For years, I wanted to make a show about how the very idea of nuclear war/Mutually Assured Destruction is closely associated with the errant thinking that comes with depression, and how macho posturing fuels both. I was astonished that it was a link that hand't been made before.
After years of putting it off (and struggling with my own mental health issues), I finally did it. I put in a pitch to @VAULTFestival for a show I hand't written. I've performed for years, and to critical acclaim, but only in groups. This was going to be my first solo show.
And god above. What a show to write. A show about my fuckups. About the horrible, scary things that have nearly brought about World War Three. About how society's ideas of what it is to be a man can be so, so damaging.
Right. I'm going to have a pub reckon about free-market economics. Here we go.
I have a degree in economics and philosophy. As such, I'm working in unsatisfying admin and am so weighed down by student debt my nose scrapes the floor. However, I do occasionally Have A Reckon about things.
Economics is a fun subject. It's basically peoplemaths. The same way that formal logic is thinkingmaths. It's a set of rules, assumptions and axioms that you plug things into and get results out of.
Here's a little story, Twitter. Gather round. Are we sitting comfortably? Then let's begin.
Before I came into the world, my father was in the police. This was in the late 60s/early 70s (dad old), so very much firmly in the 'Life on Mars' kind of thing.
By the time I was born, he was doing something else entirely. Making snooker tables or selling dinghies from South Korea. That kind of stuff. He’s been around the block.