The ever helpful Archie
In the Clavier book, there are a number of unpleasant characters.
One of the bit-part stinkers goes by the name of Archie. Now I’m sure it’s not his fault that he gets up everyone’s nose and that he’s a right royal pain - probably not breast-fed properly or something like that - but the upshot of it all is that Archie’s presence is not dissimilar to a rather foul odour.
Whereupon …
We had the launch of the book on Friday night, 60 mates turning out to drink some pretty good wine at Valvona & Crolla’s in Edinburgh; a cracking evening.
I had spent some time working on speech, just to ensure that every possible gag was mined.
And as it happened, I had a very good joke in the bag.
What I remember is standing there, glass in hand, working my way to the killer punch-line which was going to have them all ahowl with laughter.
And just at the very climax, just as I was seconds away from the biggest laugh of the evening, some mean-spirited shyster at the back bawls out the punchline.
Nearly - very nearly - took the wind out of my sails. Needed a quick recovery.
Later on, Tom - the bittersweet publisher - was talking about the heckler. "Bit unnecessary," he said.
"Standard behaviour for him," I replied.
"Just messed things up a bit. Screwed up the timing."
"That’s Archie for you!"
"What?" he said. "That was Archie! But that’s exactly what the Archie in the book would do!"
"That’s why he’s called Archie!"
October 28th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
you must remember that a family member was eaten by a lion. tout comprendre est tout pardonner
October 29th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Thank you for that Tim. But my problem is that I don’t know whether I will ever be quite understanding enough for Archie.
I mean why do I have to understand everything anyway? Do I really have to immerse myself in the Archie mindset? Is that what you want me to do?