A couple of months back I received a message from the comedian Phil Nichol. He said he was launching a new comedy video channel and wanted me to be one of the first twenty comedians to help get it off the ground. I was quite surprised by this for two reasons. Firstly, there are some pretty established comedians involved in this project: Arthur Smith,Jen Brister, Jarred Christmas … and I am almost certainly the least well-known comedian on the list by some margin. Secondly, the idea of this project is that we record and edit our own videos, which is not the easiest task for someone who is blind.
I am in fact harbouring the suspicion that my inclusion is a bit of a piss-take, and they are hoping that I will produce the most lacklustre, out-of-focus videos that will prove to be funny for all the wrong reasons; I am being laughed at rather than laughed with. Perhaps this is a ploy part-instigated by the more successful blind comedian Chris McCausland to destroy my career. He has just started doing TV panel shows, and perhaps he was getting worried that, just as he begins to make a name for himself, I come along and start winning these various comedy competitions. I’ve heard that he was particularly vexed when BBC Radio 4’s programme for blind People, In Touch, chose me rather than him to talk about being a blind comedian. Perhaps he is fearing that one day I might steal his TV work, especially given that I have the added cachet of being a folk singer. Is it merely coincidence that Chris McCausland was recently spotted in a folk club?
Well, whatever the reasons for my involvement, I have accepted this challenge and will be releasing videos on a fortnightly basis. The video channel is called The Lost Comics, and my first video for the channel is entitled David Eagle VS Google. And here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBBd8QTJexg&t=19s
