Happy Plan-uary
Hello to any new subscribers and hello to long-term mailing list legends, and Happy New Year! As explored in this Harry And Chris Song, every day is technically the start of the year that follows it so it is always an appropriate greeting, but I also plan on making the most of it being culturally acceptable to wish strangers time-based happiness at least until the end of January, and nobody deserves to be happy more than you lovely folk who have taken time out of your day to read this, thanks for being here. I love this time of year as a chance to look back and look forward (Like the Roman god the month is named after!) and I feel like this year I've got more to look forward to than ever. Those of you who have been on on this list for more than a year will know that each year I pick a general vibe rather than a specific resolution to stick to. Two years ago it was a post-agent West Wing inspired Let Baker Be Baker, last year was the ambitious Andor-inspired Be An Unstoppable Force For Good (!) - Read on to find our what this year's is, as well as some upcoming shows and tour news.
Rather than set ourselves up for failure with unreachable targets, this year I set myself 20 achievable new year's resolutions, which you can watch in poem form here
Afraid Yet Filled With Joy
This was the runner-up for my guiding 2024 Vibe, and is the theme of the Daily Service I have written for Radio 4 going out next week, based on the story of the Marys seeing a lightning-based angel at the tomb (it all makes sense in context I promise) - my modern day equivalent was that I was invited to perform as part of the evening entertainment at a maths conference in San Francisco at the start of the year (!), and found myself feeling so anxious about going that I took a 5am cancelled train to be a sign that maybe I should call the whole thing off. Thankfully I was a brave boy and once I was there I had an amazing time (You can get a flavour of how weird and wonderful the gig was here), but it reminded me that rather than simply avoid things that scare us, perhaps we can look for the joy within them. If that sounds like your vibe, I recommend listening in!
One of my achievable New year's Resolutions was to "Tell someone what I do without it sounding like an apology" and never has a resolution failed quicker than me trying to explain to an american customs officer going through my luggage that I was in the country to perform a poem at a maths cabaret. Luckily I made it in and as well as having lots of delicious food, planning my next book (!) and swimming in the pacific ocean, I got to celebrate being able to run again without being in excruciating pain. A happy new year indeed!
A Few Upcoming Gigs (and then a few more!)
For those of you who missed on the Maths-based San Francisco fun, see below for where I will be for the rest of the month. We've got the stunner that is Raymond Antrobus for the next Something Borrowed on Jan 31st in Margate and there are currently 8 tickets left, and then in a heroic piece of advance admin I already have Feb booked in with the glorious Georgie Jones on Feb 20th if you like to plan ahead for these things. I'm also planning a UK tour for May/June/July so if you are anywhere in the UK please do let me know where you are and if you would like me to come near you (especially you know a good venue!), and if you're not in the UK I at least have an online gig on Jan 29th that anyone can come to in the meantime.
Be A Legend And Have A Great Time
Which brings us to this year's ethos: be a legend and have a great time. I thought about it long and hard, and then decided not to think too long and hard about it (already a pretty great legendary approach) and I decided that in the spirit of a birthday card I got when I was 13, if you shoot for the moon, even if you miss you land amongst the stars so let's try and go big again. Looking back on the last few years the best things that have happened are things I haven't been able to plan for, so even in amongst the exciting things that I do know about, (such as having a new show to tour and a new book to go along with it!), I will continue to try and be the best version of myself, to find joy amongst the fear, and to enjoy the immense privilege it is to write and share poems for a living, even if those life choices really confuse the American border force. As with every other year I couldn't dream of doing any of this without you guys, so I hope we get to cross paths this year, at a tour show or otherwise.
Final Thoughts
Following my newfound Insta-fame (Currently on 10.5 million views and counting!) I spent a large chunk of the two weeks before Christmas with Donna in the Post Office sending my books all over the world, and as you can see from the above picture I have just restocked for the new year, if you'd like to catch up on my previous work before the new book comes out. I also spent Monday of this week hanging out with some other poets before our big gig at the Royal Albert Hall in May, where I had to leave the photoshoot halfway through to do a Zoom audition to be on Only Connect, which may well not happen but what a rush it was to try. Hopefully by next month I'll have some tour dates to throw your way, but in the meantime look after yourselves and each other, January can be a bit grim I know.
Stay Brilliant x
Leeds - the wardrobe