Hello everyone,
I got home from the Chicago comedy festival about 2 weeks ago, and I am now into the third week of my longest continuous stretch at home since October 2007. I should really be outside skipping freely through one of the many wonderful public parks that Edinburgh has to offer in the summertime, but instead I am sitting at the kitchen table watching the rain batter off the pavement outside. It is 3 in the afternoon and I kid you not, the clouds in the sky are so dark that a moth is currently smashing his head against the window trying to get to the small blue light coming from my Ipod speakers. Either that, or he's just really into Coldplay.
To be fair, this is the first bad day in what has otherwise been a very pleasant couple of weeks here in Edinburgh. I haven't really done much, other than a little bit of reading and writing and watching far too much tennis. Of course this year's Wimbledon was particularly exciting because we had a bona fide potential winner in the form of Andy Murray. He was incredibly the 3rd seed going into the tournament. We haven't had a 3rd seeded sportsman from Scotland since they abolished the 50-foot Belly Flop at the Olympics! It was heartbreaking to see Murray crash out in the semi-finals, but at least that proves his ranking was spot on? It is a little known fact that when I was a kid I applied for a position as a ball boy at Wimbledon. I got a letter back from the Lawn Tennis Association informing me that I was ineligible because I did not attend one of the 'approved schools' from which their ball boys and ball girls are annually selected. Apparently, privately-educated children are better at picking up a ball on the run than the Oliver Twists of this world! It still hurts when I read that rejection letter...and the other 24 rejection letters they have sent me every year since. Apparently now, I'm 'too old.' Whatever! Fascists.
I am heading off to the Canadian festivals in Toronto and Montreal early next week, so if you live in either of these two mighty Canadian cities, then please come along. A good few of you have messaged me asking if I am doing the Edinburgh Festival this year? Unfortunately, I will not be there as I am off to LA for a while after Canada. I don't know if I have mentioned this in my previous correspondences, but I will be filming a one-man Comedy Central Special for my American friends in July (that's right, fuck you Lawn Tennis Association!) Nobody really knows who I am over there, so it will be interesting to see how it goes down? I am planning to be in the States until at least the end of the year. I will be doing gigs mainly, and hopefully I'll pick up a writing job, or a spot on Leno, or something? Anything? In preparation, I have been reading an absorbing book called The Presidents by Stephen Graubard. I figure if I'm gonna' be spending some time in the US, it's important to know my Bush's from my Roosevelts? (which sounds like something a dyslexic gardener might write.) I even went to the Hard Rock Café in Edinburgh on Saturday for lunch hoping to passively soak up some American culture on Independence Day, but instead discovered it was full of people from just about everywhere else on the planet except America. Besides, there is something not right about celebrating America's independence from England, when you yourself live in Scotland! Anyway, the point is, I'm not doing the Edinburgh festival this year, but I will definitely be back next year unless I get sidetracked with ball-boy-ing duties.
Well, it looks like it might be brightening up a bit out there, so I better go catch some rays, man. That moth is still banging it's head against the window so definitely a Coldplay fan. I will write another blog from Canada and let you know how my gigs with John Cleese went. Oh, didn't I mention that? Well, there's something to look forward to in my next blog...
Cheers everyone,
Danny