At three in the morning...

At three in the morning..., originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

Woman Urged To Get Political

On Bethnal Green Road:

... just the one, mind., originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

It can't be dirty, it's been vacuumed.

Maybe we've been blessed with particularly good guests, maybe the contributors have just been especially confident in pitching their ideas or maybe the show has just grown in confidence as an entity... I'm not sure what the reasons are behind it but Genius is definitely proving to be a delight to make this series. There were certainly times in the last series where the recordings were hard work but, so far this series, I feel like I spend a great deal of my time on stage laughing and enjoying the ride. Which is great.

Simon Munnery was excellent last night... he has a fabulous way of drip-feeding information to an audience, saying something, pausing to see how intuitive the audience are and then only adding another bit if it seems necessary. It makes him very concise and leaves you with just the right words to make any point. Brilliant.

We have a small break from the recordings now and then the final three will be done at the start of July. We'll still be in the office a bit with some decisions still to be made as to which ideas will be discussed but mainly I need to bury myself in writing again... there's a book to write and I really need to pick up the pace.

By the way, the picture is of a jacket used to illustrate one of the ideas in the show. It's made out of the detritus from several hoover bags. Hmmm.

Don't use it to clean a blackboard...

The Genius recordings are coming thick and fast at the minute - two down and another on Monday - so I'm glad they're proving to be so relaxed and enjoyable. Rob Newman made for a brilliant guest last night and it was obvious that he's listened to the show in the past. That and another full compliment of relaxed and funny pitchers made my job easy. On nights like that it really doesn't feel like work at all. I got to exercise my prop-making abilities before the show last night (creating a scrubbing brush made with human fingernails) and I do like a bit of arts and crafts.

Belated Toe Update: I should have said this before but I was very quickly walking without the crutch and presently feel no pain and have a toe showing no external signs of injury. Hurrah for that. I can walk around just fine... but every now and then, as I kneel down say, too much weight goes on the fractured tootsie and I suddenly get a painful reminder of the damage. Can't run, can't kick a ball - some would say I never could - but apparently it should be okay in 6 to 8 weeks.

Series Three

Genius has always been a really enjoyable show to do and it was great to get the first recording of the new series underway last night. Matthew Wright was a great guest and really got into the spirit of the show and tried to engage with all the ideas and all of the contributors enjoyed themselves too.

As the show grows I think we get more confident about the kind of ideas we have on (In series 1, for example, I'm pretty sure we would have rejected an idea like Tetris: The Movie but it was a real highlight of series 2.) I reckon the people pitching their ideas are getting more confident too. Which is great.

I guess during the first series nobody who sent in an idea had heard the show so maybe they sent their idea in without knowing we'd ask them to take part in person and nowadays they're a bit more knowledgable in advance. Indeed last night we even had a returning Genius who'd won the trophy during one episode of series 2 and come back for another go.

Giant Eagle

Bird of Prey, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

Man Toe

A friend of mine took great glee last night in accusing me of over-dramatising my toe-injury. "This is just man-toe," she e-mailed, "you've stubbed your toe and now you're making a big deal out of it."

Well I was laughing when the X-Ray showed it was a real fracture wasn't I? I couldn't wait to rush home and e-mail her with proof that I was right and she was wrong and believe you me, if the doctor hadn't just explained how important it was that I use the crutch he'd given me to keep my weight off the fractured bone, I'd have done just that. As it was I had to hobble for a while and it took me longer than I'd hoped. Still, the important thing is not that I'm in pain now but that I was right to say I was in pain yesterday. I bet she feels really stupid. I sure showed her. �

Ow

I think I might have broken my toe.

If not broken, it's definitely damaged in some way. It's the big one on my right foot that I'm concerned with. Normally it looks very much like the big one on my left foot - honestly, it's spooky, almost like a mirror image, you'd swear they were twins - but right now my big right toe isn't looking very much like my big left toe at all. It has two quite discernible dents in it which have turned a very strange hue, it won't bend and it refuses to take any weight whatsoever. It's looking rather shiny and plastic as well. Thinking back I'm not exactly sure when it happened but my guess is that it was early this evening when someone kicked me quite hard by accident and sent a shockwave of pain right through my tootsie. Yes, that was probably it.

Is there anything the medicos can do for a broken big toe or do they just tell you to wait for it to sort itself out? Only I've got a lot of work on and luckily, while I'm right handed I tend to type with my left foot so it shouldn't slow me down any but it would be really quite inconvenient to have to go anywhere and deal with anything.

I think I will wait to see what colour it is in the morning. If it's very different or if it gets any bigger and won't go in a shoe I will take it somewhere to be looked at.�