Water wings

Well, with a lack of hockey on the horizon at the moment, I've been hunkering down to all things Shallow End.

Richard has kindly offered to help out and I've taken advantage of his video editing skills to put together an intro. Its been kind of a weird process - not least because I've had to try and get the pictures in my head down onto email, for someone else to try and understand. Normally when I write comedy, it is words that come to mind, but the idea I had was very visual. I struggled to get the concept down into words.

Or so I thought - as Richard emailed something back in a day or so that not only was in the style I was looking for, but knocked it into a cocked hat. It was so damned quick. I can't draw a realistic sugar lump, but to see stuyff bouncing around the screen, music blaring, in a few hours - blimey. I know people sometimes look at me with surprise when I make a piece of code sing, so bit weird to be on the receiving end for once.

I've got to say that writing the show has reinvigorated me. And terrified me to equal measure - I totally understand where Neil Morris is coming from when he talks about bums on seats. Quite frankly, we need a sellout to make anything like a small profit. 164 seats. Doesn't sound much, but I'm working my nuts off.

But at the end of the day, it isn't about money, it is - to use a horrible phrase - about Art. Saying some stuff I've always wanted to say. Which is very cool.

No matter how much you plan stuff, it always comes down to the last minute. Geoff and I are constantly revising the script and trying to grab practise time - first preview is a fortnight away, and then the next chance we get is to do it for real. And I have one sketch memorised, out of 12. And its the shortest one.

That's showbusiness!