Posts tagged ‘Singapore’
Unemployment and other forthcoming adventures
I have handed in my notice in my day job. I don’t have another job to go to and am not earning anywhere near enough from comedy to make a living, which currently shows no signs of changing in the near future.
You are probably now wondering just I’m playing at. Well, I will explain.
The end of January was eventful, to say the least. A colleague who sat at the desk behind me had a stroke in the office on the Thursday night and then died a couple of days later. I was waiting with him until the ambulance arrived.
Then the next day, I had the funeral of a school friend. He’d been living out in Australia and had just bought some land in Tasmania. When they showed drone footage he’d taken of his land during the service, I suddenly realised that I need to see more of the world.
And I can’t do this if I’m stuck behind a desk for eight hours a day, while driving all over the place in the evenings in a vain attempt to pursue my comedy dreams and just generally feeling exhausted. There was no pressure on me to leave my job, I just felt the time was right to do something else.
After Edinburgh, I’m going to move out of my flat in Manchester, pack up my rucksack and go travelling for a few months. It’s time to have some more adventures. I’ve saved up enough over the years to keep me going for a while. And my trip to New Zealand showed that gigs can cover travel costs, so that’s what I’m looking to do more of.
I made some enquiries about some festivals in America, but they didn’t really go anywhere.
My next idea was to do a gig in each of the other 27 EU member states before the current Brexit deadline on 31 October. However, this is proving difficult. The itinerary and getting around on a budget looks tricky, but not impossible. I could cover much of it on trains or ferries.
What’s proving the biggest stumbling block in all of this is actually getting a response from promoters. At the moment, it seems easier to book gigs in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand than countries that are about an hour or two away on the plane.
I’ve just realised that getting frustrated with Europe and instead favouring Singapore, Australia and New Zealand is very similar to what those hardline Brexit types are always on about. Plus, I also opted to leave something with nothing to go to. They say you become what you hate, I just didn’t realise it was so easy.
I potentially have four gigs so far in the EU27, just 23 to go. What I may do instead is just try and do as many gigs as I can around Europe and see a bit more of the countries I’m visiting while I’m still an EU citizen.
Then in March to April, I plan on going back to New Zealand and then to Australia. I’ve never actually spent more than a night in Australia, despite passing through it a few times over the years. Also, festivals there are much easier to book than those in countries ruled by unelected bureaucrats. There it is, slipping out again.
Once I’m done with that, there’ll be Edinburgh 2020 on the horizon. So I may end up having a year out from any full-time employment. I’ll be doing bits of freelance writing, so I will see how much that brings in before I decide my next move.
Are you looking for copywriters? If so, get in touch. As it says at the top of the page, I’m a trained journalist. But obviously don’t get in touch if you want me to write for free. I save that exclusively for this site.
And also get in touch if you live in one of the EU27 countries and want to book How To Win A Pub Quiz. I need the money.
After Edinburgh 2020, I’ll be looking to move either back to London, where I was based for six years; or to move to Bristol, where I was based for the first eight weeks of my life.
Or I could just quit comedy, accept defeat, get a full-time job and a mortgage, and try to become a normal person. Actually, maybe not.
For many people, uncertainty is a scary thing. For me in this instance, it is all quite exciting. I’m looking forward to having more time available to write and think up ideas, but probably also do a fair amount of procrastination.
Anyway, I should probably go buy some gammon and fantasise about how great things were before I was born.
How To Win A Pub Quiz Mini International Tour. Stop one: Singapore
When I first came up with the idea of How To Win A Pub Quiz, my aim was to get double figure audiences every day at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe. I didn’t expect to be doing the show five years later and I certainly didn’t expect the idea would allow me to travel the world. But I am and it has.
The first stop on my mini international tour was Singapore. The last time I was there was confined to a quick stopover at the airport while the plane refuelled in 2007, when I think it was on my way back from New Zealand. It’s expanded pretty dramatically since then as I remember it being much smaller. Also, being in an airport doesn’t actually count as being in a country.
This time, I was totally unprepared for the humidity and was sweating profusely shortly after I left the airport. I’m used to sweating profusely on trains, but it’s normally due to me racing against the clock to catch one or being on the London Underground in rush-hour during the summer months.
I’d been booked in at a capsule hostel. Except it doesn’t feel like a hostel, which is basically like sleeping in a deep cupboard. It’s actually not bad, albeit with clammy conditions despite the air-conditioning being on constantly.
I was in town to do a show at The Merry Lion. As I was kind of limited with what days I could do, we settled on a Tuesday. It’s a great little room that had an audience of 15 people.
It’s not quite the crowds I’m used to with the show. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun and also achieved my show’s original aim of getting double figure audiences numbers. It has also opened up potential opportunities to perform the show elsewhere in South East Asia.
I have now arrived in Wellington, where the climate is much more manageable. I perform my first show in a couple of hours time at The Cavern Club. I am also pleased to report that I am sleeping in a much more spacious room that doesn’t require air-conditioning.