Beer Primary in was a fun return booking to one of those schools so small they have to wait a few years until they've grown a new school-full before they can have me back. I must admit I felt a small cultural cringe with the Black Black Pepper Pig title, because it was the unusual situation of having no a single black pupil in the class, so I was worried there might be an 'othering' about the nature of the name they'd chosen. There wasn't, of course, year 3s don't do racism or even difference between each other like that. A kid had in fact designed a Peppa Pig who they'd filled in with pencil so thick it was now a black black Peppa Pig. For my cover design I went with a black pig that loved black pepper. The second title was one of those ones so fun and detailed that I think what a great imagination that kid has, but then it turns out to be a meme or something from a game. From my googling, I can't find Andy & Mr G's Stop Shop Speedy Chop Chop Delivery Drop Amazing Stores anywhere else, so that kid had a great imagination.
Saturday's class at Chorley Town Hall had the highest travel-hours-to-work-hours ratio for a while. I'd put myself forward to do my usual two classes in the day, and they'd agreed to pay me my full day rate. But then a few days in advance I see from the website that I'm only doing one class, from 11.30 to 1.30. Their choice. So the drive up took about three and a half hours, the drive back about three, Hev got a day out in Chorley, and I travelled 6 and a half hours for two hours work. (This ratio has been beaten by a few comedy gigs in the past, where of course I usually only perform for an hour. The record holder is still Chortle Fast Fringe, in Manchester one year, where, in order to appear on stage for a piece that would become a video clip plugging that year's Edinburgh show, I drove for a good seven hours there and back to perform a three minute slot.)
Preston Muslim Girls High School had me apprehensive that I might do or say the wrong thing, given the nature of the school, but of course I had nothing to worry about. I've done Muslim Girls Schools before, one of the most memorable being in Abu Dhabi way back in 2011 (where they had to keep their heads covered in front of all men, but I didn't count, for some reason). The caricatures for these groups were interesting because not only was every girl in hijab, which saved me a lot of time with ears and hairdos, but two and a teacher were in niqab, which meant all I got to draw were eyeballs and glasses. But, hey, they were happy. And so was I, a couple of great comics, and some of the highest standard of artwork, especially from the manga-enthused older girls.
The school had bought a few of my books in advance, which was good. Oddly these included My Teenage Diary, which is an oddity no-one ever buys, and Tales From Nambygate, which I had to warn them might not be suitable for schools. I'll have to read it again myself, cos I'm not sure how inappropriate the contents are, it being 35 years since I produced most of it. But I'd rather they bought Shakespeare for schools, than my old humour strips from Gas and The Damage (it opens with a story called The Bastard, I seem to recall, and has the whole run of Phallas The Soap Opera. Did I mention I was in a Muslim Girls School?).
The celebrities these five groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Charles LeClerc (a racing driver, I learn).
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Richard The Third | Findlay Macbeth | Prince of Denmark Street | Midsummer Night's Dream Team |
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Shakespeare Omnibus | Comic Tales From The Bible | Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories | Space Elain |
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Colouring Books: Doctors Who, Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop, 1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Royalty, Rom Coms
