Blog:
Glenn Wool
As reflective as a lazy vampire who'd tired of the chase but
still needed blood, the first-time father stand-up has decided to head out on tour once more
A life unexamined is destined to be repeated, or something like that.
I dunno – I read it on the card stuck inside the post-meal fortune herring that I got in Valhalla, my local Norse themed restaurant (“Tonight is a good night to dine!”).
Regardless of what Loki must have been thinking when he personally scrawled it onto my actual real-life destiny, I try and live my life by those words – which has led me to tour this retrospective of all my existing oeuvre.
February finds me looking over my shoulder at a life lived fully. I’ve been doing comedy so long that I actually grew up during the course of my career. Then regressed after my divorce.
Certain life events since then have got me back on an upward trajectory and I’ve now reclaimed enough maturity to be comfortably described as having the adult skills of a 25 year old who’s been through rehab (but only so he’d still be included in the will).
It may seem low for a 44 year old, but actually it puts me in the top five percent of middle-aged stand-up comedians.
As a first-time father at the age of 44, I found myself as reflective as a lazy vampire who’d grown tired of the chase but was still needy for the blood, and decided to do a best-of tour in February, March and April.
Having risen to the standing of well-respected comic’s comic it means that I’m basically good enough to be well known but I’m not famous because I drank away my chances, screwed with the wrong people, or was too good to be showcased in the mass media because my moral compass is too firmly attached.
Of course, all of these are true (some more the than others). The upshot is that I’m not famous.
So, whereas a highly successful comedian can tour a best-of show and fill theatres with fans who come along to re-hear their favourite bits (and make no mistake, there will be a few fans sprinkled through the throng who fit that description.) most will be first timers, swept up by the hype of an unexpected late career swoon.
And if there’s any benefit to being less famous than you should be, it’s that you can recycle material that for most part wasn’t heard on a grand scale the first time around.
You may now sup from the second cup for the very first time and rue your poor life decisions that lead you away from the genuis*.
I will be playing large and small venues alike all up and down this fair land to accommodate both my gigantic and tiny fans.
Hope to see you there .
* I spelt genius wrong on porpoise.
Glenn Wool will be on tour from 1 February to 28 April 2019. You can get tickets for Wool’s Gold II (The Iron Pirate) at glennwool.seetickets.com