h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I was about fourteen I decided I wanted to be funny. Not because I, or anyone else, thought I was funny, but because I had come to the conclusion that being funny was cool. This was a conclusion I reached very largely by watching The Comedy Store (London's premier comedy club) on Channel 5 after everyone else had gone to bed. Channel 5 was new back then. These guys (very occasionally women, but mainly men) were funny, very funny about all sorts of things. Then, when some pipsqueak dared challenge them from the crowd, they were shot down in flames SPONTANEOUSLY. That was awesome. That was I wanted to do, no question. Around that time I had entered a couple of stand up contests, the first of which you may read about http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/classic/F3848296?thread=8283831&latest=1 if you wish. Subsequently I entered a couple of BBC scriptwriting competitions. I failed in all of these endeavours. Then A levels took over and I started writing a book which disappeared into total obscurity in my hard drive somewhere. Then I went to university. Entered another BBC competition, failed. Started to write a proper sitcom, determined to tdo it properly, by which I meant spending years constructing half written character profiles. Then I found a group of guys who were writing for a theoretical review show, and we spent a year and a half writing jokes about Anne Robinson. That went nowhere. Then I graduated. Out into the real world. A wife, a home a job. Real things to distract my time and writing somewhat drifted. I kept scribbling away at my sitcom, but sort of quietly accepted that my pipe dream was in the past. When I hit 30 I decided this was it, no time like the present, I was going to send my sitcom to the BBC. I did. It failed. In the mean time, however, I had found, somehow, a small show on BBC Radio4Extra (sic) called Newsjack. They have what is called and Open Door policy, which means they will read material submitted by anyone. I reckon I pitched for about 4 series, starting in 2010. The series broaddcasts for the final time this run on... well... today, actually. My last deadline has been and gone. I haven't heard back from them . But that doesn't matter. I did last week. Oh yes, after years -YEARS DAMMIT- of trying, I am (was) on the air. True, it was a single joke, and true, it didn't get a massive laugh, but it was broadcast, on the BBC, on proper radio by a proper professional cast. I have listened to the podcast. The joke is perfect, beautifully balance and delivered perfectly and it sounds amazing. I can do it, see? I can be funny. That's todays message. Never give up. At least, not yet.