Can Marc Hogan, a man who’s never performed stand-up comedy before in his life have a successful show at the Edinburgh Festival – all to win a £1 bet?
Very exciting day. I got my photos for Edinburgh done, except it’s not very exciting – I hate having my photo taken. It’s not that I think I’m ugly but with my long neck and googly eyes some people think I look like this guy….
I personally think it’s a little cruel. I quite like the idea of looking like a Star Wars character, but why did it have to be the most rubbish Star Wars character ever (even worse than Wicket!)?
Anyway, as I was returning from my photo shoot I spotted Robin Ince on the train. Robin is a really respected and funny comedian / writer. I’ve seen him a number of times and he’s always brilliant and his “Utter Shambles” podcasts for Paramount Comedy are really cool.
For those of you who never leave your house, he’s worked with Ricky Gervais, opening for Ricky’s Fame and Politics tours, appeared in The Office, wrote for E4’s Skins, and loads more, basically he’s a comedy God (except he’s an atheist and doesn’t’ believe in God).
So I see Robin reading his paper, and I think “I know him that’s Robin Ince, he’s brilliant”. But the voice in my head asks, “Are you sure, perhaps it’s a man who just looks uncannily like Robin Ince?”
So I then spend 5 minutes arguing with myself that it is, really Robin Ince.
After taking a deep breath I walk over and say, “I really love your stand up” (I know, I know, I hadn’t felt this nervous since asking Rebecca Jones out at school).
He immediately thanked me and we started chatting, well I say that, I just started jabbering on about my bet… (And unlike Rebecca Jones, he didn’t run away!)
Once he realized I wasn’t dangerous, he started telling me about how people can go a little crazy at Edinburgh, and I told him that it would be ok, Kirsty (my wife) would keep me on the straight and narrow.
He looked at me as if I was insane, “don’t bring your wife she’ll divorce you after a month!”
This is cool; I’m getting marriage advice from Robin Ince!!!
It was a really great experience to meet him. Sometimes when you meet someone you admire they can be a little bit of a letdown in real life, but he was really cool and funny…
So when I got home I promptly woke Kirsty up.
“You can’t come to Edinburgh.”
“Why not?”
“Robin Ince said!”
“Who’s Robin Ince?”
“You know who he is, he works with Ricky Gervais…”
P.S.
I emailed Mark Thomas, about yesterdays blog. He wished me good luck in Edinburgh and thought my blog was “Nice”!
