Wednesday 3rd July 2024

Woken by Aki's alarm at 0730...she got up to ready herself for Rowing Club...I dozed on for an hour or so. Got up and porridged. Read some Lampedusa...really enjoying it. It's like a laid-back version of "The Godfather". Did some work on the Kinks songs. Aki came back in time for lunch. Watched tennis…good day for English ladies, Kartal and Raducanu. Prepared Lahore chicken dinner…involves a yogurt based marinade, and a whey and nut sauce. Ate with rice, chapati, and greens. Walked to a bus stop on Holloway Road in fine drizzle, and hopped on a No.393, getting off at Holloway Road tube station. Took the Piccadilly line to Holborn, and as we were a little bit early for the Comedy showcase, we wandered around Bloomsbury Square. The showcase was in the crypt of St George’s church on Bloomsbury Way, the home of the Museum of Comedy. There’s a bar and toilets, and a small room which has been turned into an auditorium with maybe seven rows of chairs, and a small raised stage. The showcase comes at the end of the summer term of a stand-up comedy course run by Logan Murray, which I've been contemplating taking in the autumn. Logan used to run the comedy club at the Rosemary Branch pub in De Beauvoir back in the mid-80's...I played there once or twice when on a mission to gain an Equity card. It was great to see him after all this time...he MC'd the evening, hosting the eleven try-out stand-up 'students' as they took to the stage in front of friends and family. I can't say I felt I was in the presence of the next big thing, but Logan made an entertaining, and consummate host. I managed to speak to him briefly in the interval, and he reckoned I'd be better off joining an impro troupe...I got the impression the course is simply his way of making a living out of the delusional, and that I'd be better off pursuing alternative routes. We came out at about 2130, and caught the No.91 bus home from Southampton Row.