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a funny thing happened

Wednesday 16th April 2008

... on the way to the kids' show

Jus thought I'd pass on something amusing which happened to me on Saturday morning...  actually the story starts on Friday night: out of the blue I received an email from Danny Wallace asking me if I might be available to appear on his show on XFM the next morning.  As it was, it was very convenient; I was due to appear at the Comedy 4 Kids club in Soho on Saturday afternoon, so I figured I'd go into town a couple of hours early, do Danny's show, get a spot of lunch and mosey on over to the kids' show for 3pm. 

Anyway, the day got off to a ropey start when I discovered too late that the Victoria line was off, so I was forced to improvise another way into town, arriving about 15 minutes late at XFM's studios in Leicester Square.  Danny and his "posse" (as I believe such small gangs of on-air pals are called) didn't seem to mind and so on with the show; they were discussing various topics including their failure to get hold of Dom Joly (who was meant to be doing a phone interview) and the fact that they seemed to have engendered an on-air romance between two of their regular listeners. 

As the conversation turned toward Me and What I Do, it occurred to me that it might be fun to crack out the old write-a-song-on-the-spot routine, so at about 1pm I snuck off to an adjoining empty room to knock out a quick piece on the topics of the show. 

I was just finishing up when Richard (a member of the aforementioned "posse") came in and suggested - quite urgently - that I come back into the studio.  Danny was in the process of taking a phone call, which turned out to be for me.  "Mitch," said a familiar female voice, "where are you?"

"Erm, I'm on the radio," said I, ever wary of stating the obvious.  "Who is this?"

"It's me, Mel." It was Mel O'Brien, who books the Comedy 4 Kids club.  "You do know you're supposed to be on stage with us now...?"

"But it starts at three!"

"No, Mitch, it starts at ONE."

(At this point it's worth reminding you that all this is being broadcast live.)

"Oh sh - er, oh dear!  Look, can I just sing this song I've just written?"

"Yes, and then get over here RIGHT NOW."

I sang the song (at a somewhat brisker tempo than I'd intended) and then ran - that's actually RAN - from the building, bellowing my goodbyes as I went.

I'm told it made great radio. 

 

 

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