<insert crazy ramblings here>

I managed to score some tickets to a recording of "Comedy Store" at "The Comedy Store" for "Comedy Central". The site proclaims:

On its grimy stage some of the greatest acts in the business have perfected their act

Which clearly isn't true. They was a two man team with a mist-er and a stiff broom giving it quick scrub when we arrived. Owing to my leaving the office later than intended, we were one of the last groups let in. We wound up with a choice between left wing front row, left wing a few rows back, or right at the back.

We decided to sit at the front. I thought that this meant there was a good chance I'd get picked on. As I mentioned I'd come straight from the office, and was in a suit. I've been at the comedy store before where the stand ups picked on the suits.

As this was a TV recording though, and they generally wanted to try and keep to a tight set, ( I almost got away with it. )

Comedian and activist Mark Thomas has been holding a series of one man protests outside Parliament for a while now. He's engaged in a tactic he he refers to as "defiance through compliance". He thinks the law that restricts protests within a kilometre of Parliament inhibits free speech. So on the third Wednesday of every month he holds a Lone Demonstration in Parliament square, on a range of surreal topics. However he's not alone. In an effort to flood the system, and make the law too expensive to keep on the statue books, hundreds of other people also apply for one man protests. Making sure they have filed the correct paper work with the Charring Cross police station first. There's a Radio4 show about this.

I particularly like the "hulking great Heath Robinson contraption" Graeme built to carry his large list of protests.

The most surreal part about this law is that it was probably written because of Brian Haw's years long protest on Parliament Square. The only problem is not's not retrospective. So the one man this law was drafted for is the only man who's exempt from it.