Brian Simpson/Lewis Schaffer (left) & Martin Soan yesterday
Yesterday’s rather self-indulgent blog was about my rail trip to see comic Martin Soan at his home in Nunhead, London. Also there was Brian Simpson, the English character actor who performs as the New York Jewish comic Lewis Schaffer. We chatted…
BRIAN
John, is this really the end of the line for your daily blog?
JOHN
On the 31st of December, yes.
BRIAN
My point is…
MARTIN
There’s always a fucking point with you.
BRIAN
Because I’m trying to get some kind of meaning to my life. I’m not like you who is free-floating and everything’s OK.
MARTIN
I don’t think everything’s OK.
BRIAN
You’re contented. I guess the way you get contented is by not having a point. Because, once you start searching for a point, you will not find contentment. I’m always searching for a point, for some meaning.
MARTIN
Become a table tennis instructor. You would be a genius table tennis instructor. All you’ve got to do is just talk at them. Just talk, talk, talk at them.
JOHN
It’s talking balls. It’s ideal for you.
MARTIN
So what are we discussing?
BRIAN
John’s blog.
JOHN
Chris Dangerfield reckons he can’t remember talking to me for any of the blogs he has appeared in. I might as well have made them up. Although I suppose no-one could make up Chris Dangerfield.
BRIAN
You could. You could have made the entire blog up.
JOHN
Like you made up the Lewis Schaffer character? When are you going to come out as yourself?… Well, I suppose you already did in 2013, but people didn’t really believe it.
BRIAN
I am going to come out as Sarah Franken.
JOHN
Will Franken might be in my very last daily blog. I would prefer the last one to be about a court case that is brewing over the Edinburgh Fringe – because then I could end on a whacking cliffhanger, like The Italian Job. But the guy involved doesn’t want publicity yet. How is your campaign to save Southwark Woods going?
BRIAN
Chris Lynam is interested in the trees. He walks his dogs in Southwark Woods and he’s totally gung-ho about it all.
JOHN
If they want to cut down some trees to put in more burial plots, I…
MARTIN
(TO BRIAN) I’m not against your cause at all, but we’re coming to a population crisis in terms of interment. We’ve got to find a cost-effective way so we’re composted and produce crops for future generations to eat. That’s the next stage. But Mankind can’t accept that, so we do these things like cremations and burials. What we gotta do now is…
BRIAN
… chop up the bodies and make them into fertiliser?
MARTIN
Yeah. Absolutely. There’s no other way for Mankind to go on to the next stage in evolution on this planet unless we do that. We’ve got to recycle Mankind.
JOHN
The next stage of evolution is cannibalism?
BRIAN
That’s what I was thinking: Soylent Green.
MARTIN
Yeah, well we’re eating everything else.
BRIAN
The amount of space it takes to plant a dead body is very minimal. But they could just plant them in mass graves – layer them five on top of each other. They did that historically in this country. All of Camberwell Old Cemetery is people who were buried six deep.
MARTIN
But now we come to a critical phase of that, cos we can’t bury on Mortlake or Blackheath, because that’s Black Plague ground. We’re not allowed to disturb that ground for 150 years That’s why it’s become common.
JOHN
And I think there are plague pits under Soho. They have problems extending downwards.
MARTIN
So where do we go? We can’t take up more agricultural land. Everyone wants to build everywhere, so there’s less and less space. There’s got to be an efficient way of recycling human beings.
BRIAN
Why not put people six deep in a pit? They don’t do that in this country any more.
MARTIN
You can’t bury six bodies at a time.
JOHN
If the history of the Jews has taught us anything, it’s that you can bury people six deep.
BRIAN
…but they prefer to burn them. Jews are very flammable.
MARTIN
Mankind is expedentiating at a rate of…
BRIAN
Expedentiating? You just made up a word there.
MARTIN
Yeah, but I’m good at making up words, man.
BRIAN
Exponentially…
MARTIN
Expedentially. You understand where I’m theorising from now.
JOHN
You could bury them vertically.
MARTIN
Absolutely. It’s a real fucking issue now that no-one wants to face. It’s as big as chickens.
JOHN
As big as chickens?
MARTIN
Yeah. Don’t you understand?
BRIAN
I do. It’s one of those old sayings. The Bells of Bow Bridge or whatever.
JOHN
What does As big as chickens mean?
MARTIN
Of course it does.
JOHN
What is As big as chickens?
MARTIN
The disposal of Mankind upon itself.
JOHN
It’s a phrase you have just made up.
MARTIN
There is no other way to look at it.
BRIAN
(TO MARTIN) Is that a phrase you just made up?
MARTIN
Yeah.
JOHN
That’s a relief.
BRIAN
The point I am making is… We are not disagreeing with any of your points.
JOHN
Yes we are.
BRIAN
We aren’t.
MARTIN
(TO BRIAN) You just want to argue all the time.
JOHN
(TO BRIAN) You want to argue because you’ve turned into Lewis Schaffer. You made him up and now you’ve become him.
BRIAN
I want to argue because I am an ENPT type on the Myers-Briggs scale. ENPT-T. That’s the rage, now, if you’re interested in what’s going on.
JOHN
What does the T stand for?
BRIAN
Trouble.
JOHN
No it doesn’t.
BRIAN
Turbulent. I’m a debater. I like debating.
JOHN
I have lost the will to live. Set fire to me… Martin, when is your next Pull the Other One?
MARTIN
January the 29th.
JOHN
Who’s on?
MARTIN
Phil Kay, Darren Walsh and The Short Man in Long Socks.
JOHN
At last I will see him!
BRIAN
Who?
JOHN
The Short Man in Long Socks.
BRIAN
Where’s he from?
MARTIN
He works mainly in the Eastern European cabaret circuit.
BRIAN
What’s his act like?
MARTIN
Indescribable.
JOHN
That’s why I want to see him. He’s a legend.
BRIAN
I’ve never seen him.
MARTIN
Yes you have. We were filming for the 8th anniversary of Pull the Other One, which we called the 10th anniversary for publicity purposes. You were interviewed and…
BRIAN
That’s right! He popped in and popped out. I met him, but I’ve never seen the act.
After that, the conversation degenerated even more.
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 