Here's a little stand-up I tossed off here in the Eternal City for your pleasure or pain.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen… Well I’m in a good mood, I’ve got a new bedsit and there’s a sink in the corner so in the morning I don’t have to get to the toilet. Still gotta wipe my arse afterwards, but… No I am happy, happy to be surrounded by all these lovely people – ’cause I have a problem, I have a problem with drinking. I throw up and have to wait a minute before I can start again… Really it got so bad my friend convinced me to go to Alcoholics Anonymous so I agreed, I was completely determined to go but on the way there I passed a pub and… Got there six weeks later. Guy gets up, ‘My name’s Eric and I’m an alcoholic.’ Second guy gets up, ‘My name’s Bob and I’m an alcoholic.’ I get up, ‘This is great, where’s the booze?’… ’Cause they’re so negative there, they go, ‘It’s awful, I drink when I’m alone.’ Well how do you think I feel, I drink when I’m not alone. When I’m with other people, people I normally like, people I gotta face the next day… Know the feeling, you wake up, what the f**k did you say last night?… Er, nothing – boss… But he can’t talk, he drinks so much his liver’s declared a twenty-four-hour strike. Helps it blend in with the Italian transport service. Trade Union meeting: ‘We got buses, teachers, now we got this fat bastard’s liver…’
’Cause what is wrong with transport in Rome? These f**kers could co-ordinate an empire in Africa, you ain’t telling me they can’t get you from one f**king bus stop to the next. So now they’re developing Metro C. Imaginative guys they got working here, ‘We have Metro A, Metro B, what’re we gonna call the new one? Um…’ Maybe it’s a sort of Spice Girls thing, y’know Mel B, Mel C… ’Cause I come from England. You go to the zebra crossing, the cars wait, it’s fine. Here it’s like a f**king bet. ‘All right bus, ten-to-one you’re gonna splatter my guts across the Forum…’ Maybe it’s a machismo thing, you’re meant to stand there and, ‘Come on you f**king taxis, come on, I got more gas coming outa my arse’ – that’s probably true actually – it’s just I hate waiting for the buses ’cause of the people you meet there. Guy yesterday scratching the old arse, scrunching the old nads – I said ‘Get your hands off me’ – then he starts talking at me in Italian so I say, ‘Scusi, non parlo italiano’ – complete lie, I’m fluent, I just didn’t wanna talk to him. Just my luck, he speaks perfect English, he goes, ‘There’s nothing worse than waiting for a bus when you’re in a hurry, eh?’ Well I disagree, I think there are things slightly worse. What about being anally raped by a gorilla? I think that’d come a little lower on the bad-things-that-could-happen-to-you hit parade…
But I reckon I’ve worked out why Italian transport’s so bad. You’re jealous of London transport. You got this camp girlie woofter voice going, ‘The next stop will be central station, please do ensure you have purchased a valid ticket,’ we got ‘MIND THE GAP… Mind the f**king gap you f**king wuss…’ Bit of a boring job, don’t you think? Guy’s probably got six hundred degrees, just sitting there going, ‘MIND THE GAP…’ ’Course you know that’s Ben Elton doing that don’t you? ’Cause his career’s drying up a little, the ‘Young Ones’ was great, ‘Blackadder’ was great, then it was ‘The Thin Blue Line’ and ‘Can’t get my tongue outa Andrew Lloyd Webber’s catflap’ the musical, now he’s just sitting there going, ‘MIND THE GAP, yes indeed, bit o’ politics, period pains, MIND THE GAP, ladies and gentlemen I was trying to make love to my wife, she goes, “Benjy, MIND THE…”’
Well he’s made a career out of it. And so could I if I didn’t get so nervous on stage. Last night I came on, ‘Good evening ladies and (poo noise)’… Oh God. Spent five hours looking for a sink.
I’ll leave you with that thought. Thank you and goodnight.