An old housemate of mine used to get really annoyed with me whenever I uttered the words “Make a thing.” Every time I said “I’m making a new thing,” she would sigh and tell me I was being obnoxious again. She would remind me that my co-opting of the use “make,” with all its connotations […]

My girlfriend and I recently attended the BBC Comedy Festival in Glasgow, where the BBC organises various panels with legends and experts talking about the current TV comedy landscape, helping to demystify elements of it for other creatives finding their way through the industry. By and large, the legends (Armando Iannucci, Jennifer Saunders etc) would […]

In July my new show, You Wait. Time Passes. (“explores pet themes of creativity and the abnegation of self in service of art” – Chortle, really selling the show’s laugh-out-loud qualities) is coming to the Berlin Comedy Cafe as part of the Berlin Fringe. Perhaps you live in Berlin? Perhaps you know people who live in Berlin? Perhaps […]

I never liked the Guinness “Good things come to those who wait” ad. I thought it was quite boring. I was fairly young when it came out and hadn’t learned to appreciate black and white films yet. It was only relatively recently that The Spy Who Loved Me had made me realise that live action film was an acceptable […]

At the end of Withnail & I, Withnail comes to terms with the fact that he will never play Hamlet. This week, I have finally come to terms with the fact that I will never play the Phantom of the Opera, and I feel reborn. It may come as a surprise to some of you that I’ve […]

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold *** I stared at the post-it note, dumbfounded. This was the last straw. Richard had been giving me a hard time about William for weeks now, and […]

A few weeks ago I wrote this newsletter about the idea of writing about real people, with little idea that that subject was about to become a headline news story thanks to the brouhaha (never use that word, just wanted to use it, had a great time doing it, would recommend) arising from Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer. Just […]

I just got back from my third visit to Machynlleth Comedy Festival. I love MachFest. It reminds me of what the Fringe used to feel like. People watch each other’s work with curiosity and kindness and there’s none of the pressure or noise or creeping sense of comparison that has slowly made the Fringe into less of an […]

I’m back again! Here we are! Here we go! Oh my goodness! Sorry these newsletters are becoming so much more sporadic than they once were – life happens, I suppose. But I went on holiday, if that helps, so I’m slowly getting better at remembering to fill my life with things other than work. I […]

Hello! I hope you’re all doing well. How ARE you all? What’s the funniest animal you’ve met in the flesh this week? I’m dying to hear all about it, this newsletter can’t just be a one-way street, you know. Anyway, it’s just a short one this week, because life has once again become busy (I […]

I had to catch a train to Manchester at 7am. I was walking along, phone in hand, checking the details of my ticket, when someone shoved me in the back, causing me to stumble awkwardly forwards a couple of steps. My phone was then snatched from my hand, and as time has gone by in […]

Let’s start with the plug, because this week’s Tape is at least vaguely connected to it. Those readers who’ve been enjoying the Mr Fruit Salad show on Youtube over the last couple of weeks might be interested to know that I’ve put together a little bonus feature for the Go Faster Stripe store in the form of […]

Hello! Hope you’re all doing well. Just a quick Tape this week, as I’ve actually been moonlighting, writing for a DIFFERENT publication! Sacrilege! Betrayal! How could I do such a thing? The good folks at Psyche Magazine, which commissions writers to explore the intersection between their own fields and psychology and mental health, approached me at […]

Hello! I hope you’re all well. May God bless you and keep you (what? What am I on about? I dunno.) I’m going to get right to it this week, because I’m doing a lot of scurrying around plugging stuff, and am scribbling this down on the back of a napkin in between bouts of […]

I’ve started seeing an osteopath, because my neck and shoulder have been hurting for about a year and I’m worried if I don’t do something about it now I’ll end up as one of those old souls who can’t raise his head above the level of his navel who you see feeding pigeons. It’d be […]