On the road and on the box...

I'm thoroughly enjoying being back on tour.  We've just finished the first week of this final leg of touring with the show, With Great Powerpoint Comes Great Responsibilitypoint... so if you came along to see the show in Aldershot, Wrexham, Liverpool, Derry/Londonderry, Belfast or Salisbury - thank you. There are now just 20 shows to go on (well 21 because we've added a matinee in Cheltenham) and I will be genuinely sorry to wave goodbye to it. It's such a fun show to perform.

I'm very much looking forward to this show's first visits to Sheffield, Doncaster, Halifax, Aberystwyth, Yeovil, Worthing, Dorking, Torquay, Reading, Dudley, Scarborough, Middlesbrough, Shanklin, Basingstoke and Weston Super Mare - as well as taking it back to Cambridge, Guildford, Northampton and London. 

There's been a seven month gap between the second leg of the tour and this one so it came as something of a relief to discover that I still know the show inside out. The reason for the seven month break was that we needed to take time out to make the new series for Dave. When people ask me why I use powerpoint, I always explain that its big advantage is that it broadens the range of topics I can discuss. When I look back through the 36 episodes of Modern Life Is Goodish and the last three tour shows and think about how much material has been chewed up, it's impossible to imagine making most of it work using words alone. I could talk about the ideas but it would sound like I was exaggerating or making things up when often, a big part of what moves the audience to laughter in those bits is the proof that I'm doing nothing of the sort, that idiocy was hiding in plain sight.

A part of the appeal of Terms And Conditions Apply, for me, is that it allows other people to discuss those topics too. In the first episode my guests are the spectacular Sara Barron, Phil Wang and Richard Osman.

The show is launching on Monday, October 21st and will be on Monday nights at 10pm for eight weeks.
I loved making it and I hope you'll enjoy watching it too. The guests across the eight episodes will also include Katherine Ryan, Jimmy Carr, Rose Matafeo, Sally Phillips, Ed Gamble, Sophie Duker, Phill Jupitus, Zoe Lyons, David O'Doherty, Desiree Burch, Jessica Knappett, Darren Harriott, Rufus Hound, Suzi Ruffell, Cariad Lloyd, Marcus Brigstocke and Jess Fostekew.

During the last few series of Modern Life Is Goodish, I often used to run competitions for my mailing list, giving away things from the show. Shirts, mostly. I intend to do the same again with this series. I thought I'd mention it here so that anyone who isn't on the mailing list already can subscribe before the series starts. I'm not sure when I'll get round to setting the first competition up, what with all the travelling in the days before the show launches, but I'll give away the shirt I'm wearing in this trailer...