What is it?

'Sketch noting' is a term for having artwork created live during an event. It has other names like visual minutes, sketch noting, graphic recording and graphic facilitation. It's the process of capturing a live event as engaging colourful visuals. It's a great way to engage and support individuals and teams.

It can take various forms;

• Capturing a speaker's words as visuals as they deliver their talk at a conference
• Working with a team at a company away day, turning feedback into posters
• Capturing company's core values as spoken notes and turning them into highly polished illustrations
• (90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.)

Sketch noting is a great way to enhance the impact and takeaways from an event.
With the live art I create for clients, all artwork is owned by the clients once it has been created, and can be reused however they like. Often on office walls or social media.

Sketch noting (Graphic recording) is thinking fast with visuals. Creating engaging illustrations during a talk, conference or event. It has other names like visual minutes, live scribing and graphic facilitation.

Get in touch to book

Connecting what speakers are saying with what images are commonly represented by the subject being spoken about. There's also humour, as I like to add appropriate humour to visuals. Just my opinion, though I think with more serious topics, using a little light humour can help with how people engage with difficult subjects, and some of my clients agree.

Clients I've created sketch notes for include;;

• NHS
• National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
• National Deaf Society
• UK BCorp Conference
• Willmott Dixon Construction
• Bureau Veritas
• Roche
• Hologic
• North East Combined Authority
• Manchester City Council
• Salford City Council
• Biffa
• Hilton Hotels
• National Fire Chiefs Conference
• Z-Arts
• Digital Manchester
• Unlimited Potential
• Digital Manchester
• Salford CVS
• Pure Insight

Check my availability

FAQs

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'A night at the gallery', an evening of art, culture and entertainment. I was approached in late 2025 and asked if I'd like to take part (of course!) but didn't think much more about it.

If you're looking for speed portraits for your event, get in touch.

Links:

More about the event

Manchester Art Gallery

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Whether it's the branding for Salford's Child Friendly City incentive, Q and A's with attendees at a live scribe event or running a session at the opening of Stockport's Stockroom, social engagement has now become a part of my overall offering.
Since joining GRIT studios in late 2023 I've been able to combine these skills much more often, and I thank them for spotting new opportunities for me to do so too.

You see - full disclosure - when I'm not designing and illustrating, I'm performing and teaching. I've performed and taught comedy and improv on and off for almost twenty years. I'm also involved in TEDx Warrington. I consider myself a 'creative generalist' and have for a long time. It's a slow burn to skill up in a few different areas, but the career rewards, I think, are much greater.

Having an eclectic skill set offers a few different ways into a project. My involvement can involve helping to spark curiosity, build trust, and create a space where people feel safe to express themselves. It's not just the 'what' of a projects outcome, but finding the best 'how' to get there, where everyone feels invested.

Art can be a catalyst for change, and I see my role as helping others tap into that potential. Whether it’s sparking joy, raising awareness, or building community, I’m there to make creativity a shared experience—one that lingers long after the workshop ends.

Previous clients for this work include:

Salford City Council
Trafford Council
Stockport Council
Grit Studios
Sickfest
Stockroom
Greater Manchester Youth Network

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With Co-host, Andrew Thorp, we introduced 18 speakers, 18! I was convinced it was going to over run with that many great talks, and there was some great talks indeed! One in particular that really struck a personal chord (I'll post about that later).

This year was bigger than the last 2 I've bene involved in, had 2 stages and around 300 in the audience at Warrington Youth Zone, converted for the night specially for the red spot.

It's been a long process coming together, and I've had the pleasure of being a part of the whole process, curating the speakers, coaching on humour and hosting. It's an inspiring task, working with Kirsty James and all the other folks that make up small army of volunteers that I've come to know so well since 2022. Several dozen good eggs!

There are so many moving parts on an event like this, and the videos of the talks are still to come!

Can't wait to see the official photos when they come through too. Well done all involved, and much gratitude to be part of it.

Links:
Book John as an event host

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Big thanks to Bron and Sean, and all the other improvisers who volunteered their time. The Kings Arms in Salford was a perfect venue too, with its theatre and studio spaces perfect for both big and intimate shows. 2026 has been confirmed, so see you next year!

This weekend I'll be taking part in and helping out with the first Greater Manchester Improv Festival.

There's so much good improv happening in Manchester, it really does have it's own improv scene. It's also great to the work my pals at The Totally Improvised Comedy have done to get some of the amazing groups together for a weekend of shows.

All the shows are taking place at the lovely Kings Arms Theatre Pub in Salford, from 5pm across the weekend, and it's all under one roof. There are some belting top shows on and some bright new talent too. Check out show's from;

• Drunk Classics
• Murder Inc
• Ladies Who Improv
• Improv on Demand
• The Things You Love
• Dark Peak Adventure Club
• Yoga Goats
• Improvised Musical Galactic Deathmatch
• Shakespeare On The Spot
• Absolute Onions
• The Communimps
• It Will Do You Good

I'll be appearing in The Totally Improvised Musical and Comedysportz

For full listings and tickets, check out www.totallyimprovised.co.uk

Useful Links:

Kings Arms Salford
GMImprov Fest
Drunk Classics Manchester
Murder Inc
Thirsty Productions
My! That Improv
Get in touch

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Joking aside, it was an amazing event, and a testament to the hard work of Kerry Spink, friend and fellow TEDx Warrington team. Kerry is an amazing human and a very inspiring person to be around.

Links

About John

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Working live outdoors attracted quite a few onlookers, keen to see the work as it was being made. I've developed the ability to chat as I work from doing speed portraits, and the Liverpool crowd did like a bit of banter. I tried to capture as much as possible in the time available, and the sunshine was a bonus.

Visual Storytelling. Creating Live art for events.

For this job, I was hired by Liverpool City Council. As with all live art projects, they got to keep the work that was made as well as photographed, cleaned-up versions of the art. I'm also open to revisions, for when a client wants to turn a piece of work into a poster or use it for additional marketing.

Visual storytelling has a few different names and is also known as;

• Graphic recording
• Live scribing
• Sketch noting
• Visual summary
• Infographics
• Visual minutes
• live art

Do you have an event you need turning into art? I've worked at conferences, workshops and speaking events around the UK. Get in touch here.

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Talks are usually written and planned, but on this occasion, the speaker wouldn't know the content of the slide deck, or the subject they were going to speak on until they arrived on the stage.

Working with Kyle Soo to make this happen, we'd been chatting about if for over a year. He has an amazing team who have helped him bring great Pecha Kucha events to Manchester, and this was no different. Cultplex, the indie cinema in the Green Quarter was a perfect venue too. (amazing pizza).

I'd had far too long to procrastinate over the ins and outs of how to keep it fresh for a whole night, which in the end didn't need overthinking. I also delivered my talk in song.

Thanks to Kyle, his team and the amazing speakers who took part.

Eve Holt
Hannah Cox
Simi Abidakun
Short Supply
Rob Stuart Hudson
Kate McCabe
Max Cross 

More improv

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One of the biggest in the world. Full of picture books, publishers and of course, illustrators - millions of illustrators all keen to show off their work.

So why was I there?

Mostly illustration. Seeing what the best in the world are producing right now, if and how my stuff measures up, and what I can learn & discover about the latest trends and opportunuities

Also agents. Like the Edinburgh Fringe, the industry is all in one place. I don’t need an Illustration agent, but that didn’t stop me from getting in front of a couple just to gauge my market worth.

Finally, my love of comics. A particular type of comics. The European market is very different from the rest of the world, and bigger than anything we have here in the UK.

The Bologna Children's Book Fair is as much a festival as a trade fair. All the big publishing players are here with exhibition stands the size of coffee shops, covered in gigantic illustrations of the most popular characters. Walking the enormous five halls, meetings were everywhere; on the first day I could hear the polite cut and thrust of business being done and imagine the inky smell of contracts being signed.

Bologna fair is huge, industrial scale commerce, and I’ll admit I ran a full gamut of emotions. So many visuals - so much competition!
For a moment, I was swept back to the mid-1990s when I'd attend UKCAC (the UK Comic Art Convention) and the Caption indie comic fest in Oxford. Amazing events those.

Here, I felt for the seer number of optimistic young illustrators clasping portfolios, eager to show off work. The portfolio area, where agents reviewed art was hectic and rammed.

Ironically, the area was called ‘The Illustrators Survival Corner’. I was expecting an open space where illustrators could show and share work, and despite some great masterclasses and workshops, the space felt dominated by the portfolio reviews, stressed staff trying to manage a torrent of emerging artists.

I didn't spend much time there. This book fair has been running since 1963, and I suspect it wasn't always like this. My takeaway on this aspect - if you have an ‘Illustrators Survival Corner’ don’t put agent reviews in the same space. Otherwise, your putting the cat in with the birds.

I attended some amazing panel talks. The highlight was 'Where are the boys', discussing the lack of relatable characters for boys that aren't superheroes or stereotypes. A proper hot topic in the UK, with references during the chat to the Netflix TV show 'Adolescence'.
Italian Author Francesca Cavallo made powerful points about the differences girls and boys have growing up and addressed the small percentage of males in publishing (a mostly female industry).

Did I mention it was huge? In the entry hall was a long gallery wall space where any illustrator could hang their work to be seen, and I witnessed the massive rush on the first day as people filled the walls with posters and postcards. It felt a bit like the Royal Mile during the Edinburgh Festival, except folks were polite and didn't post over the top of each other! I stuck up a couple of postcards for fun but didn't see the worth of it. Aside from that the walls had an odd a porous texture, and by the end of the first day a fair amount of it was on the floor.

Aside from the main draw of children's illustrated book, there were comics, and this is where Bologna really shone for me. The amount of beautiful graphic novels was glorious, regardless that very few were in English.

Mainland Europe has a very different relationship with comics than the UK or the US. In Manchester, my home town, the comic shops cover mainly US comics and toys, and the local Waterstones has one section for graphic novels and one shelf for independent graphic novels.

There’s a far bigger scene in Europe, a difference in the culture, reflected by the kind of works seen in print. The costs to translate outweigh the cost of production and sales, so a graphic novel has to be as popular as Blacksad to break through. Here are some examples;

I topped out my three days with a bit of networking, meeting folks from Boom studios, Maverick Publishing and author/illustrator Kevin McClosky.

To conclude with the best news I picked up, I'd heard last year at the Northern Lights writers' day that more visual books were on the increase, and this was confirmed in Bologna.

Mainstream publishers are becoming more interested in 'comics' in it's looser more literate definition. Graphic readers’, books which are lead by visuals as much are text, are also on the rise as a way to bring new readers in.

My book should be out sometime in 2026.

Big thanks for Trafford Creative and the artist's bursary, which helped make my visit happen.

Links;

Anna Goodson
Bologna Children's Book Fair
Boom Studios
Chris Haughton
Harper Collins
Francesca Cavallo
Folio Art
Maverick Publishing
Rebellion
Publishing Perspectives

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One of my favourite aspects of the event was 'Speakers Corner' where anyone could get up and deliver a 60-second pitch. A queue quickly formed for this, and you could see the anticipation in the eyes of those in the queue.

Some were jumping at the chance to be heard, while others were steering well clear. There were some great pitches and some not-so-great, but all the better for those who did it. For me, a networking opportunity to address a room of a couple of hundred people shouldn't be missed.

Delivering a 60-second pitch shouldn't be a chore or something to be fearful about. At this event it was a quick way for many people who understand what you do. A fast way to generate interest and make it easier to start conversations.

Many kinds to the Business Growth Hub in Manchester for putting this event on.

John Cooper is a comedian and presenting skills trainer based in Manchester

Get in touch

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Did you know this week is the fifth anniversary of the UK lockdown?

Crikey, eh?

They were some dark times, crazy times, and some might argue the changes that happened then are still being felt today. To mark the occasion, my graphic novel, DISTANCE, is now available on Amazon for the first time.

Did you run out of toilet roll? Did you social distance in a group of more than 6 people? Did we ever find out if was a scotch egg a substantial meal?

I drew this social commentary in comic book form at the time, as it happened from March 2020 to Jan 2022 and this is the first time the complete version has been available in print.

The title is a play on words about social distance and running, but as time went on it was about perspective too, getting distance from those extraordinary events. May you live in interesting times. Indeed.

5 Years ago...

Previously, Distance has only been available via Kickstarter, where it was successfully funded over 2 volumes, and from me directly at conventions and art fairs. This 'UK Lockdown Anniversary' edition contains the entire run, including additional material.

A couple of pages were also shown at the HOME open exhibition in 2022.

Back 2020, I started drawing a comic strip diary. I had no real plan, just creating it one page at a time documenting the ups and downs of life during the pandemic. As time went on it became about how to stay positive, exploring the weird, dark, crazy world we've all experienced dealing with living through such bizarre times. Like most people it made me reflect on life, be super vigilant and make new decisions about the future - whatever that might look like.

Comics are a great way to share experiences, and it was a great way to connect with people at a time when I couldn't touch, hug or meet up with friends.

Links:

About John

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Cheers to Pip Rustage for trying to capture my essence on camera while I was trying to catch others in pen and ink.

Had my new banner and flyers too, to shout a bit more about my live scribing work (visual minutes, sketch noting, graphic recording) that really picked up in 2024.
I might be doing less stand-up these days, but the art has most certainly taken its place.

Cheers to GRIT Studios CIC and Factory International

Links:

Live scribing / graphic recording

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Here are some cracking new photos by the brilliant Fiona Finchett, taken at GRIT Art Studio. I spend so much time looking forward that I wanted to reflect on what and who got me to where I am now. I also wanted a new portrait, to tell the story and mark my half-century.

My twenties were all about trying to become a comic book artist. My thirties were all about becoming a stand-up comedian and my forties a rollercoaster of creative activity. The pandemic helped sort through my priorities and come full circle. Now I draw and perform, sometimes simultaneously.

Earlier this year I retired Danny Pensive, the comedy character I'd performed as for around 15 years. Gigging as Danny was one of the high points of my comedy career, but I do feel as though I now have a much better life-work balance.

I've been searching for a quote by comedian and TV producer Jimmy Mulville about "doing your best working your 50's". The general jist is who you by now who are and what you're good at and have the skills to make it happen. That's where I feel right now.

I've built up quite a body of work. The illustration is physical, I can see how I've developed over time. The comedy side is a little trickier to reflect on. I've plethora of photos and videos from when I started in the days before social media, but comedy is more ephemeral, an intangible thing that happens in a room. Oh the memories.

Joining GRIT art studio in late 2023 is perfectly timed. Joining a community of folks making great work. I even host an event for artists, in the same way I used to run comedy nights.

I'm excited for the new opportunities, and being in Manchester right now feels like a brilliant space for creative minds. Loads going on, and if I can be part of it, and make a mark on it, then that is time very well spent.

John,
November 2024

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More 'Yes and'

Something I've noticed in the last few years is the increase in improvised shows. It's nothing new, and perhaps there's even a bit of cognitive bias here, but it seems more popular than ever. Competition? That's just the nature of the fest, and with so many different formats and themes, from musicals to murder mystery, folk horror and burlesque, there was plenty to choose from.

I hope the increase in improv shows will help raise awareness of improv as a tool. It's not just for performers, it's something everyone can learn and engage with to build better conversations and relationships.

Were you at the Edinburgh Fringe this year? If you got a chance to see either Comedysportz or The Totally Improvised Musical, thanks for coming and supporting the show.

Do you need some improv in your life?

From fun sessions, to specially developed presentation skills and team building, get in touch to find out more.

Photos by Brainne Edge.

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2024 Shows and times for...

Comedysportz

The Totally Improvised Musical

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Next event: Click here to find out more.

Connecting creativity with commerce, ART+WORK connects local artists and creatives with Manchester’s vibrant business community to explore ideas and create new opportunities.

Join us for an evening of chilled networking, chat and idea-generating discussion.

ART+WORK is designed to help businesses who want to work with creatives, and vice versa. To help answer common questions when working on creative projects, provide practical advice and chat with professional working artists and creatives in the city.

Update!

Today I was on BBC Radio 4 talking about side hustles. These are exactly the kind of conversations we'll be having as this event going forward.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001zg4y

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TEDx is a prestigious event. A globally recognized platform for people to share their ideas. It's a live event followed by a video of your talk that can be listened to around the world via the TEDx video channel. It's been known to kickstart speaking opportunities and even careers.

When I tell folks I've done a TEDx I get two responses; "wow, that's amazing" and "What's a TEDx?" It's held in high regard by those who know it, but that's not everyone. I like to think of it as a badge of honour that lets people know you're an informed and interesting person worth knowing.

I did TEDx Warrington (UK) in 2022. It was supposed to take place in 2019 but got postponed due to the pandemic, so I had a lot of time to mull over my idea. What follows is just my advice, my takeaways and knowledge from taking part combined with my years of performance and speaking experience. I was also part of the TEDx Warrington selection team, on the inside looking out, in 2023 and those secrets I'll take to my grave!

If you are successful in making the shortlist it can be very stressful.

If you are successful in making the shortlist it can be still very stressful. My own experience was no cakewalk, I was finalized as a speaker towards the end of the process, after going through the speaker coaching process (and being on the speaker panel the following year I understand why). My advice here is don't place too much pressure on getting what you want, and look after yourself. The selection is governed by a lot of factors. Yes, it's a great event to be part of and a great experience but remember, It's just a talk. In a room in a building somewhere in the world, while outside there is ice cream to eat and pets to hug.

You don't have to be an experienced speaker to do TEDx. I might suggest being comfortable speaking in public and having some stage presentation experience, however in my experience, the strength of the idea comes first and the energy and honesty of the speaker can (I've seen it happen) trump experience.
When I submitted I had 20 years of stand-up comedy under my belt, and once or twice had to put my ego in a box and leave it outside. Too much experience can be a disadvantage.

Your idea.

The TEDx tagline is 'ideas worth sharing', so that's the first question, do you have an interesting idea you really want to share?

• Be original, nothing is too unusual (within reason)
• Avoid bandwagons. If your talk is about something current or in the zeitgeist you'll probably be competing with other people in the same space, make sure your angle is unique
• An idea is not a book or a product, don't try to sell anything in your talk.
• Anything science-based needs to be backed up with facts. If you mentioned it in your talk you'll need to provide evidence that can withstand the scrutiny of a fine-toothed comb.

Every TEDx event will be different at some level. There is a very detailed model provided by TEDx itself, but each event will necessitate some flexibility (venue, location, staffing, etc). Events can be themed, so basing your idea on one of the themes of the event can benefit you too.

Video submission.

At this early stage events can differ, most have a video submission process. This is a 2-minute video of you on camera explaining your idea and getting the organizers excited to discover why it's worth hearing.

• Make the most of being seen, use body language.
• Don't spend 30 seconds telling people who you are, they can read that in your submission text. Just introduce yourself briefly and get straight to your idea.
• Don't waffle, be super clear about your idea.
• If you're uncomfortable watching and listening to yourself on video now is a really good time to get over that.
• Avoid using the word passionate, everybody uses the word passionate.

That first one again, use body language. If you have the space record yourself from the waist up, so we see your whole upper body. If you're using a phone stick it in landscape mode to capture your arms flapping about as you get excited about the subject you're talking about. Rather, think of yourself as a TV presenter in a documentary. Allow yourself to be fully seen. This will give you a little more credibility and give those watching a better idea of you as a person.

Selection process.

Once the event submission deadline has passed, you'll find out if you've been successful in reaching the longlist/shortlist. This is the list of possible candidates for the event. Again just going from experience, the candidates are narrowed down until the final selection are invited to a face-to-face rough run-through, to present their idea in person. it's not a guarantee you'll be on stage, it's an offer to be part of the process.

This is by no means what your final talk will look or sound like, it's an opportunity to share the first draft of your talk in full. At the face-to-face event you'll meet the team who are putting the event together.

Most events provide TEDx coaching, a very experienced speaker who is assigned to you to help you develop and refine your talk. Listen to them, take on board their feedback and prepare to do the hard work. My TEDx coach was Catherine Sandland and she was ace.

My Talk went through six revisions, and talking to other speakers they likewise went through a similar number of revisions from the initial idea to the final script. This can be a tough part of the process as you can also be limited for time.

• Less is more. Even if you're offered longer stick to 10 minutes. It's not just a live event it's the video too and short-form content often gets more clicks.
• Don't get precious at this stage, edit your talk mercilessly.
• Remember to use body language, and find something to do with your hands.
• Plant your feet and stand firm whilst speaking.

Work with your coach, edit your talk, and help the other speakers, be a team player in the lead up to the event. That's really as much as can be asked of you at this stage.

The TEDx event day.

Some of this is common sense. Have an early night the day before, eat healthily and drink plenty of water. The event day can be hectic, with a lot of moving parts and people, which is easy to get caught up in. Add to that your own stresses and excitement and it's important to give yourself a moment. Look for quite a space, if you're fortunate like our event there was a quiet space designated for speakers before going on stage.

Another wonderful thing done at TEDx Warrington was speakers who came offstage were taken to a different space to those who had not yet been on stage. This meant relieved and elated speakers who had delivered their talks already didn't interfere with the nervous excitement of those yet to go up.

Once you're on stage.

Too late. No advice I can give you as it's happening now, just enjoy it.

Feedback

It's not the end of the world if you don't make the selection process. Events can use understudies or stand bys. What you can do is politely ask for feedback from the organizers. If you're willing to ask for good honest constructive criticism and let yourself take it on board, you can always have another crack at it next year with a new idea.

Are you thinking of doing a talk? Need some TEDx coaching? I can't promise you'll make the shortlist, but I can give you everything you need to make a great impression.

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I'm not a caricaturist, I don't draw people with massive ears and big noses, but what I do like is to give them a special moment. It's not just about the picture, it's also about making folks feel comfortable who want to sit for a portrait but don't like being stared at. Tricky thing, and that's where I use my comedy voice, chat and put folks at ease.

The questions I get asked most often from events folks is "how many people can you draw?" or "Can you draw everyone at our event?"

Well, it depends on who is in the room. Five bald men take less time to draw than 5 people with beards, flowing locks and headwear, but I generally get through everyone who wants to be drawn. Some folks don't. There's a balance between creating a good quality portrait fast and rushing to get everyone done, and that's unique to each event.

These photos were taken at the Liverpool Museum, Art Battle Manchester and other events around the UK. I'll be doing speed portraits at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2024

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Joining organiser and networking superhero Kirsty James and a lovely select bunch to watch submissions from this year's candidates, and offer my input as a comedian and former TEDx speaker.

It's been fascinating watching all the videos and hearing potential candidates share their ideas. People's stories from so many different backgrounds and personal experiences, all wanting to share their ideas on the red dot.

I've taught stand-up comedy skills for many years, and while humour is only one aspect of a TEDx talk, coaching people with what they want to say, and how they say it so is something I have a lot of experience in doing effectively. Turning a waffly 20 into a tight 10, so to speak.

It's all under wraps right now so I can't possibly tell you who will be speaking and what about, but there are some fascinating talks this year, it promises to be an amazing night full of ideas, emotion and learning.

TEDx Warrington 2023 is on November 16th.

Stand up, speak up!

Are you looking to improve your performance skills, get better with advanced presenting or add humour to a talk? If you want to hold an audience in the palm of your hand, I can help with online and face-to-face training.

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It was amazing to be part of TEDx Warrington in 2022. With gears set in motion for this year's event in November, I thought it time to reflect on what has happened since and provide a few tips for anyone wanting to stand on the red dot themselves.

Tedx Warrington should have happened in 2019 and paused due to the pandemic. So speakers had to re-submit. If you don't know the process, no-one simply walks onto the TEDx stage. You have to be selected through a process of elimination by a panel. You're scrutinised on your soft skills and hard facts and whether you have an idea worth sharing. That's why TEDx is a badge of achievement that many speakers seek it.

TEDx Warrington came at a pivotal time for me. My goals were changing and I'm sure I'm not the only one who used lockdown to look ahead imagining what life would feel like five or even ten years from now.
2022 was an opportunity to renew my stage persona and voice, combining the comedian with the educator, humour with experience. I think it did just that.

This year I've been invited on the speaker panel, crikey! It's a responsibility alright, but I reckon I'm well placed to offer practical advice, and having been on the red dot, understand whats needed.

So you want to do a TED talk? Here are my personal three tips to help your video submission shine;

Be interesting.

There are a lot of TEDx videos on personal development, a lot. Be different. No subject matter is two quirky or unusual if it's delivered clearly. If you find you're self-editing or thinking "people don't want to hear this" you're doing yourself an injustice before you start. If your subject's a bit odd - embrace it.

Be aware.

Gaining confidence from speaking in front of an audience is something everyone should learn. With this comes knowledge of how you are seen in the flesh, on screen, and how others see us. With your TEDx submission video, frame and light yourself as best you can to show that you have considered how you are seen, and want to be seen by others.

Be human.

If you're a professor or a certified master expert person, great, but let the audience see you as a human being. Hiding behind credentials, waving them about verbally or using them to gain authority just isn't needed. It should be what got you where you are, not who you are.

Thinking of applying for a TEDx talk?

If you need advice on how to add humour or make your pitch as snappy as possible and you think a 1-on-1 session would help, get in touch.

Useful links;

TEDx Warrington

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TedX talk, Warrington

Massive. This has been on my bucket list for years. Talking about the benefits of improv, I worked hard to learn it and get it right. The best takeaway from it wasn’t just the standing on the red dot, but how it’s helped me look forward. The version of me on stage that is confident not only in being funny but also in sharing knowledge and experience.

Art Battle Manchester.

Another opportunity to actually say ‘I’m an artist’. I’ll admit I wasn’t totally comfortable doing it, and wasn’t happy with the final piece, but it was a great experience, and something I’d like to have another go at.

Edinburgh Festival, Comedysportz & Salfunny

Great to see the Edinburgh fringe back in full swing with covid restrictions eased. It looked the same and smelled the same, but it was different. Higher accommodation fees and new ticket systems changed the status quo for performers and producers. After the pandemic, refocusing my career path, I was able to enjoy performing, doing Comedysportz and compering the Salford University showcase. All without any ego fuelled self-analysis or giving too hoots about what other stand-up comics were doing. Joy.

More Live Drawing.

More of this in 2023, please. Drawing portraits for awards ceremonies at the Liverpool Hilton, Graphic recording for to big corporate clients in Manchester, and a dozen more events this year. If live drawing has replaced comedy and I’m invited to nice hotels around the world to create live art, I’ll be a very happy person. It’s niche and I’m good at it. More or this.

Pecha Kucha night Manchester

A talk with twenty slides, twenty seconds each slide. My talk was on my comedy career and how Distance came into being, but I also got to do a completely improvised talk too, where someone else had prepped slides that I didn’t get to see beforehand. Blimey that was fun.

New clients

I can’t wait to share more of the work I’ve completed in 2022. In July I started working with the NHS, writing and illustrating an animation to help autistic people. Also in November, I delivered my presentation skills and humour workshop to the sports company New Balance.

New home

The high point has to be January though, and my new flat. Moving to South Manchester near the city was no mean feat. Manchester is an incredible city and it’s growing at an exponential rate, with a skyline that has changed along with it. When I moved here eighteen years ago it was like a big Newcastle, now it’s a little London.

It resonates all the more as at the end of this year we lost my dad. He was an incredible person. Funny, kind and always cheering me on, and he got to see all this year's successes. I’ll miss him loads. A very reflective end to a very successful year.

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It's given me a newfound affection for Musicals. The last musical comedy I saw live was The Book of Mormon and before that probably Little Shop of Horrors.
The improvised musical is of course different every time. If you're a fan of the Edinburgh festival or live in London, you might have been lucky enough to see Showstopper or Baby Wants Candy. Both are amazing, and the industry benchmark for just how good these shows can be. I saw Showstopper for the first time in Edinburgh this year, with a full house and a standing ovation.

As they say, this is Manchester and 'we do things differently here'. It's great to be putting on our own Manchester Musical every month in the centre of town.

Links

• Comedysportz
• A view on live gigs
• Manchester Theatres
• Totally Improvised Musical at Sale Waterside

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I chose to speak about my near 20 years in comedy and try and condense it right down. My relocating to Manchester years ago to make a go of stand-up. Getting a comedy agent, taking up improv, performing at the Edinburgh festival and going on tour support around the country with comedians far more well-known than myself!

It was a liberating talk to give. I'd not given it much thought before suggesting the idea and it was a nice way to reaffirm my personal history. I'm often so busy thinking about my next project that perhaps I don't always acknowledge the skill of my experience that I should give myself credit for.

Pecha Kucha is a global format which takes place all over the world. The event I attended had scientists, engineers, clothing manufacturers, climate change specialists and me, I might have felt a little out of place, but on refl,ection I wasn't. Stand-up comedy is a very niche career choice.

I was also challenged by Kyle the organiser to give a second talk completely improvised, without any knowledge of the slides. Of course I relished it, as to me that's a 'no pressure gig'.

One of the other speakers commented on how terrifying the idea of an improvised talk was. From my perspective, it's just fun.
I think it's still very much an issue that some folks aren't comfortable speaking in public. PechaKutcha was really supportive and a great platform for that.

I hope to change that perception in the training I do, I'm currently promoting a talk on improvisation.

Building on my TEDx Talk in July, I go to teams and companies who are perhaps a little intimidated by improv. Instead of a workshop with participants, the talk, explains the benefits of improv, for work andfor fun, in a way I hope will understand and encourage teams to try improve themselves and build the brain muscle skills that I now take for granted. Just saying 'Yes, and'.

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It's such a relief to let the get out of the bag, as I've been sitting on this info and rehearsing for the last two months. Not only that, but this particular inaugural TEDx in Warrington was intended to go ahead in 2020, and we all know what happened there. I submitted my idea in 2019 and then resubmitted again in 2022 when the doors reopened. It's been fascinating watching the other speakers in rehearsals, the diverse topics and of course, I can't reveal ANYTHING AT ALL. Ha ha.

The live event has already sold out, with maybe one or two last-minute tickets if folks are lucky. The Warrington team have been amazing, steering the rollercoaster and all the moving parts that make the event happen.

A different stage

Of course, I'm an experienced performer, and I've done a lot of gigs, but this is very different. I've been a fan of TED and TEDx talks for years, so to be picked to do one is special, and a big tick box on my bucket list.

The challenge I found as an experienced stand-up comic hasn't been to remember the words, but learn to leave my ego and performance habits at the door, approaching the whole thing as fresh as I can.

Kirsty, Catherine and the team, have been really supportive with great feedback and I can't wait for the live event on 23rd June at Parr Hall.

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The live gig scene feels very different in 2022.

A lot has changed since 2019 and as the UK adapts, my priorities have changed a little too. With the current cost of living crisis and high fuel prices, the idea of driving long distances every weekend has become very challenging.

During the pandemic, a lot of comedy friends took on second jobs out of practicality. A year later some have stayed in those jobs, preferring the security, and treating stand-up as a professional second income. It might be my age that's changed my view, but it makes sense. One circuit comedian recently suggested on message boards that live gig promoters should try and book local where they can, in order to help the financial situation, and reduce travel costs, which again makes sense, and it's good for the environment too.

As the UK has re-established its new normal another side effect of the pandemic disruption has been a changing of the guard with gig promoters. Some venues have sadly disappeared, while new promoters flourish with outdoor gigs.

I used the time I'm doing the lockdowns to take stock of goals. It's not new news, but there's been a surge in comedians and broader comedy performers bypassing promoters as gatekeepers for exposure and taking their comedy online where they can build their audience directly.

I'm really excited by technology and I'd love to spend more time doing online stuff to build my own audience, but I'm not sure what that would look like at the moment.

I know from experience doing the podcast in 2017, there's a lot of work involved, it's not just posting a video every week, there's marketing work behind the scenes to drive traffic to your channel. It's not just about the comedy it's about the strategy, and most of the folks I see doing well operate in teams, and I think that's where the future lies.

My goal in 2022 is to promote our ComedySportz and more recently the improvised musical which is soon to have its first theatre show, and doing great guns as a new monthly comedy in Manchester.

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https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Interview-with-John-Cooper-Comedy-meets-corporate-Ep-65-Podcast/B08PYSJLR9

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I'd intended to have a holiday for months, and just kept putting t off.  I told myself I was too busy. I was at first too busy to take a break, but when I had the time there wasn't anywhere I could think of I really wanted to  go.  After a couple of  long conversations with good friends to tease out some real excuses, I slowly admitted to myself that I didn't want to travel alone.

A work trip would have been no problem. I can travel with friends just fine. Travel to gigs, even better -getting paid to go places! However as much as I wanted to travel solo, which I've done plenty of, mostly to the USA;  free-time and unplanned 'nothing' was proving a lot harder.

At some point quite recently doubts had crept into my mind  about travelling to another country where I didn't know the language or culture, and the potential for loneliness. I'd instinctively try to pack as much into my  schedule as possible, for fear that if I ran out of things to do I'd be left to my own thoughts in a beautiful place with no one to share the experience.

Angloueme is a town in Southern France, about an hour East of Bordeaux by train. The self proclaimed 'capital of comics' with a dedicated museum. Streets and buildings pay homage to Herge (Tintin), Rene Goscinny (Asterix) and many other classic European comics characters. I'd wanted to go there since I was a student.

Getting Unstuck

Recalling this place during those conversations was key to getting unstuck. The desire to travel and visit outweighed the doubts that had crept in, and off I went to France. I had an amazing time. It was even fun getting lost in Bordeaux on the way back to the airport.

I don't want a big moral to this experience, but there's no harm in reminding myself and others to keep talking. It's more work life balance than mental health, but the two are related. When writing my personal journal as I do from time to time, the two mainly questions I try to answer are 'what are my goals?' and 'how do I feel about stuff?' - and they are always changing and developing.

Keep Moving.

Manchester Road Runners 'Run and Talk' Mental Health Champions

I recently joined 'run and talk' an incentive created by England Athletics and organised by one of the members of my local running club, Manchester Road Runners. Anyone attending the weekly run can speak to a 'Mental Health Ambassador'. We're not trained counsellors and we've can't advise, but we can listen and point people in the right direction.  The shirts are nice too.

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In early 2018 I was involved with Manchester's Business Growth Hub 'Spark 2 Scale' programme - had lots of help with business plans for my workshop using stand up comedy skills for public speaking 'Present Yourself' - based on the book from 2017. I was invited to run it as part of their special events, which in turn led to a few engagements at Manchester's Google Digital Garage.

There's been a lot more illustration this year than previous years. I finally got on Instagram. Inspired by the 'Bee in the City' project I created a bee for the Manchester Fringe and that led to me being asked to design the mascot for the Fringe. During the fringe I also ran out an experimental show - 'Confessions of a WordPress Fanatic', combining stand up, songs and website development just to 'talk about what I know' and see if it would work. Not great numbers in the audience, but very rewarding.

Some great project's landed on my table including illustrating for a TV advert, re-designing and re-branding Wentworth Music Festival, and working with actor Arthur Bostrom on his new 'Fronch Phrose Berk' writing as Officer Crabtree, the character he played in 'Allo 'Allo. So much creative freedom with all these projects, too.

In August much fun was had performing at the Edinburgh fringe with ComedySportz, and before that I headed over to Dublin for the first Improv Utopia event, a long weekend of improv workshops with people from all over Europe and the USA.

Personal highlights this year including Running a couple of half marathons and walking up Snowdonia with the Manchester Road Runners crew. Hosting the Pint of Science festival and meeting inventive folk, then hosting a manic Doctor Who convention and finally meeting Peter Davison. There was some sad news closer to home, which makes me even more grateful for the amazing people I have as family and friends.

Inktober was a bit of a revelation. I'd never heard of it until it was already happening. Draw an inked image everyday for a month. Having done so much digital artwork I'd forgotten just how much I love the real thing. That and brush pens. The very fact I didn't know they existed until this year baffled me and excited me in equal measure. Inktober opened more doors for me, just be doing it.

I've loved doing the 'WordPress Fanatic' show, as it was quite personal in place, and want to take it to Edinburgh in 2019. I also have a new comics illustration project that's taking shape and am aware don't have the time to do both. Right now the comic project is winning out as it something I have more control over. I love the Edinburgh fringe, and performing, but there are so many variable's and I've not taken a solo show up since 2011. I'd like something more solid and tangible to show for 2019. And I'm allowed to change my mind on that.

As I plan out 2019 current thoughts are to double down on what works. Building the good projects for nice people and building new relationships in turn. Take risks and live life. Oh and and have a holiday, I'm so due a holiday.

• Spark 2 Scale
• Present Yourself at Google Digital Garage
• Illustrating for TV with GroundBreak Productions
• Great Manchester Run Half Marathon
• Mascot Design for the Great Manchester Fringe Festival
• Pint of Science Festival
• Improv Utopia Ireland
• Comedysportz and Joke Thieves at the Edninburgh Festival
• VWORP! An independant Doctor Who convention
• Good Moaning France With Arthur Bostrom
• Inktober
• Manchester Half Marathon
• Liverpool improvathon 2018
• Comedysportz Panto 2018
• and all the other lovely comedy gigs I've done as Danny Pensive.

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The Festival has been running for 8 years and brings researchers into local pubs all over the UK to get people interested in science, in this case machine thinking, extreme engineering and big data. Now I'm no scientist and a comedian as opposed to presenter  -the nearest I get to science is Doctor Who or reading Douglas Adams novel. However my geek credentials and curiosity served me well, even if the audience preferred hard research over warm up jokes, I was just the messenger.

Social media was big and #pintofscience trended on Twitter during the live events (there were 21 in Manchester alone!) When organiser Becky took a photo of myself and the other professors, we all put our drinks down out of shot - until she reminded us that it was the pint of Science Festival and drinks in hand were preferred!

Highlights for me were Professor Steve Furber's Spinnaker Project. He had worked on the BBC Micro and Archimedes computers which filled my with nostalgia. Dr Mostafa Nabawy and his bio-inspired micro robots. Making tiny spiders that jump and flies that fly sounded like a Sci-fi disaster movie waiting to happen. Dr Katie Druce's talk on 'what people mean when they say they don’t sleep' and how it can be monitored was as clever as it was easy to understand, using fitbits to monitor activity at night in the bedroom (SLEEPING!). Also I particularly enjoyed ProfessorDavid Berezan's Sounds of the sea, which uses real time data from sea buoys to create a dynamic soundscape. The combination of data, process and improvisation to create a hypnotic nautical composition pressed all of my buttons, and it was no surprise when we chatted that we are both fans of Delia Derbyshire and the BBC radiophonic workshop.

Big thanks to Becky Dodd and all the organisers at the University of Manchester for letting me share the stage, and for keeping me watered with some very good cider courtesy of the Beer Nouveau venue.

Micro Drones are here to take over the world!

Links

• Pint of Science Festival
• Professor  FurberSteve 
• Dr Mostafa Nabawy 
•  Dr Katie_Druce 
• Professor David Berezan | NOVARS Research Centre
• Beer Nouveau
• Radiophonic Workshop

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• Found a new regular yoga teacher and learned the 9 part breath. #namaste
• Interviewed improv legend Neil Mullarkey for my podcast. #bringabrick
• Got my geek on delivering two talks at the Manchester WordPress Group. #mwug
• Judged ciders at the Manchester Real Ale festival. #freecider
• Got through all The Apprentice interviews in the Manchester heat. #notfired
• Taught my first corporate training session #RocketSteps #PresentYourself
• Joined the lovely folk that are Manchester Road Runners #MRR
• Ran the Sunderland 10k in 52 minute and 29 seconds. #Howaymelegs
• I'm the Mayor of Wirrals Favourite comedy act. #DannyPensive
• Did the 8^th Annual Liverpool improvathon with #Impropriety

• Design work beamed out on huge video screens in a field. #WentworthMusicFestival.
• Rode a ‘G Bike’ and did a headstand at the Google Campus in Silicon Vally, California
• Visited the offices of Adobe and said hello to Photoshop.
• Met the real California Highway patrol.
• Did a live illustration commission
• Got name checked in Sarah Millican's autobiography.
• Taught improv at Cambridge university.
• “I'd book you but I don't think we can afford you” Best feedback ever after a training session.
• Got my book on Amazon (go and buy it)
• Did an improvised pantomime #Comedysportz
• Watched the Doctor Who Christmas special in a school hall.
• Yearly running stats: 1633km.

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The term 'jack of all trades' is a phrase that has bugged me for years.  I know it's negative connotations and consider myself an optimist, but I've always thought I was one. A 'jack of all trades...and master on none'.   My thinking has been perhaps inherited from the  previous generations. The received wisdom that focusing on one career to become an expert over time was the best way forward, and taking an interest in a few different things diluted time, effort and commitment .

Since going freelance as a designer and pro as a comedian I didn't want a design client knowing I did comedy in case they thought I didn't take the work seriously, or a comedy promoter to know that I did graphic design.  I was terrified of not being seen as professional.

Old beliefs are very hard to shake.  I previously had five different websites. One for comedy, one for  design and illustrations, and more recently a podcast and training workshops.  Each of these things had it's own orbit and audience, with rare overlapping exceptions.

The fear of confusing people with 'multi disciplines' and not being able to answer the 'what do you do' question' in less than four sentences was (and still is) a bugbear.  However, I've known for years that diversity and adaptability are key to survive, and something just clicked. Listening to technology podcasts, reading Seth Godin books. Learning more about applied improv in my podcast. Finally something clicked and I've broken my old programming.

So here are 'all my eggs -  in one basket'. Better for me, better for  google SEO and as I'm finding, people who come looking for one thing and find another and spend a bit of time on my website looking around. Isn't the the point of a good website?

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Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

“You call it procrastination, I call it thinking.” once said Aaron Sorkin. Tim Urban has a great blog and I even have his grim but refreshing life calendar. Here he explains why people tend to put things off until the last minute, and why that's sometimes ok. Inspiration.

Mike Rowe: Learning from dirty jobs

I chanced upon Mike Rowe as I was listening to loads of podcasts and prepping to launch my own . As well being funny and shocking there's a valuable lesson about 'doing it the right way', Aristotle and goats testicles.

Dave Morris: The Way of Improvisation

Dave Morris's seven steps to improvising is a great refresher as to why improv is such a valuable learning tool. Play, listening, allowing failure as part of the process.

Susan Greenfield: Technology & the human mind

Are our attention spans getting shorter? Susan Greenfield gives a great talk about how children's minds develop and the effect technology. The effect social media is having on our ability to engage and have quality interactions, i.e. Texting is bad. This is stuff that comes up in some of my training workshops, when we talk about the value of unspoken communication. I do draw issue with one point. Being a gamer I'd argue there are some role playing games which engage at an emotional level in a way that books cannot, and it's an unfair comparison, as the engagement level is different. All good points to bring up though.

Diana Nyad: Never, ever give up

I watched this on a flight to the USA at a time I was feeling pretty down and feeling old. Listening to Diana Nyad's was akin to a hand come out the screen and slap me across the face. Good health intact, age is relative and pretty irrelevant. Every year is a year to build and improve. Swimming with jellyfish and sharks at 64?

Thanks for reading my blog, and Happy New Year.

John Cooper. Inspiration for 2017. My top 5 TED Talks of 2016.

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One of the biggest highlights was playing Salford Lowry Theatre to a full capacity crowd. Nice.

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I'm doing a Half Marathon! In September I'll be running the Great North Run, a goal I've had since completing my first 10k last year. I'm running to raise cash for the National Eczema Society, so if you can donate, please do. Here's the https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/JohnCooperComedy

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As a kid I used to go to cub camp most years, and I've had the privilege with sportz' to go a handful of Championships, where improv groups from all over the US meet up once a year for a massive improv jam. It's a pretty amazing experience and if i can recreate even one tenth of that in a 30 bed bunk barn, then I will. I've never run an event like this before. I'm just doing it.

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This weekend I was lucky enough to be one on the performers in Liverpool's annual 'Improvathon', a 33 hour long show organised by fellow Mersey based improv troupe Impropriety, and it was pretty amazing. I'll hold my hand up now and say I wasn't in all of it, as a guest being my first one I partook in around 20 hours of it. The theme for the shows was a fairy tale, and it was epic and sweeping but I know what you're thinking, how does such a thing even work?

It's based on a show developed in Australia called a 'Soap-a-thon' where previous shows at the Adelaide Improv Festival have run to fifty two hours! Each performer picks a character and the scenes roll on in hour long chunks with a fifteen minute break after each one for the audience to strech their legs and the performers to re-group. Hang on that's cheating! No, not really.

Before taking part I had no idea how it would work and envisaged an epic 'relay race' where performers tag teamed each other from one scene to the next for the whole duration, which of course would be exhaustive for both performers and those watching, the narrative would sprawl and audience members would be lumbered with an 'if I go to the loo I might miss a plot point' dilemma. Hence very breaks are needed, to keep it fresh and focussed.

The show I took part in had around twenty performers in it, all really talented guys. There was a sizeable contingent from London as well as former Comedysportz guys Mark Rawle and Sally Hodgkiss. I did feel like a bit of an outsider at first but I shouldn't have, these are improvisers, and inclusivity and trust are just what they do. I just plugged in.

In the first half of my stint I was 'Dennis Boggins', the only Hobbit who works, then some hours later Rosie the director indulged my whim to switch character and I did a big fat 'Yes And' on doing some puppeteering. Ian, one on Liverpool's guys had made some pretty awesome Jim Henson style puppets which fitted in really well with the fantasy aspects of the show. I've never done anything with puppets before. In The first scene I didn't nail the lip syncing or a consistent accent. Then went off stage and had a personal crisis about what the hell I thought I was doing and I was rubbish at all of it. Then owned it. A couple of scenes later 'Wispy Neil the forest messenger' was singing and floating around like a pro. Not unlike sticking on my duffel coat for doing Danny Pensive, I could literally stand behind the character I was playing and observe the scene more objectively while still being present in it. Always learning.

As the hours rolled on, Rosie directed, or to be more specific I think, 'curated' the scenes lightly to give the show a narrative direction. In the short breaks highlighting to us performers particularly interesting plot threads which had evolved over time.

Audiences came and went, then came back, then slept, then woke up and carried on watching, both evenings were full until the early hours. Towards the end it became emotional as the lines between tired performers and their character blurred, creating some amazing scenes, powerful, funny and full of pathos.

At the thirty third hour there was still plenty of energy in the room, I could see how it was possible to do a fifty five hours show. Wow. I have a new found love of improv. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Photos by Patrick D'Arcy and Jo Na.

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My New show comes to Sheffield Fringe on 26th October. I'm on at the Greystones Venue at 3.30pm, so it's a nice and early show.

"Danny Pensive has been around the world and wants to tell you all about it. A new show full of diaries, jokes & philosophical musings from Sunderland’s duffel coated stand up hero."

MORE IN AND TICKETS AD THIS LINK:
http://lastlaughcomedyfestival.co.uk/2013/07/danny-pensive-kids-comedy-festival/

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Here's a behind the scene's short video form the TV ad I did for Lancashire Magazine a few weeks back, I've never done anything 'blue screen' before. There's a bit in the advert about a gold bar and we had a proper gold bar on set, with a fella charged with guarding it so I couldn't pocket it. There's also a bit where I stick my face in a plate full of mashed potato. I wonder if that bit will make it to the final cut.

Commercials can be stressful as you've got to get a lot done on a tight schedule, this ad was was shot by White Noise, and they were great. Really easy going. The ad is going out on Granada telly on the ITV channels in late August and through the late summer.

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On Sunday I crashed my car. I was heading Southbound down the A1 when a rear tyre blew out, I lost control, bounced off the side of a box van then spun round 180 degrees into the centre of the road and came to rest in the central reservation facing against the traffic. I sat in the drivers seat for a moment, then got out of the car and walked away. I've been lucky. I've been so incredibly lucky I don't want to think about it.

I don't really know how much I even want to write about it. I'm not going to write about it on facebook, or try to put any kind of morality on it, there's just a bit of me that wants to get it off my chest, so I'm writing about it here, on my own blog.

I remember a loud bang, and the swerving, losing control and swearing. Radio 4 was on. It was about half three. There's nothing I could really do, it all just happened. I think I must have done something like a question mark shape on the road as I spun around. I can recall the small side passenger window smashing and the windscreen cracking and facing the other way, and seeing other cars, but nothing came into contact with me and then I slammed in to the central reservation and stopped. I got out. I wandered up and down a bit. Just looking really. Trying to take in what had happened. My boot had come open and the contents of the weekends camping trip were strewn across the road. Cars came to a stop. Some nice people stopped. We collected my stuff from in the road. One man called the police to report the incident. I went over to the grass verge and the other cars moved on.

The guy I'd hit was from Ireland. He'd seen me coming after hearing the bang and managed to keep control as I went into the side of him. He was ok, and with friends. He was really chilled out about the whole thing. More so than me. The police came and took my details. I did a breathalyser test. We swapped details and the Irish guy left, then I sat in the police car and answered some questions while we waiting for a guy to tow my smashed up car away.

The policeman went to talk to the recovery guy.  It slowly hit home. I had a shock. 'In the lap of the gods' 'fate' 'the laws of probably' whatever bollocks you want to call it. A terrible situation of cause and effect where you have no control and so many things could have happened. Earlier that day I was in the Lakes driving Honister pass, but I'm not going to play 'what if' in my head, that would be a really stupid way to create anxiety about things that have not happened instead of dealing with the reality of what did and what has. As I write it a couple of days later, now dealing with insurance claims and long phone calls and a fuzzy space at the back of my head where the big scary thoughts are that will dull with time.

My beautiful wife is in another country. My dad and brother get me home to Manchester. My mum and sister call. They are all awesome.

I understand with crystal clarity that not everyone walks away from a car crash. I'm lucky happy and grateful to the higher powers that look down, abstract mathematical probability and the drivers on the A1 at mile point 93/9 near junction 49, Dishforth at who that specific moment in time had the presence of mind to avoid, help or just pass by without incident.

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The New Danny Pensive show comes to Buxton Fringe in two weeks time!!! I'm not doing Edinburgh this year, so this might be the last two full fesitval shows I do this year. Oh, and apparently I'm on the cover of the Buxton Advertiser too.

"Danny Pensive has been around the world and wants to tell you all about it. A new show full of diaries, jokes & philosophical musings from Sunderland’s duffel coated stand up hero."

BOOKING NOW
You can book tickets at this link
http://2013.underthefringe.com/shows/80-haways

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Last year I help run some workshops for the BBC's new comedy awards and met all manner of different folks having a go at stand up. This year I'm doing something similar but altogether different coaching a high flying business exec for a project called 'Funny Business'. To nick a bit of wordage from their own PR; "Seven high-flying champions of the Manchester business community are going to expose themselves to mockery, derision and public ridicule in a bid to raise some serious cash for The Christie and Prostate Cancer UK charities." Hopefully I can help one of them avoid that. I'm coaching David Pollack, chief exec and big gun of Chess Telecom for the gig at the Manchester Comedy Store in October.

Other comedy chums who are doing the mentoring are Alex Boardman, Mick Ferry, Andy Wilkinson (Smug Roberts) and Phil Walker, in my head it feels a bit like a mash up of The Apprentice and Rocky, with us comics all doing impressions of his crusty boxing coach Micky, getting our execs ready for the stage.

It's all for charity, and a great charity too, Prostate Cancer UK and Chrisites.

Personally the thought of having an endoscope jabbed up my penis is enough to make me reach into my pocket and donate, so I hope you can too. If you want to donate and please do, Here's a link to the donation page

Here's a recent article from Manchester Evening News

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A quick google found her website, I fired off an email and got a response, we had a quick email chat and I got a bit nostalgic. It was her, she was living in London and was still in touch with a few guys I knew from the Art course, who are now working as working as proper artists, Wow. I sometimes forget how much I love and art making pictures. Actually no. I still do a bit of illustration and I love it. I'd like to have another go at becoming an artist, but the think I'm too commercially aware/corrupted to do proper art.

I think studying art at university is possibly where my attitude towards comedy has derived from. I presented stuff to the world on a wall and let it be judged. Some liked what I did, some didn’t and that’s fine. That’s a really broad metaphor. What’s the difference between an artist and an entertainer? I reckon one says ‘this is what I do’ and presents their view of the world in an reasonably uncompromising way, whereas the other adapts to the audience and in the moment. I know I’ve been guilty of the former, I think it come from a fear not wanting to be a comic who has stands on stage and prioritises what the audience want to hear over what they want to say. That’s not proper comedy to me. That's is probably why and don’t have a shiny face.

Check out my old uni mates websites and see their artwork:

http://www.laylacurtis.com

http://www.dominicwilcox.com

and then there's me,

http://www.johncooperunlimited.co.uk

God bless you Charlie Holmes, wherever you are.

A splash image from the Graphic novel I did as part of my final year at Sunderland University.

A drunk chicken. Ink and brush. I'd like to think my linework is still this precise for a peice done on A4, but it's probably not.

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I have just done an interview with Demon FM radio station in Leicester, which you can listen too soon.

Here is the information written by one of those publicity blokeys:

"After a critically successful Edinburgh run in 2011 with Danny Pensive's Map of Britain, Danny has spent 2012 travelling the around the world learning really important stuff like why Australia has a different coco pops monkey and in America, Cowboys are really just farmers with big hats who ride horses instead of tractors. He's eaten Kebabs in Cairo, a Kangaroo burger in Brisbane and pizza in Chicago Town, been to a SPAM museum and created a security alert at the White House capitol building by leaving his bag unattended.

Through Egypt, Australia and across the length of the USA - even when everyone speaks the same language, there are still cultural barriers to be broken with sheer force of personality. In 2013 Danny brings his true globe- trotting travelogue to the festival. You can take the lad out of Sunderland...but he won't take his coat off to go surfing."

Date: 22 February
Venue: The Exchange Bar
INFO TEL: 0116 2513434
Entry: £5  - Ticket No: 0116 242 3595
Link to Tickets

Door open: 8.15.pm
Start time: 8.30.pm
End time: 9.30.pm

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I thought it might help to write about surfing by looking at the history of surfing but it hasn't I now just know a bit about the history of surfing, which doesn't help me write about the bit of surfing I did. When I think about it I didn't actually stand up on the board properly and was just kneeling down, so I technically I might not be able to say I've actually been surfing, just that I've used a surf board.

There is a whole surf culture in Australia, and surfers like the nice man who took me out don't just have one board, but load of different one in different sizes for the different sizes of waves.

Surf boarders don't actually ride the surf, they ride the wave underneath it, so they aren't actually not surfing. They are waving.

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Last weekend I was at Galtres Festival and I forgot to take my wellies. It rained all the way there and cars were being towed by a big tractor out of the deep mud that got on my clothes and in my shoes and round my ankles and everywhere else.

The tent where the music and comedy was going on was full of people and I nearly didn't get in. There was a medieval village with loads of storytelling kings and bards and pirates. I had a pork and stuffing sandwich with real stuffing.

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Onwards to the cabin in Black River Falls. The insects here are massive but they don't deter us from swimming in the lake, despite the green algae,then later eating meat on the big fire pit BBQ. The pace of seeing stuff slows down and two days in the middle of nowhere slip by almost unnoticed.

Friday/Saturday. We head down to Milwaukee meet up with Darryl, Rachel and Michelle and pay another visit to the Cheesecake Factory. The comedysportz tournament begins in Chicago in a few days. We staying at Dick Chudnow's house. Dick is great fun and the perfect host. A bottle of engine oil in his bathroom and I guess it's there for guests to notice and question, a test of character thingy to bring up in conversation. I do. It is. CSZ Milwaukee have four shows on a Friday including a matinee. It's a long day and by Midnight, their final show, my brain is already fried.

The sun is baking hot and the car display tells us its hitting 99 degrees farenheit outside.We need to cool offand head out to Wisconsin Dells, which is like Blackpool without a coastline, and the Kalahari indoor theme park and water park. They have a new vertical drop water slide where you stand in a colourful tube/coffin and the floor gives way and you drop into a big slope. The water hits you really hard and if you don't adopt the proper position on the way down the water blasts up your nose and bruises your elbows. It's awesome.

Mon/Tues. We rock up in Chicago and drop the rental car off, which less fuss than we imaginged, and check in to our apartment in Roscoe village. I've been to downtown Chicago once before and it was all a bit skyscraper intense, but here in the suburbs it's really pleasant, like a big Chorlton or Jesmond. The apartment is big and it's warm until Bron's tweaks the air-con. It's hard to sleep in all the heat.

The tournament teams slowly arrive in town from the 19 other cites competing. This is my third and it's great to see faces I met a couple of years back. A big posse forms and we head for Cesars Mexican restaurant where I order one of their trademark 'killer margaritas'and a gigantic burrito. I really shouldn't. I'm beginning to feel the weight I've put on during our trip, I'll be hitting the diet hard upon return.

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Back in the car a man on the radio declares it's the dryest hottest summer here in years, fire warnings are on high and fireworks are banned, much to upset of fourth of July celebrants and firework salesman. They've only had one percent of the 'precipitation' they usually get here, that's rain to you and me, and from what I hear back in blighty at the moment we should look into exporting it.

We spend the whole day on the road, but unlike Idaho, even the longest straightest stretches provide something to look at. As night falls we find a proper old school motel in the town of Gillette. The wife chills out while I wander down the humid street looking for one of their liquor stores or bottle shops (off licence) I find Tack's Liqour Drive Inn, a mental combination of bar, shop and drive through all at the same time. One wall is all display fridges, behind the bar counter is a serving hatch and along the bar itself are seated half a dozen drunks chatting loudly. I love it, but the five minutes it takes me to buy a bottle of red wine from the fridge is quite enough.

Tuesday. The plan is a straight drive with one stop off for sightseeing, but on crossing the border into South Dakota a restroom (toilet) we enter isn't a restroom at all but a small welcome centre. The the helpful assistant Bill asks me a question, "Did you watch the HBO series Deadwood?". Yes. Not only did I watch it, I'm a fan and have the 'Black Hills Edition' DVD boxset and have been waffling on about it in the car. A sweary western series about the formation the law in the town of Deadwood. I knew Bill Hockok and Calamity Jane were both real characters from history depicted in the show, but then Bill blows my mind by pulling out a map and showing me the Black Hills and the real live town of Deadwood, just nine miles away. I loved the show, but it never occured to me to see what else was based on fact - so suddenly I'm bursting with excitement and half an hour later I'm walking down the main street of the real town of Deadwood, South Dakota. Past the restored hotels, saloon and other buildings in which once resided infamous Al Swerengen, Sheriff BUllock, prospector Charlie Utter. I buy a stetson. It's real history and it's very cool indeed.

An hour later we're out of the Black Hills and into Rushmore, home of Mount Rushmore. It's impressive and we get photos of the four presidents, but I'm already made up from Deadwood. George Washington's nose is 21 feet tall.

More road. I start seeing cryptic signs for 'Wall Drug'. Five signs, fifteen signs, more and more along the highway with no indication as to what it is. Is it a town? A shop? Fifty signs later and the advertising has worked, we have a rest break and discover it is shop, but one that has taken over the whole street of a very small town with novelty gifts, lifesize singing puppets of cowboys, water fountains, galleries and models. It's genuinely scary.

After these impromptu stops we're not going to make it to Wisconsin tonight. Never mind

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Bye-daho, and into Montana. Only briefly clipping the bottom corner of the state lines where it touches Wyoming, but I still stop and get a state map in West Yellowstone.

West Yellowstone is full of tourist shops, museums and information about Yellowstone National Park, and if you're none the wiser like me you could imagine you're in the place. A bit like the lake district maybe? Travel through and look for a place to stay for the night? Nope. Even with a map I'm totally unaware as to the type of place we are entering as we pay $25 on a toll road gate. It's like Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs. Our plan was to go and see the old faithful geyser then head on to find a place to stay for the night. We stop at an information centre...that turns out to be a ranger station. I ask the nice ranger about accomodation nearby and I sure she think's I'm kidding. She politely informs us the park is full and the only accom will be outside the park, and looking at her with her badge, wide
brimmed hat and immaculatley creased trousers I understand that her job isn't to give out information on accomodation, but really to advise nieve and optimistic English tourists on how to not get mauled to death by bears or eaten by angry elk.

It's so big We're not going to make it out of the park tonight so we decide to sleep in the car and are both gored to death by bears. End of Blog.

By coincidence the founder of Comedysportz Portland is here on a on a road trip holiday with his family, travelling in the opposite direction, and Bron has his number. He knows the park, tells us travelling the park at night is a very bad idea, then goes above and beyond the call of duty by putting us up for the night in his cabin accommodation, bang in the middle of the park on independence day week. I am humbled by his generosity as we go for food, and on the way spot a bear! His kids are into Manchester United and and Doctor Who, and I chat to his lovely wife Ruth as we sit on a wooden porch in rocking
chairs. I eat a bison burger.

God bless Patrick short. Had we not stayed here we'd have missed out. I knew the geyser old faithful was here, but it's a small percentage of the spectacular sights on offer. Bison, Elk, Geothermals, calcified rock faces, hots prings, mud pools and vast steam spouting pools where chemical reactions create brightly coloured landscapes that are hard to put into words.

The park is spread across the centre of a dormant volcano, you could spend a week camping here and not see everything, it's like the raw power of nature going off all over. My dad would love this. It's epic.

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Onwards East and we visit Mount St Helens, an enormous volcano that erupted sideways in 1980 and took a few small towns and a forest with it. It's a massive crater in the ground and at the visitors centre we listen to the ranger's talk. It's a talk she's probably done a million times when she names and describes the last moments of the surveyor who was up on the thing when it went off and only had a few moments to radio the authorities and say "This is it" before, as she describes it "The mountain took him". Grim stuff for family listening. I'm not a dweller on dark stuff, but it does make me wonder which part of a volcano exploding under your feet would kill you first. The rocks? The fire? Being blasted into the air? Probably all of it. On the way back we stop off at the Bigfoot gift shop and Bron buys a spare wedding ring for one dollar.

We cross Oregon and the hours pass to some tremendous views of dams, rivers and cliffs. At Hill Fort indian reservation a quick casino visit to break up the journey, I observe some indians dressed as cowboys and there's a 'Pow Wow' which looks like a car boot sale in the middle of a campsite, but I think we've probably missed the good stuff. Then up slowly into rolling hills and before the sun sets theres a 'vista point', a roadside stop where we can see across the whole reservation. The sun is low and all the buildings, plains and ourselves are bathed in warm a yellow light and we cast shadows that go on forever. We've covered a lot of ground and we're tired, but it's all so beautiful. I'm not done yet.

We stop at another 'America's Best Value Inn' and I'm starving. Even at night it's uncomfortably hot and There's only a 24 McDonalds drive through in sight. If you don't know America, It's not like the UK in how it's laid out. Outside the big cities shops and food places aren't all terraced together like our high streets or town centres. it's all small drive in retail park type places, or outlets are stood on their own. I cross an almost deserted street and try the door but it's locked and no one is visable inside. I stand at the drive through ordering post which is set a distance from the building. I speak into the microphone but no one is there. The lights are on. I try again. Nothing. A read a notice on the big illuminated menu. I am not a car, so I'm not heavy enough to trigger the bell that tells Ronald McDonald I want to be fed. Probably a good thing. I give up and leave.

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Next afternoon we went too Voodoo Donuts, a 24 hour donut shop where I get their signature confection, a little man shaped sugary treat with a twiglet stabbed into him, and another donut which has maple icing and bacon on it. It's well tastey. Bron's friend Jill has helped me souce a couple of open mike comedy nights, as I want to see how Danny Pensive fares out here. I've gigged in the states only twice before, one gig was good, the other not so much. Even the simplest cultural references can get lost easily. At the curious comedy theatre there's an all inclusive improv night on beforehand, Bron and Jill both get in on it and have fun.

This boded well for the comedy gig, or at least I thought it would, as the place slowly empties, and only the stand ups remain. Almost all the acts do their short spot and leave, the greater percentage of them talk about what they want to do with thier willies. Oh dear. The female compere never addressed it, or sought to even the odds, as a night it's all a bit flat. I get on, do my thing, slowly prise a few laughs out of those that have stayed, then just before I finish she comes back on stage to usher me off...oh the indignity. I'm really not where I'm wanted tonight. I try not to judge, it's one night in one venue and Portland is a big town, and besides I'm off to see the comedysportz show tomorrow.

For our final day in Portland I take a break and head into the city alone to wander and explore. Portland is laid back, and easy to get your head around on foot. I resist the urge to shop until I come across a shop called 'I like comics', which is the best named comic shop I've ever been in. I buy the new Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover, where the doctor walks on the bridge of the enterprise. what are the chances? That evening we go to the comedysportz Portland match, which is loads of fun, and get ready to leave Portland.

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Staying with guys from the Comedysportz teams in the US is not only helping us in pocket with their hospitality, but also a great way to see the country properly, and like in Australia, get an idea of just how big the place is. I used to think that everyone in the states must have to drive for hours to get anywhere, but really most places are easy to get to and everywhere has similar facilities.

Monday is out to the West coast and San Francisco. By the power of facebook we meet up with Laura who points us to Height and Ashbury, the birthplace of the underground culture. We drive the roller coaster streets up and down hill with some spectacular views including the twisty Lombard Street and seeing Alcatraz out on the bay. On the way out we pass over the Golden Gate bridge at dusk which looks beautiful then head as North as is comfortable to the interstate 5 before resting up at a budget motel off the highway in Fairfield.

I've stayed in a so many hotels over the years I now find myself doing an unconscious checklist of the features of a room, and Americas Best Inn comes up trumps. The universal basics are there, bed, toilet shower and tv, anything else tends to be a bonus regardless of cost or consession. Here we have a bath, fridge, microwave, desk, table, two chairs and a bottle opener built into the wall. The Rodeo drive Luxe had a better bed, but this wins on points.

Tuesday is all drive and rest breaks. North out of California's desert terrain, into the vast valleys of wine making and citrus fruits. Past 'Cowschwitz' where thousands of cows graze and then gradually into the forests and greener pastures of the state of Oregon. A whole day on the road. Bron does a rest stop at the Eagle Casino, spends 20, makes 50, blows 30 and leaves it there. I spend 5 on the lowest betting machines available, I'm not a fan of gambling. At 10.30pm we finally cross the border through Portland into Washington state and 'Z' street, where Bron's good friend Jill is waiting for us. Tomorrow is July 4th.

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James is an amazing host showing us the sights, as well as blagging us a swanky hotel in Beverley Hills on Rodeo drive. As we arrive knackered and see the glamour is hanging out all over, valet parking attendants and smart bellhops can smell our worth quicker than a pawnbroker with a cheap watch. Its posh, the bed is great but I remember that America doesn't really do kettle's, so I can't have the batman flavoured pot noodle for supper that I stashed in my suitcase.

Saturday we head out to Venice Beach. I look for the pier where the movie Falling Down was shot. It's hot and bustling, a bit like Blackpool with hippies and hip hop, worth seeing. The wife is also here to play Comedysportz with the LA team and lucky happenstance, James offers me the chance to play too. This team are slick and professional, all jobbing actors and improvisers and even though I feel 'game on' I'm concerned that I'm a bit rusty and have a might not gel with the beautiful people, a bit like Doctor Who on the bridge of the starship enterprise. I worry about nowt. It's a great show and Rick, Holly and Scott are giving, fun and funny. I even get to do a scene with Derek Mears who was Jason Vorhees in the Friday 13th (2009) and the lead Predator in Predators (2010). This presses my awesome buttons, it's a great night.

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We blag a whole days ride on the tram because no one told us we had to put our tickets in the machine. There's plenty of free stuff to do without breaking the law; visiting Australia's shrine of rememberance, a large proud stone building commemorating soldiers from all wars. Also the big Victoria market, photographing Kylie Minogues bottom (statue of) and the amazing Australian Centre for the moving image. I'm here one day too soon to see the Games Masters video game exhibition and talk with Warren Spector, but not for the regular exhibitions and the indie games showcase, where games like 'Dear Ester', 'Proteus' and 'Fez' can be played on big screens. Sweet.

I have seen the future and it's a pub with it's own separate cider bar on the roof! Cider Bar. Roof Bar. If I'd known about it earlier I have let the wife do the Neighbours tour on her own. I try two of the local ciders, both at 7%. Yummy. Melbourne has a big comedy circuit and after a few facebook enquiries I'm offered a short spot at a place called the Felix Bar, but arrangements are against me. We rock up at our plush cabin accommodation for the night and I ask the camp receptionist how to get into the city by public transport. At length she describes how to get to the nearest tram station, so long in fact that I ask how far away the station is. 'About seven kilometres' is the answer 'If you're driving. Then the tram takes about an hour'. Balls.

I'm at the wrong end of town and I'm not going to get to the gig in time, nevermind get back. Next time Melbourne. Dissapointed. Saying that I've spent the last nine nights in a van in the cold and I honk a bit. The cabin has a telly, an electric blanket and a pizza shop five mins walk away. I'm not going anywhere.

Thursday is emotional saying goodbye to the van. Now's it's sitting in my pants recharging batteries watching Australian telly. It's mainly imports, adverts for life insurance and repeats of MacGyver and Please Sir! with John Aldterton. Sleep now, and dream of L.A.

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At night in Sydney I see a possum in the dark which is cute and exciting. The next morning off inland to Canberra, a city I'd wanted to visit as it's Australia's capital city but gets far less international attention than Sydney or Melbourne. Canberra's main attraction is the Parliament Building and the city itself, the layout and architecture of which was decided by competition in the early 1900's. All the entants are on show in the free to walk around building exhibition, one of which is a ringer for the Imperial City of Cyrodill in the Elder Scroll games, and another is clearly from the love child of hitler and MC Escher, who did those black and white pictures of endless staircases.

The city proper is one long straight road passing straight through the centre of the city, broken only twice by two enourmous roundabouts, one a park, the other home to the gigantic Parliament Building. Branching out from the main road the commerce and residential areas are arranged in interlocking hexagons of streets so from the air the whole place looks like an elaborate crop circle/honetcomb/tardis walls, or a successful version of Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Canberra is a chilled out place, no high skyscrapers, a vast expanse of land with everything spread out and connected in straight lines, more or less. I like Canberra loads despite the fact that they have the magna carta. Yes, that Magna Carta. It apparently went 'missing' from England many years ago turning up in an Australian school in the 1950's. A likely story. I suspect the humour and irony was not lost on the fact that an ancient scroll describing fundaments of English law was stolen from England and reappeared on a continent that was originally populated by criminals. There's a bit of me would like to see it returned, but at the same time I also think it's hilarious.

We spend a couple of very cold days in Canberra and use two different camp grounds, both of which have equally poor kitchen facilities. One appears to be a garage with an oven and a grotty bbq in it. The other is at least indoor but has no kitchen.

Onwards to Melbourne, and a tour of the set of Neighbours at the wife indulgence. I'm glad I've got those strong 'night-time' cold capsules.

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We spend Wednesday on the road making our way down the pacific highway that stretches hundreds of miles all the way from Brisbane to Melbourne. I fancy a bit of swimming and we take a diversion to the amusingly named Banana Beach but it's a bit vicious. The waves are big here and so are the undercurrents. Slowly getting used to just how early it gets dark, we park up at Belmont Bayview, Bron gets some fruit and I get a pizza from Eagle Boys Pizza Co. My favorite named chain store here was briefly 'Liquorland' but that was quickly overruled when I saw 'Dan Murphy's Low Price Liquor'. It sounds a bit cheesy if you've not seen the Brand logo, but looks quite highbrow. The logo is silhouette of a man, like the colonel from KFC but bald and a lot sterner, deep as if deep in thought and rendered in black, orange and green. I imaginge he'd have the voice of a newsreader like Kent Brockman from the simpsons,saying something like "Hi, I'm Dan Murphy and I want to make sure you get drunk tonight". Thanks Dan Murphy. I love you Dan Murphy.

Thursday gets exciting. We're off to Palm Beach. No maybe's, Bron knows exactly where it is and no sooner have I parked the van and she's off down the beach like a woman possessed. This is where they film Home and Away. It's just a beach to be honest and for a while I think it's the wrong place, but then we see some tell tale signs and even I recognise the lighthouse from the opening credits when I see it. We get ice cream at the shop, unfortunately Alf is not here to sell it to us. The camp site we find is also a nature reserve, which is cool, and we arrive in time to get the train into Sydney to look around.

Sydney feels like London, pretty intense and busy. Not realising by getting the train we actually went over Sydney Harbour bridge looking down onto the Opera house. It's funny how Newcastle back home mirrors Sydney with its similar style bridge and opera house. We wander Sydney and find ourselves at the opera house in time to hear the second half of an afternoon concert, which can be heard and seen on a tv screen from the foyer of building. We sit and listen for what must have been over half an hour to big broad rich rousing music, I like a bit of classical but I've never had the fortune of listening to a full orchestra live, it was pretty stunning. Then it finished, and a sea of silver haired senior citizens came pouring out of the building and onto a convoy of waiting buses. I bought some sausages for the barby.

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I'm getting used to the camper van we've hired, it's a pretty easy drive. We wave goodbye to the folks and head South to Byron Bay. Many have recommended it, not least by brother who spent a fair bit of time here. It's the most chilled out place you'll ever find and the beach just goes on forever. Whatever the modern word is for hippies is, there are many of them here, folks from all walks of life. We check into a campsite and test out the campervan, which is practical and very cosy. I like it. The campsite here is a bit uptight for my liking, I have romantic notions of of fires on the beach and big BBQ's, but there is Wifi here, which seems non-existant anywhere else, but we are on the most eastern point of the entire continent, so it probably to be expected.

The cider here is fucking great. Really dry and bitter, but with a lovely bite. This is good. Very good indeed.

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In a shop we notice they have a different coco pops monkey here, and you can buys beans in ham sauce. After the lack of sleep and sitting in darkness it probably wasn't a good idea to have an energising smoothie, which made me go a mental in the head for 10 minutes. I left my sunglasses on the plane and now have some new really stupid looking ones which have metal grater bits in them and look like a doctor who propfrom the 1980's.

They have cider over here,hurray! I've had a bottle of 'dirty  granny' which was lovely,if expensive. Prices are a bit dear, but the maths is easy to do and nearly everything seems to be rounded up to .50 or .00 dollars, noneof your £X.99 illusionof value here.  Looking forward to having a shower, I feel so minging I will probably weigh less after.

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Day 21 - Poole
Down to the South coast and Poole. I'm knackered and rock up into the dressing room of the lighthouse for a kip. In fact I kip for most of the day and don't really see anything or anyone until showtime. If I see another sandwich I will shoot someone in the face with it. I don't even remember the show.
On the way out of Poole we stop at a Tesco's 24. Look at this shelf of cider. This is Tesco's. It may look like an average selection of cider like any other Tescos's, but it isn't. You'd be surprised just how much the menu changes when you get near Somerset and it's neighbouring counties. Thatchers gold in both bottles and cans, Sheppy's Dabinet and three varieties of Cornish rattler, you'd be hard pushed to find those in the North West and North East in your average supermarket...and they're all gorgeous.

Day 22 - Taunton
Into somerset proper where I get a large flaggon of Sheppy's scrumpy that will hopefully make it all the way home to Manchester at the end of tour. In the car we listen to soundtracks from computer games, and I rabbit on about the Elder Scrolls RPG games until everyone is utterly bored, but at least I'm not banging on about Doctor Who anymore. Anything to stay awake at the wheel. I am amused by a shop called 'world of bears' but I don't know why.
The show is good for me and great for Charlie, plenty of laughs. I find it hard work, but wouldn't change it for the world. Five show's left.

Day 23 - Eastbourne
Eastbourne is lovely. It's Saturday (must hang on to what day it is) and the sun is shining, the sky is full of those guys on motorised parachute thingy's whirling about all over the shop which looks really exciting. I wander through the main shopping parade where like Manchester they have a shopping centre called the arndale, and down to the sea.

The Devonshire Park Theatre is old and lovely and we have a top show, really enjoyable. The landlord of the venue pub next door gets us to sign the poster for the show and will put it with the others on his wall. It's a thrill as I have so much affection all the British actors I see the names of on the walls. Awesome.
Our hotel is a small chain owned by John Malcovich the actor. It's our intention to look for the seventh and a half floor and climb inside his head, but unfortunetly as we arrive the lift has been broken by a dozen topless drunk stags who have all tried to squeeze into it. They all come out laughing like idiots as they inconvenience all the other guests in the hotel. We carry our bags up three flights of stairs. I want to push them all into the sea. There is a picture of John Malcovich on the wall of the room, looking p***ed off. I think he knows.

Day 24 - Southsea
It's quiet, not much is open and getting dinner is a chore as we go into the pub next to the Kings Theatre. Seeing someone eating a Sunday lunch I try to work out how they knew to order it being that there are no menus on the tables, and no specials board. On asking for a menu we get a single piece of A4 paper, with no mention of Sunday lunch on it. I go to the bar and ask if they do Sunday lunch. There's is a noticeable pause before the girl replies 'We do a Sunday roast?' Bless. She brings a friend of over to help with the sentence 'We've got Chicken, Beef or Pork, but no Chicken'. Charlie notices seating upstairs and tests them further. 'Yes you can sit upstairs, but there's no table service upstairs' came the seemingly adequate reply until we realise the kitchen is upstairs and the serving waitresses have to go upstairs in order to fetch the food down.
We have time to kill as Erin goes in to prep the show, so me and Charlie visit the D-Day museum. I don't know that I expected much, but it was a great display of vehicles and memorabilia, showing the preparation for operation Overlord and the sheer scale of the operation it's hard to imagine. Impressive and really sobering.
The theatre is gorgeous, another ageing beauty. The show is great too, and after we to the Phoenix for a pint where I get uncharacteristically shirty, then calm down (I'm just tired). The walls are awesomely covered with signed photo's and I get snap happy on pictures of Bernard Horsfall, David Yip, Sue Pollard, Tom O'Conner, Bernard Breslaw, Spike Milligan and the pub dog.

Day 25, 26 - Break & Alnwick
On the road for most of the day, from South coast to Northumberland six hours or so seeing nearly all of the A1/M1, deciding against the M18 connecting road just to be a purist. A nice meal where I eat some beetroot and cucumber, a chat to the wife, a pint and bed.
If you like books, Alnwick has an amazing second hand bookshop called Barter Books - it's just huge. I'm not a big reader and I spent the best part of an hour in it instead of visiting the castle which is also huge. The town itself is quite small but the people are canny and you can feel the history here.

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Day 16 - Kendal
Down the M6 to the Lake District, and it's a Saturday too which mean the market is on and I buy some nice cheese and a couple of balls of wool as a pressent for the missus. Again you can tell the average age of the towns occupants by the number of charity shops around. I do like a bit of charity shop spending, but I'm a but concerned by some of the advertising I've seen in some of the on the tour. Adverts saying 'We urgently need your donations', stressing the urgency of the message in big underlined letters. I've donated to shops in Chorlton and still do when I have a clear out. I'm not having a pop at charity shops as the all do good work, but to use an assertive approach to their marketing when I'm effectively giving them my stuff isn't quite an ernest message. I overhear a conversation between the shop assistant and a customer, she blames Ebay for the slow turnover in their stock, fair point.
Wandering round the charity shops with Charlie, I'm wearing my duffle to do on the fly video diary. I'm stopped by a young girl who recognises Danny Pensive and is a fan, we get a photo and chat and she is made up. This gives me a little lift too.
I manage to work the panorama setting on my new phone camera app and take some nice photos.
A great show and after we go for drinks, sample many ciders and meet a couple of local lads in Dickie Doodle's late rock bar who saw the show and chat and drink some more.
The next morning I have a bogging headache and am totally not with it but argee to Erin, our tech mananger's plan to wander up a big hill and see Kendal Castle. I didn't even know Kendal had a castle, and from the lack of signage neither do a lot of people.

Day 17 & 18
Break for admin and domestic related activity. Phone calls in the bath, etc.

Day 19 - Coventry
Refreshed we head for Coventry and the Belgrave theatre. The staff are nice and we are all issued with door fobs to get in and out. The show is an odd one, I try to up the energy in the room, and there's laugh's, but they're not really buying what I'm selling tonight and the banter is all a bit cynical. Charlie has a great one, after all it's his show they've come to see. My old mate Tom is in the audience too, and I#ve not seen him in a while so this makes it a bit more uncomfortable for me. Saying that it's great have a big old catch up session and a pint later.
The ABC motel has windows that open all the way. Respect.

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Day 12 - Break
A big drive back to Manchester and a rest. I look forward to a kip in my own bed and a fuss of the cat, but instead fix the cupboard door in the kitchen that's been bugging me for ages, then take out the bins, as all the people in our block haven't bothered. Oh how bloody showbiz. I am too tired to be annoyed and drink myself to sleep in front of my computer.

Day 13 - Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe Plowright Theatre is sandwiched between the police station and the fire station, it's small and old school and the staff are very jolly. Wandering around the place I don't know if it's me, the town, the weather or all three - but it's down and dismal. Loads of Greggs and pound shops, maybe no more than anywhere else, but they stick out more today. I get fish and chips from the BHS cafe. The show is far mare than I expect it to be, the people are well up for it, but not always laughing where I expect.

Day 14 - Barnsley
The clouds part on the way to Glossop and we have a great scenic midday drive to Barnsley listening to Holst's planet suite. Barnsley Civic theatre is a new theatre and art space, and the facilities are great. I feel really sluggish, and really need to push myself to eat healthily on the road. With some gagrbaldi biscuits and fruit from Morrisons I'm happy enough until showtime. It's 'hump day', we are officially halfway through the tour.
From my dressing room on the third floor I can see some kids hiding behind the waterfall feature, on the front grassy area outoside the theatre. I take photos of them as they appear to take drigs, see me, then quickly dash over a wall.

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Day 8 & 9 - Norwich
The theatre in Peterborough has sadly closed it's doors, we only found out days before, so two days in Norwich then, and to make up for it the prior show here at Norwich Playhouse is already sold out. On the way we stumble across the "World Famous Comfort Cafe" which appears to be a simple cafe services with a cunning name. Sitting drinking coffee and reading the paper is Wes Zaharuk, a great props comic, he's killing time before heading to Norwich too to play Jongleurs.
Our accom for Norwich feels a bit harsh and seventies, but I'm happy for the room. A hotel & conference centre, the kind of place Reggie Perrin would have stayed before his breakdown, with a brushed silver control panel at the bedside like you'd see on an old ITC spy drama. ‎"Do I need anything to get on your WiFi?" I said to the receptionist, infering a password. "A computer" she said matter of factly, like I'm stupid. I could feel the words "secure connection?" on the tip of my tongue, but they didn't come out. Upon trying it is a secure connection, in that their network does not let you on it.
The stay is made invaluably better by the arrival of wor lass, who has made the four hour trip from Manchester with some mates to see me on this, probably the only occasion I'm in one place long enough. This is where the showbiz lifestyle is hard, since the end of June we've only seen each other a handful of times. Simple pleasures like making my woman egg on toast for breakfast will have to wait till October. Sad face.
The Norwich show is awesome, a real high point so far, and the baer serves Aspalls cider too. I love it.

Day 10 - Braintree
Braintree may have been named after the wallnut tree's which grow here and look a bit like brains, but that's just one theory. I'm sick of sandwiches now, take a chance on a microwaveable ready meal hoping the venue has a microwave. Always a risk if they don't as there may be no fridge either. We arrive at the venue, great room, great wifi, great staff but no microwave or kettle. So... No tea? NO TEA!!?? WTF!.... Yes tea. I have a new supply of evil Typhoo QT instant granules and they have a hot water station. With no water to boil, bag to squeeze or milk to pour I make the quickest cup of tea in the world ever, in 6 seconds. I mourn my microwavable curry as the sealed black plastic tray slowly expands in the warmth and break out the instant mash for lunch instead.

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Day 3 - Didcot
Didcot Cornerstone is a new arts centre and theatre, right next door to a cinema. I'm upset that I've missed a load of good movies including Super 8 and Captain America, so I go and see Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I like it. The venue is a studio space, all modern and cool, and made the nicer by Emily the front of house manager, who is very welcoming and very fit too. I look at her. I have been away from home for too long and give myself a big slap then phone my woman. The show is great.
We stay in the Kingswell Hotel, built over a well where one of the previous owners threw themselves in. I'm reminded we are in cider country as they serve a rather good cider and have a great pint beneath a picture of Winston Churchill.

Day 4 - Great Torrington.
After a B road drive the village of Great Torrington is lovely and has bunting hanging in the street. At the 'Green Lantern Cafe and Bakery' I order a ham and cheese toasty, a cheese and onion pasty, a cake and a mug of tea which all comes to £3. We are back in time. Charlie and I find a map of the town which includes the places such as 'Ladies Wash' and 'Bastard lane', we try to find Bastard lane but there is no sign post at the location for it when we do and an amusing photo call is lost.
There is a lot of history here and once a year there is a LARPing event where people get dressed up as cavaliers and try and bomb the town with cannons, to recreate an event involving Oliver Cromwell and 200 kegs of mislplaced gunpowder. There is a hill outside the town which was created with body parts. At the theatre they tell me about the history and the people are quaint and a bit scary.
The show is odd. As Danny Pensive I play mostly to silence and wonder if I'm holding up a mirror too close to the locals perception. There is one particularly long silence which I play to and let hang with a simple closed yes/no question, waiting for a least one of the 150 strong crowd to answer. No one does. It remains a silence.
In the toilets after the gig I spot a swastika carved into the wall, and overhear some children talking about Alistair Crowley.
We make our exist after the show and head off into even darker boonies and the Ram's Head Inn for accomodation. The landlord is incredibly welcoming and chatty and the rooms are very elaborate. In the bar we get chatting, the landlord spots my Doctor Who t-shirt (one of many) and starts discussing my favourite television show. I happily join in until he tells me of the programme before my time when he was young, a show about a man who lived in a council house and built a tardis out of a shed he had in the back yard. What? I go to correct him, but he's insistent. It's all Erin our tour manager can do to interject so I don't go apeshit. I get as far as naming the date and time of the broadcast of the first episode before the conversation is changed to something less dangerous.
I go to bed and watch the american apprentice final. Piers Morgan has won as he is a massive ****.

Day 5 & 6 Borehamwood
A day off and we drive to Borehamwood via Avebury, a small town with a big ring of stones and a National Trust site where creepy kids serial 'Children of the Stones' was filmed back in the 70's. I walk the circle with my headphones on listening to atmospheric soundtrack music to get the full on pagan magic effect.
Then on to Borehamwood, a bit of soul-less place after the last few days. It is however home of Elstree studios where some of star wars was actually made, and they still have some big budget movies shoot here apparently.
I've driven all day and I'm knackered and hungry. Wandering back to the hotel past Elstree with a pizza in one hand and a 4 pack of cider in the other, the older surrounding building's still look authentically 50's with their square partitioned single glazed windows, wood & glass doors and big wire mesh gates leading to warehouses behind . You could easily imagine it being a big hub of activity a few decade's back, but now not so much. It's all office space and I can look in and see stressed faces buried in computer screens.

The sun goes down and the sky is weird orangey pink colour. It looks beautiful, but at the same time quite oppressive. Show tomorrow.

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Day 31 – Birmingham
Thank you Birmingham, but whatever Telly Savalas says it's not my kind of town.Some of the buildings are nice, like the town hall we played which had beautiful acoustics, but getting in and out was a nightmare thanks to the gay pride parade. Half the streets were closed off and the ones that were left spiralled on and off motorways, in and out of ring roads and generally gave the idea that whoever planned the town, based on Detriot apparently, probably made those kids play mats you see in the early learning centre. The venue was ten mins walk from the hotel, but twenty five in the car, and even on foot included passing through a subway and overpass, a bit like an obstacle course. Stress of navigation aside, the town hall was a big place with a big sound, and during thr show I chatted to a hilarious kid who had comes dressed as Darth Vader. Had a pint in the beer garden next door to the hotel after the show, so I took the liberty of drying some hand-washed pants over the back of my chair. I smell.

Day 32 – Derby
Typing freaks me out a little, thirty two days on the road. Some of it is blurry, and it a bank holiday too. I wash some pants and a shirt in the sink of the dressing room and hang them out the window to dry. Half an hour later a spider has built a web from the ledge to a damp gusset There is a shopping mall that keeps going up with all the chain resturants I have ever seen and more, it is massive. I am lost. I imagine there are lots of fat dead people on the roof who are also lost.
The venue is nice and crowd are warm, I remember that much. We stay in a holiday Inn that is only six months old and. The open stairwell induces vertigo.

Day 33 – Kingston
The Rose Theatre didn't feel that big when we went in. It's in the round, partially and feels really intimate. It actually seats nine hundred people, and when it's full they sit on the floor. They are sitting on the floor tonight. It's the biggest audience I've ever played too, and it's an awesome show. I'd love to say it's the highlight of the tour, but it's not quite, that still goes to Leeds.

Day 34 - South Bank Udderbelly
This wasn't in the diary at the beginning of the run, and it's a different kettle of fish, Edinburgh rules. I was a bit hesitant about agreeing to do a short spot in the purple cow, but it's a chance to say I've done it, and do a bit of networking. For some reason I'm a bit paranoid, maybe as it's London I fully expect to get stopped by security at least twice, wandering around back stage in a duffel coat among young, serious looking and very psysical free runners. Calm down, the venue manager Rachel is incredibly nice and issues me with a purple artists badge which I put on and feel better. A stage tech asks where I'm from, he is from Sunderland too. I get a pint of magners, the guy who serves me is from Bishop Aukland. It's all good.
My missus turns up to take photos and watch the show, which is short and lots of fun. I hug Charlie and Erin and thats it. Four hours and a kip in the car later. Tour over.

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Day 23 - Bracknell
It dawns on me that the Park arts centre where we're doing the show is a venue I've played before, it's home to the long running and rather splendid Comedy Cellar, I meet with Katherine briefly who runs the gig, and as it's Friday they have a show on too. The tech's are great and we chat loads about gaming and portal 2, I eat a salad that feels healthy, despite being mainly greasy pasta. The show is an absolute belter and full, much back patting and ego rubbing ensues. We are staying in the nearest hotel to the venue, which just happens to be Bracknell Hilton. There is a pool and a sauna, and I make use of both on the morning that we leave. It might sound rock and roll, and it does feel it, but I just want to stop feeling lardy.

Day 24 - Shrewsbury
The sat nav is beginning to get on my nerves as it keeps sending us into dead ends and pedestrianised areas and then dying. The Citroen has the turning circle of a house and I'm easily annoyed by it. The satnav suction holder got lost ages ago, so the box itself has been suspended on blu-tak for the whole month. There is no horizontal surface, or cup holder even, on the dash of the car, so it's falling about all over the place. Must fix. Another sold out night and a great show at the Severn Theatre. We have three Stormtroopers and they are great chaps, really chatty. The bar serves the best pint of Addlesstones cider I have had in a long time, and two pints in I'm smiling like a clown at just how amazing I am for just being myself. Happy man. Happy drunk man. It is raining, I am wet. Happy soggy drunk man. Oh no,it is late and I am too pissed to understand anything going on in this weeks episode of Doctor Who.
My missus and some of the comedysportz gang are coming tomorrow, hope it's a good onr tomorrow too.

Day 25 - Leeds
These are the gigs. These are indeed the gigs. The stress of find the loading bay for the West Yorkshire playhouse is immediately dispersed with the arrived of Nige. Nige is a seasoned tech and stage manager, he is wearing a classic Doctor Who anniversary celebration t-shirt and has a tattoo of both the tardis and the USS enterprise on one arm. He is no-nonsense Leeds, and has clearly seen loads of incredibly cool showbiz genre stuff, but doesn't boast. Nige rocks my world more than he can know.
The WYP is massive, and so is the backstage. The show is sold out tonight to a capacity of five hundred, including my mates and missus, and it doesn't disappoint - everyone shines. The best thing about the night - new benchmark for the tour, is the ramp into the main stage. Unlike most venues where the act enters from the wings, there is a ramp leading out onto the floor level stage. Combined with the incredibly accute focused accoustics and the murmors of five hundred people it creates a very special feeling entering the stage. Like footballers coming out of a tunnel on match day. I feel like Elvis. The noise and mass of faces unfold into view. Whatever happend in that half hour on stage, I take the beautiful feeling with me, to be remebered.

Day 26, 27 - Worthing
A day off breaks up the long trip to the South coast, and we head to Oxford, staying in a sleepy village on the the outskirts. The guesthouse is has been named after princess Diana and is staffed by attractive Bulgarian barmaids. It is very, very local, and empty. We decide to get drunk. We discover pool table and old record player in the back room, complete with a box of LP's, soon it is working and belting out Herb Alpert tunes. I am too tired to dance and have lost all reason. The barmaids are clearly bored out of their minds here. There is a mug with a midsomer murders print on the on. John Nettles stayed here.

Day 28 - Basingstoke
I wasn't sure about Basingstoke. I thought it might be another Dunstable or Stevenage, but fortunetly not. Didn't get to see much of the place, would rather sleep. Did have another chat with Rich our stormtrooper, he's in a similar position to the one I was in about twelve years back, and the stress of it is effecting is eczema, and ability to get it under control. Eczema is a really misunderstood condition, mainly as its a fluctuating one, some days you're fine and no-one notices it, other times it's far worse, and can effect your public self-esteem. I tell Rich about my 2008 show, and we discuss moisturisers and their properties at length. The Show is surprisingly good, I was expecting a tough crowd, but no, they were ace.

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Day 21 – Brecon
If Nottingham was a high point of the last tour, then Brecon was not. The town is very picturesque, the roads are too narrow for a Citroen Xsara, and the hotel offers no parking so I'm amazed they get guests considering the remoteness of the place. In September the theatre here was the smallest audience and a very odd mix with it.
As we rock up outside the theatre a load of old folks are getting off a canal boat and onto a coach decorated with images of watches and the slogan - “Mark this moment in time”. This is where people come to visit before they die. There is a rider for the show, this is a first, and it's the rider from the notes of the original tour Charlie did several years back, they still have it. I eat strawberries and a child makes me a cup of tea and brings it to my dressing room. I am showbusiness. I am tired showbusiness.
Five minutes into the gig and a geordie wearing an NFC soccer shirt in the front has a pop at me at the mention of the word Sunderland. I smell apparently, as do all people who hail from my wearside town. He should know, as he explains he courted one for several years, which I point out has probably skewed his view, and he then admits he has only ever know three people from Sunderland. Danny Pensive presents the maths to the audience and is full of win. The bloke is then lovely both he and his kid get well into the show. It's a lot better than I expected. The bar at the guest house serves Thatchers Gold cider. Hurra...zzzzzz.

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Despite being a bit ripe and fragrant with all the travelling I opt not to wash in full view. The crowd for that night is pretty broad and sporadic, a gang of sassy geek girls on one side and more considered older groups on the other side of a wide auditorium, make the show feel more like a gag tennis. There is a nice windmill on a hill on the way out, and I annoy a motorist by stopping to photograph it.

Day 17 – Leamington Spa.
On the way to 'Royal Leamington Spa', Hey Hey It's...I spot the Monkee-mobile being karted up the motorway – a big red convertible with yellow lettering. I guess correctly it's on it's way to Manchester for the concert my missus is attending that night..here they come.

We stop off in Warwick to look at the castle, but think better of it when we see the admission price of twenty quid. To be honest it looks more like an amusement park than a castle, which is fine for a family day out but not for a bunch of travellers looking for a quick fix of history.

Instead we check out the town, and stumble across a town criers competition, which I consider to be all kinds of awesome as mature men and women are dressed up to the nines in all kinds of old school bling compete in the town square with their best five. 'Workshopping' in public as Danny Pensive, I talk to a lovely chap who is only too happy to chat, get my photo taken with him and show me his bell.
Tonight is the Royal Spa Centre, the show is great but our tour manager is a bit narked that they don't lt her operate the lights, like the other 99.9% of places we've been at. I'm enamoured of the seventie's build of the place and the wide san-serif font used throughout the building – I can't place it, but it's straight out of Gerry Anderson's UFO. The guest house has wifi, and tonight I have a room to myself. I fall asleep watching 'The Doctor's wife' twice. It's mint.

Day 18, 19 – Harrogate
The second free day of the run, and the opportunity to wake up in my own bed. I had entered the Manchester 10k which takes place today, but that was a massive overreach of good intent. I'm in no state for it physically or mentally. Wading through crowds in the rain wearing just a cardigan, I don't care, I meet the missus at the end of her run and a big hug. I could fall asleep in the street. Next morning is catching up on some much overdue admin, speak to agent, speak to Buxton fringe, speak to cat, hamster and fish, then off to Harrogate. Harrogate theatre is a great venue, it shows a lot of comedy and it's a cheap thrill to get recognised by the staff from and a the last time I was here. The main stage is a proper old theatre with a great atmosphere, and it's a great warm show.

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Day 10 – Dundee
My life could have been very different, in the early ninetie's I was interviewed for a placement at Dundee art college, and I really wanted to get in as it was well known in comic book circles as a place where some of the better 2000ad artists graduated from. I went through quite an intimidating visual assessment of my work, and I could see the other candidates were really good. It didn't happen and this is the first time I've visited since.

Strathcaro cafe services is the oddest services I've ever been in, the whole building is held together by screws and sellotape, they industrial size bags of cat litter, toys, plants and there is a full size model horse in the window. Signs are all hand painted and say things like 'We have a choice of soups'. Onwards.

The Caird hall is even bigger than Aderdeen, genuinely huge, and for our purposes partitioned for the show. It's a good show, if hard work filling such an enormous space. Charlie has a great one. Afterwards we drink in 'The Pillars' a proper Scottich pub, in the opposite room a band is playing called 'Salty Dog' and we are convinced we are being followed by increasingly bad renditions of Alanis Morrisette songs. The hotel has two different weddings going, with kilts aplenty. I could sleep for a week.

Day 11 – Livingston
Halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow is Livingston, a small town with one of the biggest Asda's I've ever seen. Scarily big - and the whole town are in there. I've been trying not to shop at the big corporate's, but it's really hard not to when you're on the road. Not knowing where to get stuff or where places are, it's a mixture of comfort and dissapointment to see a chain store.
The venue is in a residential area, which feels odd, then we see it...

That can't be right? Fortunetly we follow the narrow road a bit further.

I look out the window of the next hotel, they are all blurring together. An ice cream van passes by playing the theme tune from 'the third man'. There was an ice cream van where I lived as a kid that did the same. Spooky.

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Day 6 - Newcastle Upon Tyne
Try as we might we couldn't cancel the guest house in Dunstable the previous night to make a bit of headway on the road North. The landlady and her massive dog - with a tongue like carwash roller - was adamant we must endure her hospitality, despite the fact that the lad on the desk looked us in the eye and admitted he didn't know what he was doing.
A long drive next morning was rewarded with the emotional sight of the Tyne's many bridges, hello Newcastle, I miss you.
My lass flies home from the states today, she left before the tour started and it'll be another week or so before I see her, she send's me messages using a combination of phone text, smart phone app and facebook. I have a new HTC phone and it's driving me nuts. I cannot keep track. Hello Bron, I miss you.
The Tyne Theatre itself is a beautiful venue, I'd seen Jonny Vegas here in 2002 and now poster's for Sarah Millican adorn the wall, nice. They still make hand painted signs that hang outside the venue advertising the shows. I want to bring my own show here sooooo much. The tech's are chatty, the very definition of 'canny'. We share some 'on the road' stories, and later the show is very canny too, maybe the best yet. Some mates from way back come and watch, they loved it, I loved doing it, it's all beautiful. Again it's the old theatre's that are the better ones, they feel both vast and intimate at the same time.
I stay at my folks, my mum has made biscuits and also her own recipie bread. It's late. i'm hungry. I watch doctor again. I must be tired and emotional. I'm so happy I could cry.

Day 7 - Consett
I used to hate it up here. The Durham/Northumberland border is gorgeous country, but in my early twenties living outside Durham for a couple of years there was simply nothing to do. The venue is nice enough and easy to get to, but If anything it's me thats a little off form. After the high's of Newcastle, try as I might, I'm not feeling it tonight. There is a chatty lady in the house, as it turn's out she is a 'behavioral specialist'. Go figure. Charlie is staying in the Derwent valley hotel, which used to be owned by Rowan Atkinson apparently. It over looks the Derwent Valley (doh) and some amazing views, on the way back after the show I get a great photo of the sunset, thank you Consett and goodnight.

Day 8 - Glenrothes
Tarmac is bleeding out of my ears. It's only as we drive into Glethrothes from Consett after five and a half hours that it dawns on me that I pressed 'no' to toll roads on the satnav, taking us a whole hour and a half longer to get to the venue by avoiding the fourth bridge and driving right round the not insubstantial coastline of Scotland. Fife, We have no business being anywhere near there. The venue is the Rothes hall and is capacious. I still have my make-shift empty pot noodle tub drinking recepticle. It has already com in handy on several occasions. My missus made it back into the country without incident, a thought on my mind since the americans shot Cat Stevens in the teatowel. Today is full of win so far.

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