Last show tonight. Oh God. I know I’ll miss being in employment very very soon. What a tremendous bunch of beautiful people.
Jersey has been a glorious time. To come back here and to bring this hilarious and strange show, adjusted. Glorious.
I’m back in the IKEA flat. I’m with Estelle. Jack has gone to bed. We are all knackered. I’m planning on going to bed. She’s planning on going home.
She’s on Jersey Lifts. It’s a Facebook group. You write “Lift from x to y” and somebody comes in and says they can give you the lift. Normally if you’re a girl they come in seconds, and then you give them some cash. “I’ve never ever got a Jersey lift on my own, it’s usually with a guy. But I wouldn’t expect it to be weird.” Estelle is female and in her early thirties and aryan. It’s Boxing Day.
—
It seems all the Jersey lift car drivers are unimpressed by her. I’m surprised.
I’ve made her a little crap bed on the sofa, and thrown in a few extra logs to the fire because the only cover I can find for her is a thin blanket that was in the wardrobe. If she’s not dead of hypothermia tomorrow morning I can count it a win.
We are finished. All done. Done done done. What a lovely team. We have Andy at the front, corraling the audience with his charming Disneyface. Heading off awkward questions and converting concerns. Fighting the weird. Bending it into his own weird. Waxed moustache. A joy.
Then we have Estelle, asleep on the sofa as I write, plugged into Jersey and also plugged into general performance. Another maker, more entrenched in this island than I am – a true ally and a good friend. She pushed the buttons, and she pretends she isn’t front facing but charisma can’t be masked. She recorded Belle in a strong take – and it wasn’t a rarety, she nailed all the takes. She might be happy to push the buttons, but she gave Jack and I a surprise cornucopia of unexpected Christmas presents for Christmas. She’s a brilliant human. It was lovely having some silly things to open on our Christmassy day off yesterday.
Adam left Brighton around the same time I met Lou. They probably have people in common. He got Jack and I in this year so he can make sense of the working script we left him. He’s a legend for making this happen in Jersey. I wish this was good to go on for weeks…
I’ll miss working with Jack. At the same time I’m so used to this game now and I know it’ll happen again as … we are used to making this weird show happen. This has been a brilliant year of Carol, totally different from others, with much that is unrecognisable from previous times. But what a glorious team.
AlBarclay 