The end of September marked a year since I quit my day job in search of something different and without spending too much time dwelling on the changes, I’m certain that “different” is what I’ve found! I recently met with some former colleagues and after a long and lovely catch up it was impossible not to reflect on the last year. If I can pass on one piece of advice from it then it’d be to open yourself up to change, embrace what comes your way and follow the opportunities that present themselves – like me, you’ll be surprised where they might lead you!

My journey started with standup comedy and I’m pleased to say that I’m still gigging most weeks. If you’ve yet to see me in action then now would be a great time to get yourself along to a gig while I’m working on new material – my gig list can be found here and it’s looking fairly healthy. The new stuff is going down well and I recently met the legendary Barry Cryer! I asked him for his tips on staying in comedy for the long-haul and his advice was to get rejected often early in your career… so I’m looking forward to a year of rejections! 

Since I last wrote to you I’ve reached a few milestones in radio, completing my 75th show, surpassing 150 hours of broadcasting and surviving my first ever full scale system breakdown! (The playout PC crashed so I had to keep talking live on air until it rebooted – TERRIFYING!) 

I spent the summer earning my stripes as a chat show host, interviewing acts at Latitude Festival and Standon Calling Festival. I made full use of my first backstage press pass and shortly afterwards launched a new podcast “Now You’re Talking” where you can hear me chatting to all sorts of bands, artists, comedians and actors. It was a surreal experience interviewing some comedy icons; Tez Ilyas, Maisie Adam, Cally Beaton, Johnny Cochrane and Jonathan Pie and you can see my awkward TV debut chatting to Flamingods backstage after their set here. After July’s field experience, I conducted a live phone-in back at the studio throughout august for comedians at the Camden & Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, interviewing 23 comedians in the world’s first ever #FringePhoneIn.

I’ve now taken on hosting the weekly fixture of Phoenix FM’s film reviews with Mark Searby so you can hear me chipping in light-hearted banter and vaguely relevant comments as he reviews all the latest cinema and DVD releases. You can listen to the chat live on Phoenix FM every Friday from 1:30pm or catch up here.

My plans to become a writer have been a little overshadowed by the comedy and radio breakthroughs of late but I’m still hoping to publish a children’s story in time for Christmas this year. I’m also working on a short story and will be offering exclusive “mates rates” to everyone subscribed to my website! Plans are also afoot to co-write a few comedy sketches based on my time in radio, I’ll be sure to keep you up to date on all of the above.

In the meantime, you can catch me on the radio every Thursday and Friday afternoon 1pm-3pm and every Saturday night from 10pm on Phoenix FM. I’ll also be covering the Breakfast show for a whole week starting 28th October including the absolute honour of waking up the world at the dawn of a post-brexit apocolypse on 1st November! If you’re an early riser then tune in from 7am (yes, that is too early – I’ll be up at 5am!) 

Just a quick reminder that you can enjoy all of my “on demand” radio/tv content here and that you can see a full list of my comedy gigs here all courtesy of my website – freshly revamped.

Thanks again for your support/fandom/cheerleading – you’re awesome. 

Catch up soon

Stew