Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Away From the Numbers
It wasn't just the bad language of course; being at home and enjoying a full family Christmas
had underlined just how little time I actually spent there and that had to change. The original
plan was that within five years of moving to France I wouldn't be travelling back to the UK
nearly as often as I had been. Though the actual 'How are we going to do that?' part of the plan
had always been a little vague, and in fact the opposite had occurred. I was away more than
ever and sometimes for long stretches.
Over the years we had tried various ways to earn money in France. Natalie had worked as
an estate agent, but when her three years' maternity leave was over, which at this point was
about five months away, neither of us wanted her to go back to work for Norbert. Also, in the
meantime my working week had become more unpredictable, meaning that sometimes Natalie
wouldn't be able to work even part-time hours - plus, since Thérence's birth, we had collected
more animals, meaning Natalie would find it difficult to do any kind of job that wasn't work-
ing from home.
My attempts at earning money in France had thus far been fruitless and physically detriment-
al. As an English comedian I have worked all over the world - Melbourne, Dubai, Mumbai,
Boston, Montreal, Helsinki, Munich, Nice, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai, Manila, Brussels,
Amsterdam, Singapore, Cyprus - basically, wherever there's an expat or at least an English-
speaking audience there's a gig. Why not set up my own? In Paris?
People have tried and failed to organise comedy in Paris, but surely I stood a better chance?
I had all the contacts, the proximity to Paris itself and the desire to succeed where others had
failed. It didn't last long. Finding a venue in Paris was nigh-on impossible; I wanted a nice,
small theatre set-up but none of them have bars, meaning that the project would be unviable.
I then turned to nightclubs (of which there are many) and had a meeting with a well-known
club owner in the Bastille district. She was kind enough to see us but she wasn't convinced -
the idea of a stand-up comedy night in France is very new and she just couldn't really grasp
the concept. Eventually what we wanted to do sunk in, but, she asked, how would we make
money? Well, I said, aside from ticket sales, the bar returns will be massive. There will be 300
Anglophones in your club, all drinking.
'No,' she said, a deadpan look on her face.
'But it works…' and I listed all the places I'd played in where clubs had been going for years.
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