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whathoI've just been to see two episodes of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue being recorded. My jaw still hurts. I am all entirely glee. Read more below, or not, but I would, frankly.
First off, we stayed at a hotel. Said hotel, which turned out to be massively posh and Victorian seaside-esque only without the attendant crumbling of the facade, was booked while it was in the process of upgrading its computer systems, and so the booking was slightly lost, meaning![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
slemslempike - who arrived some hours before I did - was unable to book in. As a result of this inconvenience, they upgraded us free of charge, which I didn't know could happen in hotels. We ended up in the Royal Suite. Mostly the Royal Suite was massive enough to make us laugh hysterically every time we unlocked it. We had, and I jest not, a choice of televisions. There was a bedroom, a bathroom, a lobbyish thing with a wardrobe and a trouser press, and a living room. A fairly sizeable living room with a sofa, a marble fireplace with roses in it, a table with mineral water and mints on it, two hard chairs, two armchair, a telly and one of our two writing desks, should we both simultaneously be in need of writing desks. slemslempike lost me at one point. That's how big it was. Really it needed its own public transport system. We could've held a con in it. What we did mostly was eat doughnuts, watched bits of the Grand Prix, returned after ISIHAC all cocky with the traffic because frankly what did it matter if we were mashed by a juggernaut after seeing ISIHAC, and then we lolled in the armchairs, in our LIVING ROOM, and watched highlights of the snooker. How much do we win?
And this morning I leftslemslempike asleep and went to catch a train. I wrote her a note so she wouldn't feel like Hawkeye after Trapper and BJ went away and then I texted her to be quite sure she wasn't dead, which it turns out she wasn't, so hurrah.
Well, ISIHAC was, of course, just brilliant and wonderful. The guest was Jeremy Hardy, which was really pretty much okay by us. Seeing them all come on and sit down on chairs and obey the laws of gravity and all those surprising things telly and radio people do was just amazing. There was so much grinning. There was Humph. Mostly I just wanted to look at them all and say 'eeeeeee'.
* They're all very generous to one another. During the introductions, everyone's signalling that the applause should go to some other panellist (mostly to Humph).
* Jeremy 'sang' four times. It was simultaneously excruciating and fantastic. It's not just that he's unbelievably off-key - he also puts on a previously undiscovered accent for the duration. But he launched into the trial with gusto, bless him. Swayed a lot and phased us all out. It was, you know, really something to bear witness to in a vaguely surreal way.
* My favourite round, I think, was Pin the Tail on Colin Sell, wherein the contestants took it in turns to don a blindfold then stumble around the stage tracking down Colin by the sound of his piano playing. When they found him, they pinned the tail on him and he screamed. It was so great. I think it'll be equally great on the radio.
* I love Colin Sell.
* We had ice-cream during the interval, after which there was more ISIHAC. We saw ISIHAC, then we saw ISIHAC again. It's really fairly magnificent.
* I think I laughed most heartily at the Letters round, the one where the teams write letters to and from specified people taking one word at a time. The one that creased me was Tim and Jeremy writing a letter from Davros to the Doctor (moving up a semitone with every line) in which Davros outlined his plans to destroy the Doctor's patio, parasol and 'several outdoor barbeques'.
* I also very much liked the swanking round (which was tough to introduce because the word 'swanker' induces childish tittering) in which swanking about nannies turned into a competition about taking children into war zones and about who's nannying methods resulted in the death of the most children. Graeme Garden - 'Our nanny's been using the "naughty grave" method for some time now'.
* Uxbridge Dictionary (in which they define new words) continues to be a personal favourite. Barry Cryer came up with an excriating definition for Carmelite (part-time Buddhist, I think) and proceeded to repeat 'Karma Lite' during every handy lull.
* There was an unhappy moment of pointless bigotted dodginess on which I'm not going to linger. It was part of the written script, so not the work of any of the panellists themselves, which is some comfort. Probably Ian Pattinson. *Boos him somewhat*
* Most of the old standards were paraded for our utter joy. We had Hamish and Dougal (twice), the laser display board, 'Bring me the hoard of Alfredo Garcia', Mornington Crescent and Mrs Trellis of North Wales, but sadly no swannee/kazoo.
* The laser display board is mostly the producer walking across the front of the stage with a big piece of cardboard.
* Samantha is so beautiful she has to be wafted divinely into her seat. I don't understand why she doesn't do television.
* The wrap up was hysterically funny in a mildly tragic way. Humph (who I actually want to take home; I have an 85 year old man of my own just down the road, but I want another one) had the tail end of a cold and had been coughing throughout the programme (and asking Colin to cover it with filler music). Right at the end, it really got the better of him and he couldn't get his lines out for a good five minutes while the others riffed rather cruelly but genuinely concernedly around him (it's hard to carry off concern when you're making coughing/coffin puns, but they were quite sincere - Jeremy asked if he was all right and then strolled over to pour him some water). When he did manage to speak, it was to tell us to cut out our 'awwws' and our laughter because we were drowning out his famous last words. 'It's better than "Bugger Bognar", isn't it?' I'm very glad he didn't die on stage. Thoughslemslempike and myself agreed that, if he had done, we would've been quite relieved that we didn't manage to get the London recording tickets after all.
And basically it's just a massive privelege to be able to linger in the presence of these historically funny people - two ex-Goodies with Python contacts, Barry Cryer who's written for everyone who ever did stand-up, darling Jeremy and HUMPH for the sake of pity. I've been a huge fan of ISIHAC since the end of the Willie Rushton days (still greatly missed) and I'd always wanted to see it recorded, not least because of all the gags hidden from the listener, but mostly just because it's an institution and it's been forged throughout my lifetime and it'd be slightly amazing to witness it. And then I did. You should too. Really you should.
PS. Those episodes will be aired on November 13th, I think, unless that isn't a Monday.
First off, we stayed at a hotel. Said hotel, which turned out to be massively posh and Victorian seaside-esque only without the attendant crumbling of the facade, was booked while it was in the process of upgrading its computer systems, and so the booking was slightly lost, meaning
slemslempike - who arrived some hours before I did - was unable to book in. As a result of this inconvenience, they upgraded us free of charge, which I didn't know could happen in hotels. We ended up in the Royal Suite. Mostly the Royal Suite was massive enough to make us laugh hysterically every time we unlocked it. We had, and I jest not, a choice of televisions. There was a bedroom, a bathroom, a lobbyish thing with a wardrobe and a trouser press, and a living room. A fairly sizeable living room with a sofa, a marble fireplace with roses in it, a table with mineral water and mints on it, two hard chairs, two armchair, a telly and one of our two writing desks, should we both simultaneously be in need of writing desks. slemslempike lost me at one point. That's how big it was. Really it needed its own public transport system. We could've held a con in it. What we did mostly was eat doughnuts, watched bits of the Grand Prix, returned after ISIHAC all cocky with the traffic because frankly what did it matter if we were mashed by a juggernaut after seeing ISIHAC, and then we lolled in the armchairs, in our LIVING ROOM, and watched highlights of the snooker. How much do we win?And this morning I left
slemslempike asleep and went to catch a train. I wrote her a note so she wouldn't feel like Hawkeye after Trapper and BJ went away and then I texted her to be quite sure she wasn't dead, which it turns out she wasn't, so hurrah.Well, ISIHAC was, of course, just brilliant and wonderful. The guest was Jeremy Hardy, which was really pretty much okay by us. Seeing them all come on and sit down on chairs and obey the laws of gravity and all those surprising things telly and radio people do was just amazing. There was so much grinning. There was Humph. Mostly I just wanted to look at them all and say 'eeeeeee'.
* They're all very generous to one another. During the introductions, everyone's signalling that the applause should go to some other panellist (mostly to Humph).
* Jeremy 'sang' four times. It was simultaneously excruciating and fantastic. It's not just that he's unbelievably off-key - he also puts on a previously undiscovered accent for the duration. But he launched into the trial with gusto, bless him. Swayed a lot and phased us all out. It was, you know, really something to bear witness to in a vaguely surreal way.
* My favourite round, I think, was Pin the Tail on Colin Sell, wherein the contestants took it in turns to don a blindfold then stumble around the stage tracking down Colin by the sound of his piano playing. When they found him, they pinned the tail on him and he screamed. It was so great. I think it'll be equally great on the radio.
* I love Colin Sell.
* We had ice-cream during the interval, after which there was more ISIHAC. We saw ISIHAC, then we saw ISIHAC again. It's really fairly magnificent.
* I think I laughed most heartily at the Letters round, the one where the teams write letters to and from specified people taking one word at a time. The one that creased me was Tim and Jeremy writing a letter from Davros to the Doctor (moving up a semitone with every line) in which Davros outlined his plans to destroy the Doctor's patio, parasol and 'several outdoor barbeques'.
* I also very much liked the swanking round (which was tough to introduce because the word 'swanker' induces childish tittering) in which swanking about nannies turned into a competition about taking children into war zones and about who's nannying methods resulted in the death of the most children. Graeme Garden - 'Our nanny's been using the "naughty grave" method for some time now'.
* Uxbridge Dictionary (in which they define new words) continues to be a personal favourite. Barry Cryer came up with an excriating definition for Carmelite (part-time Buddhist, I think) and proceeded to repeat 'Karma Lite' during every handy lull.
* There was an unhappy moment of pointless bigotted dodginess on which I'm not going to linger. It was part of the written script, so not the work of any of the panellists themselves, which is some comfort. Probably Ian Pattinson. *Boos him somewhat*
* Most of the old standards were paraded for our utter joy. We had Hamish and Dougal (twice), the laser display board, 'Bring me the hoard of Alfredo Garcia', Mornington Crescent and Mrs Trellis of North Wales, but sadly no swannee/kazoo.
* The laser display board is mostly the producer walking across the front of the stage with a big piece of cardboard.
* Samantha is so beautiful she has to be wafted divinely into her seat. I don't understand why she doesn't do television.
* The wrap up was hysterically funny in a mildly tragic way. Humph (who I actually want to take home; I have an 85 year old man of my own just down the road, but I want another one) had the tail end of a cold and had been coughing throughout the programme (and asking Colin to cover it with filler music). Right at the end, it really got the better of him and he couldn't get his lines out for a good five minutes while the others riffed rather cruelly but genuinely concernedly around him (it's hard to carry off concern when you're making coughing/coffin puns, but they were quite sincere - Jeremy asked if he was all right and then strolled over to pour him some water). When he did manage to speak, it was to tell us to cut out our 'awwws' and our laughter because we were drowning out his famous last words. 'It's better than "Bugger Bognar", isn't it?' I'm very glad he didn't die on stage. Though
slemslempike and myself agreed that, if he had done, we would've been quite relieved that we didn't manage to get the London recording tickets after all.And basically it's just a massive privelege to be able to linger in the presence of these historically funny people - two ex-Goodies with Python contacts, Barry Cryer who's written for everyone who ever did stand-up, darling Jeremy and HUMPH for the sake of pity. I've been a huge fan of ISIHAC since the end of the Willie Rushton days (still greatly missed) and I'd always wanted to see it recorded, not least because of all the gags hidden from the listener, but mostly just because it's an institution and it's been forged throughout my lifetime and it'd be slightly amazing to witness it. And then I did. You should too. Really you should.
PS. Those episodes will be aired on November 13th, I think, unless that isn't a Monday.
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Date: 2006-10-23 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 04:43 pm (UTC)It was a better time because you were there! Thank you for coming.
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Date: 2006-10-23 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 07:36 pm (UTC)