Today is my dad’s birthday

This is my first blog post of 2017. I’ve not allowed myself many indulgences this year because I have so much of 2016 to catch up on. But the show is going to be out and about soon and it’s probably useful to talk about it. Maybe.

When I first started making the show, my dad was nowhere near as poorly as he is now. And it’s made me think loads.

First of all. I’m a carer. I wasn’t a carer when I first started making this show. I feel well weird calling myself a carer as well. Imagine making a show about your dad, and the show doing alright and getting some tour dates, and then he gets really ill. Are you supposed to think “well I shouldn’t be prancing around on tour, being an ‘artist’, I should be at home looking him”?

But I’ll be honest. It’s fucking solid looking after an ill parent. I have proper wanted to live life without any excuses, and now I find myself with one. An inescapable one.

I feel like this isn’t the arena to have this (one-sided) conversation, and so I’ll tell you things like – ooh the show’s gonna be on at the Southbank in May, it’s on as part of SICK! Festival in Manchester. I went to In Between Time last week and spoke on a panel about ‘how live art can unf*ck the world’.

The show changes every time I perform it – because I want it to be as up to date as possible. But. It’s dead important that my dad’s dignity remains intact. He is the man that worked 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, so that I could have a Simpson’s mouse mat. Without sounding too sentimental – just want to say – happy birthday dad.