AUGUST newsletter x
New shows in Edinburgh and Aberdeen! I've painted my kitchen and won a quiz.
I sincerely hope this missive finds you well.
Guilloteens across the newslettersphere will be delighted to hear that me and Frankie teamed up with a ragtag bunch of friends (including soon-to-be guest on HCTG, Josie Long) to win the Belle & Sebastian Glasgow Weekender pub quiz, as hosted by Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian himself. (One of the questions was, “Which Glasgow factory made the carpets for the Titanic?” I knew the answer because my granny worked there! (I would like to clarify that she was not one of the many weaving women slain in the Templeton Carpet Factory disaster of 1889.)) Anyway, this is the happiest I’ve ever been.
I’ve been painting my kitchen, and I really enjoy it. I like to tell myself it’s the feeling of completing a goal, and the satisfaction of looking at what was once bare and is now completely covered in two coats of Diamond Eggshell Apricot Crush, and the gratification of working with my hands in a world that is too often theoretical and digital. However, if I'm really being honest with myself, I like the way my head feels when I breathe deeply near industrial solvents.
I had a powerful time at the Edinburgh Fringe there, where my solo show SCARY TIMES had a limited engagement at Monkey Barrel Comedy on four mostly non-consecutive nights. It sold so well that we’re putting on extra Edinburgh shows there in Edinburgh, right before I film my big special at The Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow. Those will get announced here, soon enough.
Speaking of extra shows, the Saturday night Aberdeen show at The Blue Lamp is a pube away from selling out, so we’re sticking an extra midweek Aberdeen date on sale on the 29th of October, for people who live that kind of lifestyle.
I’m buzzing to get stuck into the September leg of the autumn tour, which starts with engagements in Cumbernauld and Stirling before blossoming into a four-day trek the length and breadth of Scotland in Fort William, Portree, Inverness and Galashiels. My friendship with my support act, close friend and greatest rival Rosco Mcclelland is going to be pushed to its limits, and we’re going to see some exciting styles of rain and shrubbery. If you’re through at the Edinburgh Fringe, I highly recommend going to see Rosco’s show at the Hive nightclub, where I was once beaten up in the smoking section when I was 20.
I was laid up with some kind of gastrointestinal issue for a wee bit there, that I believe stemmed from overindulging with discounted on-tap strawberry daiquiris. A mixture of that lingering digestive problem mixed with FOMO from not doing a proper run of a new show at the Fringe while some/most of my pals frolic in the bonhomie and the four star reviews and the cobblestones of August has given me a slight melancholy that can only be cured by painting my kitchen apricot, dabbling in transcendental meditation, and touring a critically acclaimed stand-up show in Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales over the next few months.
Peace and love in the new millenium,
CMB x As You Were