


Too often I find the pressure attached to working out the opening line of a new blog simply too much: choosing the right words and the correct order can leave me in a cold sweat. If it isn’t just right at the beginning how can I hope that the reader will even reach the end?
Oh, look! You’ve made it to the second paragraph. That is a decent start.
Dad always told me ‘Keep writing. Eventually the funny will show up.’ I use this line from him a lot. In fact, it’s featured on the back of my first book, Diary of a Locked Down Comedian, which is still available. I have half a dozen left. No, that should read I have half a dozen BOXES left. If you order one and mention you heard about the book in this specific blog I will pay the postage. Bargain!
I do use Dad’s quote for encouragement and feel that as long as I can get that pen in my hand and the note book opened I will think of something. Here’s hoping.
Essentially this latest blog was going to serve as an apology to you, my reader(s), for me missing the last two weeks. My excuse? I was on holiday with Lyn and my kids.
Holiday. After writing that word down, I sat back and smiled. Holiday. Me ON holiday. I decided to open up the Oxford English Dictionary app on my phone for the exact definition.
Holiday:
An extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travelling.
I KNOW! I KNOW!
If you’re reading this you are either a friend of mine or someone who has seen me at ‘work’. For those that don’t come under either of those umbrellas I am a professional stand up comedian who performs primarily on high end cruise ships. There is a sound argument that my life is one big holiday.
After giggling at this definition of holiday I am struck with the realisation that the OED has inadvertently defined my ‘work’.
I foolishly looked up the definition for work.
Work:
Activity involving mental or physical effort in order to achieve a result.
Sigh…
It’s important to me that you realise I have never considered performing stand up comedy as ‘work’. Whenever I talk about it, post about it or even write about it I always surround the word work with inverted commas. For me the effort is after a show when people want to talk to me.
Still, since our last holiday together I have had around thirty five of these ‘work’ trips so I deserved a holiday and Lyn, the kids and I headed to Cornwall to enjoy an extended period of leisure and I happily switched off my phone and brain and set about doing nothing.
My son, fresh from his GCSE results is looking forward to studying electronics at college and announces to me that he is now a West Ham United fan. He is equally passionate about both and talks excitedly about these subjects, of which I know little, but those of you with sixteen year old boys will know any topic that can start a conversation is one worth researching.
The phone is now constantly switched on and Google pulled up.
Lucy’s next school year sees her embark on her GCSEs and for the longest time she has been dreaming of a career behind the wheel of an emergency response vehicle.
Lucy’s passion for this career matches her righteous indignation about comparative salaries of life savers, electricians and worst still stand up comedians.
I am so proud of them both.
They’re both refreshed after our holiday and ready to start working ernestly toward achieving their goals.Both my teenagers working and there I was sipping another macchiato and reading my book having not written anything for a couple of weeks.
I am onboard an Oceania ship for a few days ‘work’, and was anchored off the Amalfi Coast. After a ten minute ride on the ship’s tender I had wandered the lanes of Sorrento, stumbled across a cute little coffee shop, Cafe Latino, and plonked myself down on a very welcoming chair, under a couple of lemon trees that protected me from the Italian sunshine. Thinking about my kids,I found myself inspired. I opened my notebook,ordered two more macchiatos and started to write.
After the first draft, I mentioned to Lyn my worry that although this blog had a start and a middle the ending was missing. She disagreed whole heartedly and told me she loved it. It’s about you being inspired, so impressed with your kids’ new found enthusiasm for the school year that you yourself
‘…were so refreshed you got off your arse and started to write…’
This sentiment is correct, kinda. Yes, I was both inspired and impressed but actually I got ON my arse to write.
Refreshed:
Given new strength or energy to; reinvigorate.
Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Either way, I am back. You can now look forward once again to a weekly Classic Adams Blog.
Comments 2
Great 😊
Glad you had a nice time x
I adapted Charlie’s advice to my own requirements for this blog:
“Keep READING. Eventually the funny will show up”.
😉