It’s only a couple of days until I re-enter the comedy world and, after a week-or-so of struggle, I now have a list of words written in biro on my hand.

This is for practice, I’ll try to know it well enough to do without the notes on Tuesday.

I’m glad I’m starting with all new material. It would be easier to pick up where I left off, by just doing my old set a couple of times to limber up. It would also be less terrifying and more likely to mean I give the audience a good gig.

Hey, why aren’t I doing that?

Because it felt wrong to still be feigning concern for some things that mattered to me five years ago. And some of my set I’m not sure I was particularly proud of. It just “worked” – it did a job but didn’t mean much.

Plus it feels good to throw myself into writing a new set. It feels like a new start. So, whilst I’ll probably be at least a bit ropey and only a certain percentage of the material will work (if any! I just don’t know at the moment) it’s more interesting to be learning the ropes again from the beginning rather than just inheriting jokes from my former self.

Unless I bottle it on Tuesday and just do the old stuff.

Hmm.