) where there wasn't a phone signal so I wasn't being hassled for gigs/rehearsals/venue updates for a couple of hours.

Then did a lounge show at Boris' house. Getting Lost... went down a storm, new stuff dipped a bit in the middle but I know that and am working on it.

Saturday 24th January 2015

Busy day. More auditions this morning. So glad Alister came down, even though he's a pianist not a guitarist. He's one of my best friends and I'm so glad he impressed; he's joined the band now, really excited about being in a band with him again, he's just one of 'those' musicians that you want to be on stage with.

Then dashed over to Jack's for another lounge show/preview thingy. A raucous crowd, especially Sophie who enjoyed heckling. Busy room, I enjoyed this a lot - I had the heckling under control. Performances were strong today, I needed that - that was a good one.

Then ran from Mitchums Corner with my drum stuff to Relevant Records to play with Claudia and band. Lovely, sweaty gig that one - band on good form, lovely venue, lovely food, lovely beer. Just lovely, the whole thing.

Friday 23rd January 2015

A day off from the show so spent it trying to book a few more stand-up slots; I figured that if I'm putting in a lot of effort for my first one I might as well carry on doing it. Looks like there's only about 4 or 5 actual promoters out there, who seem to run the whole scene.

Put a little more time into booking more tour dates for Inadequate Man; lots of interest, but nothing new on the booking side of things.

In the evening we auditioned a couple guitarists for the band to replace our departing legend. As much as they were good musicians, it just didn't feel right so we've politely declined them.

Thursday 22nd January 2015

After the excitement of the last few days, I woke up this morning just feeling a little flat. I'm really excited about this show, looking forward to doing it again tonight, but today I just dwelled a bit - dwelled on the fact that Dowsing are probably really annoyed with me because the whole gig was cancelled as I couldn't make it, dwelled a bit replying to BBC contacts about coverage for the shows...suddenly it's the evening and I need to think about the show tonight.

Our sketch show is going down well, over 120 hits which doesn't sound like a lot but it's not bad. Confirmed a London performance for the show in a really nice venue for May. Turned down a full-time 9-5 office job. Got asked if I could be a drum teacher for somebody...yeah, I can wing that, I think. Made a promo video for Inadequate Man. Spoke to Amanda about recording the podcast and that's all in the diary now. Booked 2 more lounge shows and spoke to my PR lady quite a lot.

Evening lounge show around Surabhi's house. Such a nice house, almost felt guilty swearing in it for the show. Lovely audience, made up of Dowsing singers (none of them had issues about the gig being cancelled), they loved the first half of the show - the speedy reprise of Getting Lost... - it's a safe show, they were really into it. Inadequate Man didn't work though, I felt like I lost them a bit during it - it dragged, I fumbled my way around this new dialogue. Hhhhmmm, not great. They were lovely as an audience, I enjoyed spending a good hour or so chatting to them afterwards. Everyone believes in me so much, which, after that performance, probably wasn't warranted faith.

Got back and investigated production companies for the sketch show. There's a real lack of them out, there, but sent the link to 15 of them at least.

Wednesday 21st January 2015

Hungover in Wolverhampton, lovely fry-up and eventually drove home. Loved last night, but the socialising afterwards destroyed me. Got chatting to the sister of the writer of Slumdog Millionaire, though, and she loved the show.

Confirmed Shropshire show, and did some PR stuff for the Guildford and Bristol performances. Opened talks with a nice London venue.

Evening - second lounge show, in the house I live in so nice and easy. Actually did the show in my slippers. Did the show to Edd, Esther, Jo and Edd's mum - they were a joyously happy audience, they laughed at the right times. I milked the awkwardness of it all a bit, there was points where they seemed to be choking with laughter. What's going on here? Is this Paul Richards, getting it right? Yep. Although another 3 previews to go, so lets not get too carried away. Started the show differently tonight, will probably go back to Tuesday's version.

Tuesday 20th January 2015

Up at silly-o-clock to get dad to hospital. 5 hours later and all is well.

Drove to Wolverhampton to do a lounge show at my mate Ade's house. I performed the new 30-minute version of Getting Lost in my Hometown, followed by a full Inadequate Man. A room full of toughened fighters who have served their country well, not my typical audience but they were so good to me - laughed at all the right times, especially during Inadequate Man which is slightly more aggressive, such a great evening.

Getting Lost... still works, more so now that I don't have to pad it out and can do the shorter version. I'd let this show go last year but because I'm needing to fill a full evening for my tour dates, it makes sense to bring it back and effectively support myself before doing the new show. I was working from a script for the new bit for the whole 50 minutes but it didn't matter - people were crying with laughter. The structure feels loose but it comes together brilliantly at the end - it does need work, despite what the nice audience may tell you, but it's not far off. A fantastic night, the kind of show I live for. This is what I do, I'm doing it, Richards is storming it.

Got very drunk with my kind hosts before eventually crashing out.

Monday 19th January 2015

Got up early, straight into the rehearsing of Inadequate Man. Took ages to put together the audio links, the visuals etc, by the time it came to actually running it for the first time it was lunchtime. Still not sure if it works, there's some really big laughs in this show - which hasn't always been the case for my work, but the structure doesn't quite feel as tight as it could be.

Been offered a show in Shropshire. Opened 'negations', which generally involves me agreeing to the fee they offer but doing my best to look like I know what I'm doing.

Edited the sketch show and had real issues. Because I filmed it all in HD, the files were so big and my poor little laptop really struggled with it - the audio and video footage never matched. In the end I had to upload the files from my phone to YouTube, and then download them back to my laptop as smaller files, before editing them. What a hassle! But I'm really proud of the footage; in fact I even punched the air when it was done because I think we have something good here. Yeah, it's short and dark, but it's good.

Feel guilty that Dowsing have cancelled a gig because I can't make it. A whole 100+ piece choir, and a band, cancelling because the drummer has a solo comedy show in Guildford. I feel bad about this, but flattered.

Evening rehearsal with Claudia and band was very nice, as it always is. These are good times, I think. I need to earn some money at some point, but I'm entering a creative peak I feel.

Sunday 18th January 2015

A really good day, that. I was a little unsure about the whole sketch show thing but this worked a treat today. I'm lucky to have accidentally stumbled into such a wonderful cast - Jon (a 'proper' professional), Izzy (who I work with all the time - she's awesome) and Esther (who knew she could act?!) plus Edd (landlord) playing double bass on one of the sketches. These work, my sketches actually work - they were written in a rush, but they really do work.

Filming took longer than planned, but after 5 hours we had about 12 minutes of decent material. There was a real feel-good factor about the whole thing; you know that feeling that something just works? Was a joy from start to finish, I'm in awe of those around me.

Then had a cracking meeting with Amanda about all things comedy, we exchanged ideas, we'll do lots of things together soon I think. I like people.

Saturday 17th January 2015

Was up till really late - Inadequate Man had better be worth it, I'm putting a lot of myself into this one.

Recorded the music bits for my musical, A Room in a House, with Alister and Edd. It was my fault, really, the direction I gave was so vague. The music we produced was nice, but I'm not convinced this concept will work. I'll use the music for something, though. Spent a long time on this, too. I'm trying too hard.

Evening just stopped for a bit, watched a film, ate some pizza. It was nice. I needed that. Then I found myself emailing venues until 3am.

Friday 16th January 2015

Very productive day, that one. Started with the usual promo stuff for the February shows and confirmed the Essex performance. 

Spent the rest of the day writing the sketches for Sunday which may or may not work, we'll see - it's good to stretch myself and these ideas look good on paper, but it's a different game when you're trying to trying to make people laugh instantly rather than having a bit of time to work on it. We'll see how Sunday goes.

Had more ideas for Inadequate Man so added them in, this is turning into quite a messy show - in a good way.

Evening local radio show with Claudia and band, was very nice. The whole station just feels like a mates fest, I seem to know everyone there. Was jolly enough, played 3 songs, chatted a lot, good to catch up with Matt the presenter who I'll be doing some stuff with in Edinburgh soon. Then a few of us went to see the fabulous Split Whiskers play in Cambridge.

Got back at 1am, started tweaking the script some more.

Thursday 15th January 2015

I'm pretty sure the pain I have in my stomach is just bruising, feels like it anyway. All good, pretty sure it was from my hardware case.

Still bugger all from the actors for Sunday, just a bit rude if anything. I've got enough of us, well, 4 of us, to make this happen. Spent quite a long time this morning replying to emails.

Dowsing and Fred's House stuff clashing somewhat - my diary is looking a little ridiculous now and most of it is unpaid stuff. Come on Paul, priorities!

Lovely meeting with Helen, who is doing my PR for the four shows I have coming up. She's really good, and quite direct when I drift off in conversation. She's also sorted me a solo back in Essex.

Spent the afternoon working on the concept for the online musical, the music for which we will be recording this Saturday, assuming the pianist is still up for it. I mean, he was the other day, but he's stopped replying to messages, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

Evening band meeting and meal as we prepared for the long journey ahead without our genius lead guitarist.

Wednesday 14th January 2015

Woke up in quite a lot of pain this morning; bit like I did yesterday only worse. The danger of being self-employed is that you don't get sick leave. I've Googled it and Google just says lots of scary things when it comes to stomachs, personally I think it's just because I had to carry my ludicrously heavy hardware bag across a large carpark on Friday night and it's just muscular. Either way, I don't have time to be ill, got a tour coming up - will just drink some Red Bull and pretend all is okay.

Got the tune for the final scene of the new film from Claudia, so edited that and sorted the credits etc, it's now uploading as a private video to YouTube.

Discussed availability with the hotel I'm being a quiz master for, and Amanda who I'm launching a new comedy evening with, and the BBC station who are kindly plugging my lounge show idea. Updated all of my websites with gig/show listings, and got annoyed that took a whole hour to do - I have too many sites.

Too much time spend sending emails today, not sure where this day is going - it's like people are replying a bit too quickly. Also spent an hour or so looking for part-time jobs, aware of the fact that whilst I'm enjoying this self-employed thing, I'm really not actually making any money at all. As before, there aren't any, which means I have to work even harder sorting solo tour dates as they pay. Going to re-write the blurb for the show, I'm quite liking the "Dave Gorman crossed with Rigsby from Rising Damp" tag.

Confirmed that I'll be filming the show in Wolverhampton next Tuesday night. Confirmed BBC slot for February.

My most active band (it's probably unfair of me to name the band as this is a public blog, as I often forget) will be saying goodbye to our lead guitarist soon because he moves to the US. Sad times, he was a genius.

Emailed a bunch of actors about being in the sketch show this Sunday and here we are, 7 hours later, not one reply! But have managed to get in the brilliant Jon - a 'proper' professional actor, courtesy of Esther, who I rehearsed with in the rockabilly band tonight as she's his girlfriend. Rehearsal tonight was fun, as it is with this band, if a bit too much time spent chatting and not enough music. I was as much to blame as anyone, as you can imagine.

Tuesday 13th January 2015

Dad was in a for a lengthy routine operation today, so spent the day in the family home. He didn't have it done in the end due to the doctor being called away so we'll go through it all again next week. In my 8 hours at home I edited all of the footage for the 'Love & That Bit in the Middle' film.

Fred's House confirming loads more shows (seriously, where is The Dowsing Sound Collective going to fit into my life now?) and I've been offered a nice show in Birmingham for the solo piece.

Had a revelation of an idea whilst doing my weekly food shop in Tescos. I'll be launching a new YouTube series called, 'Paul Richards & Friends' which will showcase four very different styles of my writing - 4 episodes, half an hour each. One of them will be 'Love & That Bit in the Middle', another will be the half an hour musical I'm recording on Saturday with Alister and Edd, another one will be the sketch show I'm still writing, and the final one will be a 30 minute live performance, which I'll hopefully film at the lounge show in Wolverhampton next Tuesday.

Now, if I can film the sketch show on Sunday, I'll have all the projects I want to do before the month is out, which means I can focus on the touring in Feb/March/April. Just need to get myself a cast...

Got in and recorded all the narrative parts for the film.

Monday 12th January 2015

Quite glad a certain venue has lowered their ticket prices for my forthcoming performances; £10 is about £5 more than it should be. 

A comedy festival seem quite keen on me, have sent them what is effectively my demo, hopefully they'll like it. 

Turned down the chance to drum for Avenue Q at the Edinburgh Fringe due to a schedule clash with the previews. Real shame, but nice to be asked. 

Fantastic photo shoot with Oliver for the new show. 

Discussed and arranged plans with some musicians to start recording my musical, A Room in a House, this weekend. 

Put up adverts advertising the lounge shows as being a 'show for hire'. 

Got this idea of putting all of these little short films I've been working on recently into one 30-minute feature, as they all have the same theme; man struggling to impress women. I've got a film I made with Alister recently for that one, plus the Gambling film with Rob, and some solo bits. The film will be called 'Love, and the Other Bits'. Wrote some dialogue bits for the footage that didn't have anything.

Evening, very fun rehearsal with Claudia, Marcel and Edd. Nice songs and very nice food.

Sunday 11th January 2015

So hungover from last night. Worth it, though.

Spent a majority of the day at the WriteOn winter bash, a little networking but mostly catching up with Izzy, Alan, Paul, Jenny et al.

Got back and re-wrote more bits of Inadequate Man. There's a first draft there now, I'll leave it for a week or so before reading back on it again, but it's all there. Something quite refreshing knowing I have a draft of my Edinburgh Fringe show written by 11th January 2015.

The Neil Young tribute band seem keen for me to do more with them, and Anna has made some demos for our 'Hospital' project.

Saturday 10th January 2015

Because I drank so much caffeine on the way back, mostly because my useless sat nav decided to take me on such a long route, I didn't sleep well at all. 

Eventually emerged, sat and wrote more bits for Inadequate Man all day. 

Evening went for Japanese food for Vikki's 30th, and we all got horribly drunk. Discussed band stuff in great detail (we're off on tour in February), we're all blatantly as insecure as each other but it's a lovely thing, feels like this band is a bit of a family. 

Friday 9th January 2015

Quite happy with the way Inadequate Man is looking now - it's a bit different to previous efforts in the sense that it's less driven by a narrative but it feels more instant. 

Finally confirmed the Winchester performance. 

Second gig with the Neil Young tribute act. Long drive - shouldn't have been, but was. For some reason my pathetic sat nav took me through central London DURING RUSH HOUR and I got incredibly stressed out. Was a little late for my soundcheck but they had allowed so much time anyway. Much tighter tonight - really packed audience (which financially helps), same set as Thursday. Exhaustingly sweaty gigs but there's something very satisfying about playing to a big crowd. Set was the same as last night. 

Pathetic sat nav took me through central London again on the way home. It was a long night.

Thursday 8th January 2015

A good, fulfilling day, that one. Was a little slow in getting going initially as I was up till really late last night writing, but made it in time for my meeting at a posh hotel in Cambridge where I agreed to be their regular quiz master. This is still performing and it's a good way to make a few quid too, and we also discussed the idea of me performing the new show there to their regular audiences of "old people who arrive by coach" - the fee on offer is really good, I'd have to tone the show down a bit but could be good fun.

Then I drove to South London for the first of two shows with the Neil Young tribute band. Nice venue; quite big, did the soundcheck using rods but was advised to use sticks and rock out instead which is always a refreshing request. I didn't know the songs too well at all but Alex the bassist saved me a couple times during that gig, the audience were, naturally, oblivious. I like being a fancy drummer, all trickery and silkiness; tonight two different audience members called me a "powerhouse" which is a first, but I quite like it.

Set: Hey Hey My My, Cinnamon Girl, Southern Man, Ohio, Love to Burn, Courtez the Killer, Love and Only Love, Like a Hurricane; Rockin in the Free World (encore)

Got back at 2am and discussed the idea of forming a Costello tribute band with my landlord. We discuss a lot of things like this.

Wednesday 7th January 2015

Here's a depressing stat for you: my latest collection of short stories, My Car Doesn't Do Hills, sold 5 copies last year. My Christmas book, Have Yourself a Ridiculous Little Christmas, sold 3. I put quite a lot of work into those.

Pretty much confirmed 2 new performances for the tour - people do take a long time to reply, don't they? Actually, they don't; it's often just a day or two, but I'm an anxious little git.

Went for a photoshoot for the new show which seemed to be going well, it involved me struggling in a phonebox. We then realised the photographer didn't have his memory card so none of the pictures were actually saved, we'll do it all again on Monday.

Got back and wrote solidly for 5 hours. Quite happy with the way the new show is shaping; it could do with being a bit nicer as it's too ranty, but in time I'll refine it.

Tuesday 6th January 2015

Confirmed photo shoot for new show, that'll be tomorrow. Good job I got a haircut then.

The PR team behind the Guildford show are scarily good, they'll do me proud I think.

Have had strong interest for the show from a venue in Scotland, and accepted an offer of a slot in Bristol. Been offered a place at a good venue at the Brighton Fringe.

Been offered a big, proper musical (as a drummer) for the Edinburgh Fringe. With my shows not 100% confirmed yet (as expected at this stage; I'm not expecting an offer until early March) I don't know if I can say yes or not at this stage - how frustrating...

Evening first rehearsal of the rockabilly band. Was an absolute joy; Esther, Adam, Edd and myself feel like the perfect unit. Okay, so not too much music was made, if anything it felt like a bit of a therapy session at times, but it was just a long evening of brilliant, spiralling conversation. And when we did actually play it wasn't bad, either. Ended up at Esther's till 2am as she drank port and I drank Ribena, we discussed and solved all of the world's problems.

Monday 5th January 2015

Seriously getting concerned that my diary is clashing at the moment - too many times where I have 'gig tba' where I now have a show offer. Something has to give, at some point. Have asked about Dowsing dates and could do with hearing them soon, I just need to know if I can fit this project in to my 2015 plans. Really not sure, which would be a sad thing.

Finally started actually putting the script together for the new solo show, which opens as a lounge show in a couple weeks and opens properly on Feb 11th. Got frustrated and drove into town to get a haircut.

Got back and started writing again. My typical solo show is 18 bullet points. This one is 32. I've got a lot to say this time around.

Sunday 4th January 2015

I get strangely excited when my schedule fills up. There was a point today when it looked like my theatre stuff was clashing with the Fred's House stuff, but we've just about got it all sorted now.

Been booked to play at a 'proper' stand-up club in May. A couple more lounge shows have also shown an interest.

We took down the Christmas decorations today; that's always a sad thing.

Saturday 3rd January 2015

Okay, so the day may have started with a hangover, but this was a productive Saturday. It was nice to confirm the Guildford and Southampton dates - and both for next month too. Just need 6 more positive replies from the 400 or so I've sent and I've got myself a tour there.

My schedule for 2015 is looking impressive already - mostly Fred's House stuff, but that's not a bad thing. My calendar online looks great already. The more I look at my schedule, though, the more I realise some of it doesn't pay. On Monday I'll try and get a part-time job I reckon.

Long night, it's now 2.37am as I write this. I've emailed every stand-up agent/promoter I can find in my bid to get some stand-up slots, and also loads and loads of literary festivals. I'm almost dreading checking my Hotmail tomorrow morning.

Friday 2nd January 2015

Quite happy with how many emails I've sent; lots and lots of venues, plus music festivals that do theatre/comedy, arts centres, proper theatres, cafes...

That was a long day.

Offers so far for Guildford, Southampton (x2), Winchester (x2) and Brighton.

Then I got drunk with my mate Andy and moaned a lot about women.

Thursday 1st January 2015

A nice productive start to the year, initially doing boring 'life' things that have been building up (I washed EVERYTHING...that's me sorted for a couple months), retuned my drums (that's those sorted for a year), paid excessive parking ticket fine.

Then got down to business - as always, when I'm trying to write a new stage show, I started work on the novel. I'm sure I was supposed to be writing the novel now, I would have nailed this solo show already.

And then suddenly it was 2am and I'm still sending out hundreds of emails to venues. I need this to work, I need bookings, I need to earn some money.

Wednesday 31st December 2014

The last day of 2014. Not a bad year, that, really. Best things I've done - the stuff with Fred's House, the solo show (Getting Lost in My Hometown) and the Emily & Michael series with Izzy. The reasons why those projects worked so well? It's because I put more time into them, they were projects and I'd worked really, really hard at. The stuff that didn't work so well? Those little projects, the ones that were nice ideas but ultimately ended up on YouTube getting four or five views. I'm glad I did them, but in 2015 I have to focus a little more on the good stuff.

One of those 'good' projects will be the new solo show, a show I intend to tour until I can't do it anymore. Today I sent out 84 emails to cafes/small venues around the country, still so many places to ask. I need to live on the road - 2015 is the year of adventure. One offer so far, a venue in Southampton.

Evening - final gig of the year. Fred's House in our regular venue in Rugby. Long night, long set, started a bit slow but ended up being a cracker. Home by 3.30am. We worked hard for that.