Friday 17th June 2016

Went into the office for the weekly meeting, all good there - I'm doing okay with the work and making a few quid.

Left at 3 to pick up my mate Vicky, and then we drove up to Derbyshire for my show. Fair play to the girl, I put her through a lot tonight...

Drive up was fine, found the venue with 2 hours to spare so grabbed some dinner and it was nice just to stop for a moment. The venue was lovely - a converted barn at the back of a cafe, the host was welcoming. They seem to work at a different pace there, the show started half an hour late because the audience were on their way, but in their own time. Audience of 11, not bad for an out-of-town preview.

The first half died, they were expecting stand-up from the off so the '50 Ways...' show wasn't a great fit. I cut it short considerably, they were polite but I'm amazed they came back. Second half they all came back, I gave them an incredibly loud, in your face, version of 'Least of Your Problems' and it was what the room needed. They loved it; it was the best I've performed this show yet. The insisted on a Q&A afterwards which was nice, if a little long.

A man walked into the venue just as I was leaving and said, somewhat aggressively, "you don't recognise me, do you, Paul?"

He was right. I didn't. How awkward that it turns out he's my cousin.

Booked a hotel 1.3 miles away from the venue, should be easy, yeah? Google Maps struggled with it, maybe because it was on the M4. Drove around in circles for over an hour and a half. 50 miles later, made it to the hotel for midnight. That was a long night.