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Back in Edinburgh - July 10, 2007
Bonjour,
I’ve been back home in Edinburgh for the past 10 days. It’s very strange being back in my own flat for a change. I’ve become so used to hotel living over the past 6 months, that I’m finding it slightly difficult to adjust. When I heard a knock at my front door the other day, I instinctively shouted out “nothing needs replaced from the minibar!” This left a very puzzled look on the face of the guy who had come round to fix the TV ariel?
I returned home to a mountain of mail which is always fun, fun, fun. It’s amazing just how much shit can pile up in 6 months. I had an unpaid parking ticket from January that now seems to want my house as payment. I had a letter from my telephone company saying they had noticed I hadn’t used my home line in 6 months and therefore presumed I was dead, but if I wasn’t dead would I be interested in their new homeplan upgrade? I also got a letter from the local council back in April telling me that unless I had any objections, they were going to dig up the pavement outside my house and ‘have a look at some pipes.’
So to recap, in the space of 6 months away, it appeared to my neighbours that I had died, that my house was about to be repossessed, and that for some inexplicable reason I had requested to be buried right outside my front door. All in all, not the best news to come back to. I was also rather annoyed to again this year get a Littlewoods Christmas catalogue through the post in May! Despite the fact that last year I wrote to them asking them to stop sending me (and millions of other people) this completely pointless and destructive waste of paper. What kind of asshole orders Christmas presents in May? There was a whole section of children’s clothing. Surely, it’s better to wait and see how much they’ve grown come December? There was even the opportunity to pre-order a bath belt which offered ‘safe bathing solutions for the elderly’ I mean if you’re that frail? Well, look, all I’m saying is 7 months is a long time.
Anyway, it’s genuinely great to be back home. On some of those countless long, dusty car journeys around Australia this past 6 months, I would often daydream about some of my favourite things I would do when I got back to my beloved home town of Edinburgh….
I would get up early one morning and climb up to the top of Arthur’s Seat (one of Edinburgh’s pretty surrounding hilltop landmarks) and glide my eyes over the entire panorama of Edinburgh. I would lie back under a large mature beech tree in Princess Street Gardens and gaze up at the majesty of Edinburgh Castle. I would eat a slice of carrot cake and suck up a glass of ice cold appletizer in the outdoor cafe at back of the Modern Art Gallery while leafing through a book that was far too pretentious for my humble tastes….
However, such fantasies were crushed from the moment I set foot off the plane, by the onslaught of one of the wettest June’s on record in Scotland. As a result, I have spent a lot of time indoors watching films, which I guess isn’t the worst way to spend a week. Apparently, the day I leave for Montreal, the weather is forecast to get considerably better, which is bloody typical.
I’m only back for another week before I head off to Montreal for the Just For Laughs Festival. This will be my 3rd visit to Montreal, although the past 2 times I have just done a few 5 minute spots there. This time, I will have my own show which is very exciting and a little daunting. I’m going to be doing 10 shows over a week in a converted church venue called the Gesu*, which I am told is French for ‘Jesus’ – they obviously haven’t seen my latest show! Montreal is very much an industry festival, which usually means lots of important people from LA puffing on big cigars and telling me how much they love my ‘Irish’ accent. Then I correct them by telling them I’m actually Scottish, and they say something like “what’s the difference?” And then I go to bed. Still, there are a lot of my personal comedy idols heading over there this year, so I’ll just be happy if I bump into a couple of them in the elevator.
After Montreal, I’m off to New Zealand for a month long tour there, and then I’m doing a few shows in India. Needless to say, I’ll probably drop a lot of my religious material from those gigs. It’s one thing getting a letter of complaint; it’s quite another thing to get a fatwa on my head!
I’m very sorry that I will not be performing at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh this year. I’m planning a tour of Scotland next year which will include a run at a theatre in Edinburgh, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some dates announced for that in the coming months. Doing Edinburgh outside the festival? That’s right folks, I’m a maverick. My DVD is out on the 15th August in Australia and New Zealand only, but I think anyone else wanting it will be able to get a copy through the website. Finally, I’d like to give a special mention to one of my most supportive fans in Australia, a young lad called Nicky, who came to almost as many of my shows as I did this year! He recently set up a fan site for me on myspace which I promised I’d mention. Last time I checked there was all of 4 members, one of whom was my manager…Bless.
The address if you’d like to sign up is http://groups.myspace.com/dannybhoy
On the subject on myspace, I’m sorry I haven’t got round to replying to some of your email messages and questions. It’s all a bit new to me. I will endeavour to take a more active role in the future. If you have sent me a myspace email with a question, and I didn’t reply, please send it again, and I will get my act together this time…
Cheers,
Danny
