CANCELLATION 2.

I tweeted ‘Sad. I’ve cancelled Liverpool on the 12th. Technical reasons.‘ I know it’s not as momentous as Dusty’s cancellation. There was a small flutter in the world of twitter, someone hoping that ‘I’d get well soon’. Maybe thought that technical was a heart condition..

So, what now? The ‘technical reasons‘ are diverse and certainly bumpy. I’ve had no feed back from the two shows that I’ve done. They listen but am I going on too long and beginning to bore them? It’s hard to tell. As I say, no feed back.

So, I’m in the process of re-writing the whole thing. Using my autobiography as a template,   

applying the talk like on a trampoline, spinning this way and that, no shape. I’d be happy like that. Improvising. And if the audience get confused all they’ve got to do is interrupted and ask me ‘what the hell are you talking about?’ That could be fun as well.

All I know is that I’ve got to do something to shake things up.    

CANCELLATIONS

In Brighton a good few years ago, my wife and I were walking passed The Dome Box office. In the window was a poster advertising a Dusty Springfield concert. Slashed across it was a Cancelled sticker. I’m a big Dusty fan. I couldn’t believe it had been cancelled. Was she ill or something? I went in.

“Only twelve people bought tickets, so we cancelled it.”

I was stunned. Brighton being the ‘gay‘ capitol and she being a ;gay‘ icon I’d have thought they would have flooded in to see her. But no. ‘Cancelled’.

A few years later Dusty was dead. In Brighton some months later, I’m passing the Theatre Royal. ‘The Dusty Springfield Show‘ the posters outside blaze the good news. There are crowds queuing to get in.

I could have cried. A few years ago, twelve tickets sold to see the real thing and now hundreds of people going to see a ‘look-a-like’ in a wig singing Dusty songs! It beggar's belief.

Poor Dusty, fame slipped through her fingers. She couldn’t take the rejection, the twelve tickets sold in Brighton, how many other places did she suffer this humiliation?

Fame is a ephemeral, like a cancer it can destroy you. And when it went away, she tried to ease the pain and eventually she died.