Most people would be happy to turn up to an evening with Ricky Gervais or Bill Bailey or Terry Christian (well, maybe not the latter), but at this year’s excellent Big Chip Awards, we got all three.
I remember being very tired that day and really not in the mood to get into a tux or be polite to strangers, but it turned out to be one of the best award presentation evenings I’ve ever been to. Sitting down at the table was slightly strange because I was certain I’d seen Ricky Gervais on the next table with our friend, Ian Guiver, MD at axon garside. It became clear later (when things are usually getting hazy…) that Ricky Gervais’ look-a-like starred in the brilliant “Factory” series for K3. He accepted the well-deserved commendation and fooled everyone in the audience that Ricky Gervais himself was gracing us with his presence. Nice move, Ian.
For me, Terry Christianson was a game of two halves. As a fellow Macc lad and Mancunian, it was great to hear the many tributes to Tony Wilson who did so much to put the musical and creative side of Manchester on the map. The urban-style poem read by its author was a fitting touch. What wasn’t so fitting was the recurring vision I kept having of a game involving trapping Terry in a small cupboard and slapping him repeatedly with a wet fish.
Thanksfully, that soon passed, and as fish do, we headed for the bar where we had the pleasure of running into Bill Bailey on his way out (we’d already run into him on the way in). He’d hopped across the road to do a bit of charity-raising stand-up for the Sumatran Orangutan Society (£1,200 a hour for my favourite charity would be nice too) and we got to buy him a pint of cider and have a chat. About games. Bill – if you’re reading this, give us a call and we’ll pick up where we left off – or maybe you prefer the Terry Christianson one?!
Major thanks to the Big Chip Awards for an impressive and thoroughly enjoyable, star-studded evening. And from the sublime, I headed for the ridiculous, camping on the North Yorkshire Coast in a Romany caravan park called La Rosa (but like no caravan park you’ve ever seen) run by an eccentric and wonderful lesbian couple. We had one of the dozen totally over-the-top Kitch caravans and ours was in Burlesque style, no less. Whether it’s sublime or ridiculous, I hope to be back at the Burlesque van and the Big Chips – to carry off a trophy next time. It would be the only way to top the occasion. Thanks guys, Jeff.
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