Fun, grump, fun

So firstly I had such a wonderful time in Sweden it's not true. Thanks so much to all the lovely people who put me on and up and entertained me. Malmo Comedy Festival was ace. Of course I only understood the English-speaking acts but really blown away by Al Pitcher who really performed his socks off! He's touring Sweden soon so if you are based there do get a ticket. Then El Mundo which is really the most fun little gig in Stockholm (sorry to all the others including Maffia, which I did the next day and was also ace but lots of acts so the audience got a bit tired plus my stupid projector spontaneously stopped working which didn't help my set). Then last night I was taken out to perform at a show at a small town called Gavla (sorry, can't do Swedish characters on my English keyboard, the first "a" should have two little dots over it, as should the "o" at the end of Malmo!) about two hours drive north of Stockholm, into a proper blizzard, which was a real adventure and I really enjoyed!

So then the grump: BBC London Eddie Nestor's show. I was invited to go on air by phone and discuss whether the House of Commons should be serving "Top Tottie" beer and whether it's ok for bus drivers to call female passengers "love" and "darling". So far so good. Eddie asks me a question, I make a few points, he then asks the other guest. I let her make a couple of points, then she says something I disagree with strongly (that it's a small issue and I should instead be campaigning on more serious issues, except I AM campaigning on other issues and SHE'S NOT, in fact she's campaigning AGAINST making an improvement on this small issue and doing NO WORK AT ALL on big issues). So I speak up. She carries on talking. Not talking over me, just talking... Gradually I started to realise she couldn't hear me. I thought maybe my phone was playing up. So I'm shouting "HELLO, HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME?", nothing. Well I figure they'll spot the problem soon enough since I'm not audible to them. Goes on and on. Eventually I realise they've deliberately switched my mic off. I figure they'll have left it so the presenter can hear I want to come in and he'll come to me shortly. Nothing, nothing, nothing. By this stage I'm shouting "Eddie - can I come in on this point please? Eddie?Eddie?". Then finally he comes to me, but with a completely new question - he obviously hasn't heard a thing I've said. I get a few seconds then suddenly "Thanks very much to both of you, goodbye". Well (1) what's the point in having a debate unless you actually let the debate happen. Fair enough to turn one person down a bit or say "Hang on Kate, let my other guest finish her point" or whatever, but switching the mic right off and ignoring one of the guests for several minutes? And (2) from a listeners perspective (probably assuming we're all in the studio) it sounds as though I just agree with or have no answer to all the points made. Including the ones grossly misrepresenting what I've said or who I am! And (3) by not even telling me what they were going to do I had no idea how much of what I'd said had been audible to listeners so when they did come back to me I didn't know what points I'd already made!! Well I've complained, there's probably a link on their website but I'm not going looking for it to listen to myself being ignored. I'll see what they say before I make a decision about whether or not to go on the show again. There are lots of totally ace BBC London shows - like Kath Melandri and Nikki Bedi and I've loved working with Jazzy B when he's been guest presenting - so I'll maybe stick to them in future.

And back to fun. King's College Philosophy Society booked me to do an hour of political feminist atheist lefty comedy for them tonight and with awesome support acts and a really smart, enthusiastic crowd it was a lot of fun. And on top of that a whole ton of people have been on Twitter recommending I be invited to be a guest on QI (they've been asking for suggestions @qikipedia, my Twitter account is @Cruella1 if you want to follow me or talk at or about me!). I would love to be on that show, would really suit me I think. That and Question Time!