Any Other Business...

So... first off, some things you ought to know - or at least things I ought to tell you - on the Genius front.

I'm going to go to work on the next series as soon as this tour is done and dusted but Team Genius have already assembled and are beavering away, filing and categorising the ideas we've received so far. (This is why it's a bad idea to send your ideas directly to me and a good idea to send them to the show! I'm a busy fool whose head is elsewhere.)

To make it even easier to send ideas in to the show Team Genius are now on Twitter. They're @bbcgenius and there's also now a facebook page for the show too. You can sign up for it here: www.facebook.com/bbcgenius.

I'm really enjoying chatting to people after the shows on tour and one of the things I hear a lot is, "I'd love to send something in to Genius but I never have any ideas!" Well, this is where the twitter/facebook side of things might help. Because while ideas just come to some people, sitting down and trying to come up with an idea can be a bit too abstract. But Team Genius are going to be offering challenges to people and that might well inspire you. Yesterday at lunch time they asked twitter folks to tell them what a Genius Biscuit might look like and later in the day they asked for Genius suggestions of genetically modified animals.

There were loads of ideas for both. Personally, I liked @jimmyshoey's suggestion of a mug made out of Hob Nob, with choc-coated inner lining. That way, you finish your tea and the mug is not only edible but also pre-dunked. Sounds like Genius to me.

Meanwhile @_Blaggins suggested crossing dogs with people and also cats with people in order to better distinguish between, um, dog-people and cat-people. You see? You don't. I see. I think.

Well anyway... get along and follow @bbcgenius and see if you can answer any of the challenges. The more the merrier. And making merry is after all what the show is really about.

Now... after my two-days-of-rest-that-wasn't-really-two-days-of-rest-at-all-because-I-had-to-do-five-days-worth-of-admin-and-meetings-and-stuff(I'm-not-complaining-just-saying) it's back to the tour with the run of gigs: Cheltenham, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Brighton.

One of the things I'm being asked on Twitter a lot myself is "what kind of sadist is scheduling your tour?" The journeys rarely make a lot of sense. But the truth is, this is what most people's tours look like. When I did the cycling tour, I don't think many people realised how much work went into the logistics. Simply finding gigs that were 50-60 miles down the road in the right direction each day was an incredible feat. It's also why several venues I wouldn't normally play were on the schedule. Sometimes, playing a village hall or a smaller theatre was the only way of keeping the momentum going.

It stands to reason... venues aren't all standing empty just waiting for my agent to call. If we agree to do a gig in Town A on a particular Friday night, there's no reason why the appropriate venues in Town A+50 should be available on the Saturday that follows it.

So inevitably touring journeys are between the venues that were available on those days rather than the venues that are the most convenient to travel between.

On my bike ride, I did 32 gigs and cycled just shy of 1600 miles. On this leg of the tour I did over 1600 miles in the first ten days. It was much more efficient by bike. In every way.

Still at least this week offers something more sensible.
I'm off to Cheltenham tonight - that's not too bad. See you there. Then Cardiff on Thursday. Quite a sensible stretch. See you there. Then Cardiff to Birmingham. Very doable. See you there. Brum to Manchester for the Lowry Centre. Easy. See you there. Then... oh... Manchester to London overnight in order to do the Absolute Radio show on Sunday morning? Oh.

Oh dear. Oh hell. Oh help.

See you in Manchester. Tune in on Sunday morning to hear me pressing all the wrong buttons. If ever a man was going to take the station off air by accident... this'll be it.

And from there to Brighton for the Sunday night. Yep. That's okay. I'll go by train. If I fall asleep - I will fall asleep - at least it won't be a train that goes on beyond Brighton so I can't miss my stop.

So yeah... Wednesday Cheltenham, Thursday Cardiff, Friday Birmingham, Saturday Manchester, Sunday: Absolute Radio and then Brighton. Easy.


Oh... and by the way... thanks to everyone who's been downloading the podcast (it's here if you're an itunes bod or here if you're not) The number has increased in the last few weeks... which might be down to people becoming more aware of it because I'm touring, or, in the last week it could be down to Absolute Radio's poster campaign... with it's oh so flattering picture:


Lovely.

The Lemsip Tour...

In The Wings, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

A couple of people speculated as to why I was feeling more tired after ten days of the non-cycling tour than I was when I was doing it all by pushbike... and I think they were right that there's something simply energising about that amount of exercise.

My fitness improved hugely after only a few days of 50-60 miles a day and I ended up slipping into a ride-show-sleep-ride-show-sleep shaped groove that was, while challenging, pretty comfy.

But I think there's more to it than that. The bike ride was, without doubt, the most challenging thing I've ever done. As a result a great deal of thought went into the small details - what I was eating and drinking (and when) as well as equipment and so on. It might have been an effort but I was making sure I had the right calories on board - in the best form and at the best time.

Even more importantly... because it was so challenging, everything else had to fall by the wayside. I left home and didn't have to deal with anything outside of the tour until it was over. No phone calls, no e-mails. No other work. Nothing but the ride-show-sleep groove.

This tour is different. The rest of life goes on and expects me to keep up. After the first ten days we've now hit a pattern of Monday/Tuesdays off and the rest of the week on. But those two days don't feel like days off because I end up cramming a week's worth of meetings and stuff into those two days. So I'm travelling and doing the bit of writing I need to do for the weekly radio show and I'm doing interviews and I'm dealing with correspondence and I'm basically doing everything else... and at the same time, I'm eating bad food because we're having to grab stuff at garages in order to get to the next venue in time and so on. No wonder I'm feeling run down.

Not that I'm complaining. I volunteered. And the tour is fun. Just exhausting fun. And I could have taken time out of the radio show if I'd wanted - but I didn't want to because that's immense fun as well.

Incidentally, for the last three weeks we've seen an increase in the number of downloads for the podcast. Which seems to suggest that the live show is helping to advertise the radio show. Which is ace because the radio show thrives on your input. Your e-mails and texts the last couple of weeks have been fab. (I still laugh whenever I think of the crisp eating e-mail that was in show 18. Just. Too. Weird.)

There's also something to be said about the pace of cycling. If you cycle 50 miles you're aware of every inch along the way. You get off the bike at the end of the day and your body understands how it got there. It's a journey that makes sense. But when you get in a car - or a train - and travel 300 miles I think the body feels tricked at the end of the journey. You know you've done the miles, but you aren't quite so aware of how they all connected to one another. The end result is that it feels like your brain is being tricked. Or something. I haven't expressed that very well. But I know what I mean. Oh well.

So... now for the next five days of travelling. Portsmouth tonight. Then Plymouth, Bedford, High Wycombe then, gulp, after the Sunday morning radio show... Newcastle.

At least you can see why I'm not cycling. Hope to see some of you along the way.

Live dates

This made me very happy this morning...

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Apparently Hold Your Horses! are Franco-American. I like them. It sounded a bit like I'm From Barcelona. Who are not from Barcelona. They're Swedish. I like them too.

The First Ten Days...

The Eyes Have It, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

... of the tour were exhausting... but hugely enjoyable.

The first batch of dates were - I think - always going to be the most exhausting. In that there were ten of them on the bounce... and it was a ten day period that included two Sundays which meant two early mornings for the Absolute Radio show.

When I set off for Preston ten days ago only a couple of them were sold out but as each gig rolled around they all seemed to get there. I wasn't expecting that - these are big rooms - and I won't expect the rest of the tour to do so either. But it means that I've never performed to as many people in such a short space of time. I think it must be pretty close to 20,000 people in ten days. If you were one of them; thanks.

Covering these long distances by car and train turns out to be more exhausting than it was doing the more sensible 50-60 mile trips by bike. I'm not sure how or why. It doesn't really make sense.

I now get a couple of days off... and starting on Wednesday, the tour becomes 5 days on, 2 days off to the end. The next batch, starts on Wednesday and goes as follows.

Feb 24: Folkestone. Leas Cliff Halls
Feb 25: Southend. Cliffs Pavilion
Feb 26: Bournemouth. Pavilion (SOLD OUT)
Feb 27: Cambridge. Corn Exchange (SOLD OUT)
Feb 28: Tunbridge Wells (SOLD OUT)

Actually, those journeys look relatively sensible as tours go. None of them comes close to approaching the Reading to Edinburgh style nonsense we encountered in the last lot. Nice.

On the launchpad...

Well, the last time I was about to start touring this show I was saddled with doubts about whether or not I'd even be able to get to the venues, let alone do the show. It's nice not to have that doubt preying on my mind.

I did the last preview at the Leamington Assembly last night. It wasn't as pleasing as the show in Canterbury but it went well. I felt slightly disconnected at the start of the show and wasn't quite delivering it all as I should. It was okay... but not as good as I want it to be. I got into the groove though and then kicked myself up the arse in the interval and made sure the second half was tight. It made a difference. I have no idea where the complacency had crept in from... but I'll consider it a lesson learned.

With apologies for this being relatively prosaic as far as blog posts go... here's the list of dates:
Feb 11: Preston. (SOLD OUT)
Feb 12: Sheffield. City Hall
Feb 13: Nottingham. Royal Concert Hall
Feb 14: Reading. Hexagon (SOLD OUT)
Feb 15: Edinburgh. Festival Theatre
Feb 16: Bradford. St Georges Hall
Feb 17: Oxford. New Theatre
Feb 18: Derby. Assembly Rooms
Feb 19: York. Grand Opera House (SOLD OUT)
Feb 20: London - Hammersmith Apollo (SOLD OUT)

Feb 24: Folkestone. Leas Cliff Halls
Feb 25: Southend. Cliffs Pavilion
Feb 26: Bournemouth. Pavilion (SOLD OUT)
Feb 27: Cambridge. Corn Exchange (SOLD OUT)
Feb 28: Tunbridge Wells (SOLD OUT)

March 3: Portsmouth. Guildhall
March 4: Plymouth. Pavilions
March 5: Bedford. Corn Exchange (SOLD OUT)
March 6: High Wycombe. The Swan Theatre (SOLD OUT)
March 7: Newcastle. Theatre Royal (SOLD OUT)

March 10: Cheltenham. Town Hall
March 11: Cardiff. St. David's Hall (SOLD OUT)
March 12: Birmingham. Alexandra (SOLD OUT)
March 13: Salford. The Lowry Centre.
March 14: Brighton. Theatre Royal

March 17: Bolton. Albert Halls
March 18: Stoke On Trent. Victoria Hall.
March 19: Coventry. Warwick Arts Centre (SOLD OUT)
March 20: Liverpool. The Empire
March 21: Blackburn

March 24: Aberdeen. Music Hall
March 25: Glasgow. Kings Theatre
March 26: Dorking. Dorking Halls
March 27: Belfast. Waterfront Hall
March 28: Basingstoke. The Anvil (SOLD OUT)

March 30: Leicester. De Montfort Hall
March 31: Llandudno. Venue Cymru.

Box Office phone numbers and links are all here.

I've had a few people asking me if I'm taking time off the radio show during the tour. I could have done if I'd wanted but I love my Sunday mornings and want to keep doing them as much as is possible. So there'll be some late night drives with me sleeping in the passenger seat and I think the end result is that I'll only have to miss one show towards the end of March. Tune in to Absolute Radio on Sunday mornings (or get the podcast) if you want to hear an exhausted man dribbling. Or not dribbling if I have enough coffee.

Hope to see some of you over the next few weeks.

Making Britain Geniuser

I said in my last post that there might be some good news to announce soon... well, here it is.

We've got the go ahead to make a new series of Genius for BBC2.

Which means the hunt for new geniuses is stepped up once again.

The best way to submit ideas is via the Genius website where you can either e-mail the team or upload a video of you explaining your idea.

Now... lots of interviews today and then the final preview of the live show in Leamington.

I'm Touring Again

I'm not on the bike, but my cogs still need oiling...

So I'm about to start the second leg of the tour... with the now confusingly titled Sit Down, Pedal, Pedal, Stop And Stand Up show.

It was a title that made perfect sense when the show was originally added on to an existing 1600 mile bike ride but doesn't quite belong any more seeing as I'm no longer cycling. Ah well. I guess it's like when the actor who played Taggart passed away and the series carried on being called Taggart even though there was no longer anyone called Taggart in the show.

Of course it would be impossible to cycle from gig to gig because it would be impossible to arrange another run of gigs each one being a cyclable distance from the last. Or rather it would be possible, but it wouldn't be possible to do that and play in all the venues that want the show and that's really the point. The first leg was a bike ride turned into a tour while this one is, y'know, a tour. I'll be playing Belfast for example. There's a sea between here and there. You can't cycle that. Christ on a bike, no.

So it's the same show but without the saddle soreness and the blisters. I started with a couple of low key warm ups in Windsor on Tuesday and Wednesday night. I've only done a couple of short spots at benefit gigs since the first leg of the tour ended so I felt incredibly rusty before the first show and couldn't work out how I'd ever managed to learn the material and find the best order for it. The result is that I spent the Tuesday night feeling my way through the show, not always knowing how a chunk of material was going to end when I started it. They were a friendly crowd though. I enjoyed the show but I was frustrated by my own performance. It felt a bit too much of a stop-start for me, as though I was leading myself through the material instead of leading the audience through it.

But with stand-up the only way to learn is to do and it showed with the Wednesday night show where things were flowing much nicer and my memory felt restored. A lot of the rust was gone. The cogs in my mind were feeling oiled. It was a much, much better show as a result.

I have a long day tomorrow - eleven interviews between 8am and 1pm before the drive to Canterbury for preview number three. There's one more preview after that - Tuesday 9th in Leamington and then the tour proper kicks off in Preston on the 11th.

So... Preston, Sheffield, Nottingham, Reading, Edinburgh, Bradford (do you see what I mean about not cycling) Oxford, Derby, York, London, Folkestone, Southend, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Tunbridge Wells, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Bedford, Wycombe, Newcastle, Cheltenham, Cardiff, Birmingham, Salford, Brighton, Bolton, Stoke, Warwick, Liverpool, Blackburn, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Dorking, Belfast, Basingstoke, Leicester and Llandudno here I come.

Some of the shows are sold out already, some are close and some have got a bit to do but all of them seem to be moving and I'm chuffed with the way it's shaping up. I hope to see some of you there... the details are on the live dates page of my site.

In other news... I've been in some interesting meetings over the last few days and should have some good news to announce soon.

Oh... and in other, other news... Genius is being repeated on Dave. That's the TV channel, Dave. Obviously.