Wednesday, August 06, 2003

The show went very well last night--a small but wonderful crowd. No technical problems and they had a wonderful energy--a lot of them stayed after to talk to me.

I'm really enjoying this festival, and the way it works me over in performance--I'm learning a great deal, and in a lot of ways it is the end of an educational process which began at the Cherry Lane last year Off-Broadway. It's very instructive in helping me parse out where I want to live between the invention and heat of the stand-up world and the storytelling precision of theater. Okay, that was a bit pretentious-sounding, I know...but the upshot is that it is amazing how much you can learn about yourself and the way you process things by performing for other people.

Yesterday was the hottest day in British history. Luckily it didn't reach all the way up to Scotland, but it still amazes me that 99 degrees = hottest day ever. I actually find myself missing the heat of NYC, which is something I *never* thought would happen to me--I'm a large guy, and always thought I preferred it to be 65 degrees year-round, though a few years in Seattle somewhat disabused me of that notion.

Now that the HBO project has been cleared out of the way somewhat, I am hoping to focus on seeing some shows. I am especially excited about the work of some people I know--Demetri Martin's show goes on just after mine in the same space, and we know each other from NYC...he has a wonderfully warm absurdist eye for geek culture, and appears to have captured the hearts of the Scottish with a 5-star review in the SCOTSMAN, which is pretty much the be-all, end-all of the festival. Kickass, Demetri. Kickass.

I know David Sterry through his wife, who works with my literary agent--they are both very cool people. He and I share a dressing room before our shows, and that can be a stressful thing with the wrong partner--luckily David is absolutely wonderful--laid back, gregarious with a very honest face. I will be seeing his show, Chicken: The True Story of a Teenage Gigolo the first night I have off. Have to admit, I keep wondering what a double-bill with him would be like--quite a combination, I would think. The Dot-Commer and the Dildo-Man, the press would say. Or at least they would in the UK.

I'm off to see some shows.

5:51 AM