I was up a lot later than I wanted to be writing the review of last night’s Frank Skinner gig. Writing up a comedy review can be difficult because it would be terrible form to quote the funniest lines as someone could read it online and then have the best bits of the show ruined for them. That’s the difference between comedians and musicians; nobody would dream of giving Status Quo grief because they had already heard ‘Rocking All Over The World’ before. In fact it is when a band uses the dreaded line “here’s a new song” that the audience enthusiasm dips. A comedian’s material is a sacred text that should only be seen by them until it gets shared out among the paying audience. If a comedian did the same material again and again nobody would pay their hard earned money to see them. This is why I don’t fully understand the standup DVD market, because there aren’t that many shows that are as funny the second time around. Nowadays the DVD is a way to draw a line under a tour show before writing one for the following year, whereas there was a time when a comedian could spend their whole life repeating the same routine, this is why a lot of comedians were reluctant to give television a go in the early days. This proves that comedy is harder than music, but neither job is as hard as watching comedy or music before going home to write about it afterwards.

Luckily I had accounted for writing the review when I wrote my weekly job list, so I followed it with the blog (still remarkably up to date) before taking Jack for a walk and going to bed. My list for today has gone a little haywire though as I had to organise Nottingham based music for the American show and once I had done that I couldn’t be bothered with anything else. I’m supposed to be typing up the finished draft of Bowie Day this week but I can’t see it happening. Next week’s list hasn’t even been thought about yet, so maybe I’ll get round to it at some point. Maybe I should write ‘write this week’s list’ at the top of the list so that I can at least have one thing crossed off.

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