The John Robins Vibemail - Issue #11
Well look who it is! Comedian, Digital DJ and handyman* John Robins! I hope this email A. finds you, and B. finds you well. It would seem the various issues with spam filters for this newsletter have been resolved and we're out of the doldrums of a 46% delivery rate and riding high in the 80% plus category. I'm reliably informed this is very healthy, but if you ask me 20% of people not receiving an email is not the vision of efficiency and convenience that the early trailblazers of the digital letter had in mind. But what can you do? We all need protecting from scams, spam, and badly written messages about McAfee where the subject is in a gothic font. How do they do that? WHY do they do that?!
What a strange few months it has been since last we digitally communicated. New heads of state, new Prime Ministers, and, on the face of it, pretty poorly thought out economic policy. I hope as ever you are weathering the various storms battering UK PLC as best you can. But financial storms are amongst the hardest to weather, as you can't magic up cold hard bunce with a change in attitude. But you can keep up to speed with Martin Lewis and his supreme efforts to help people and keep them informed of their rights and the resources available to help them. Whenever I see him speaking passionately on TV or radio about some rebate or top tip I am often overcome with emotion. What a good egg! Here's to all the good eggs out there! In fact, why don't I list five GOOD EGGS off the top of the dome just to put a spring in our step about all the good eggs out there.
Adrian Chiles is a good egg.
Liza Tarbuck is a good egg.
John Kearns is a good egg.
Naga Munchetty is a good egg.
George Egg is a good egg!
See, we've got so many good eggs we should be able to steer this ship home.
I am writing this before heading out to play golf. 'But John! You're always playing golf! Don't you have anything better to do?!' Well, the truth is not really no! Isn't life strange. Though I tease Elis and Dave about their CRIPPLING FAMILIAL COMMITMENTS, those little smashers don't half give you focus.
I have always maintained that my trophies are my children, so you'll be delighted to hear that soon I will be giving birth to (being presented with) a newborn baby (trophy) for golfing prowess this February last. Very soon I'll need a new crib! (shelf). And no doubt I'll be inundated with visitors coming to join me in cooing and cuddling this little bundle of joy. To business!
*last week I fixed THREE of Lou Sanders' cupboard hinges AND THE HINGE ON HER FRIDGE. One has since suffered a catastrophic failure but these facts are unrelated.
Members Present
His Excellency The Right Honourable Cpt. Sir Johnny JR CB DCMG
Beef's Golf Club
If you follow my sporadic forays (retweets) on social media, you may know I've started ANOTHER PODCAST. 'bout time John! They were starting to get a bit thin on the ground!'. Fear ye not, my commitment to digital content sees no sign of abating, and my commitment to golf, well, as undiminished as the rising sun.
I honestly have to pinch myself about this one. Bear with me non-golfers, as I give a brief precis. Beef Johnston is a genuine bona fide professional golfer who captured hearts and minds with his top ten finish in the 2016 Open. He is also a completely superb person, and despite never having met him until the fates brought us together on a zoom call, recording a podcast with him about all things golf is a dream come true.
On Beef's Golf Club we set about designing the dream golfing venue, where everyone is welcome and along the way speak to guests from amateur golfers like Tom Davis and Kunal Nayyer, to the creme de la creme of the golfing world like Billy Foster and Tony Finau.
Recently we met in person and were able to play nine holes at North Middlesex Golf Club. Something unbelievable happened, I can't say what, but it was all captured on film for my Bad Golf Youtube channel and will be out very soon. So subscribe to the channel on Youtube HERE and download Beef's Golf Club wherever you get your podcasts from.
Made Up Games LIVE!
'John you little trickster! Making us read all that stuff about golf before you hit us with this little fun grenade!' Oh, don't you worry, I know a thing or two about narrative arc / subliminal digital marketing techniques.
Elis and I are turning Made Up Games into something bigger and better and, crucially, LIVER. Hmmm. Not sure that works written down actually. LIVE-ER? Not entirely happy with that either tbf. Anyway, we're doing some live shows of Made Up Games as a little fun jaunt / test / opportunity for TV big wigs to curse themselves for overlooking our irresistible chemistry 2014-date.
It's for three nights at The Bloomsbury Theatre in London and we will have lovely guests making up the teams and playing along with us. Dates are 5th, 7th and 8th December and tickets go on pre-sale for dedicated legends like you at 10am today, Thursday 6th Oct. At that time you can buy them HERE.
2023 Tour
John! You scamp! You made us read all that stuff about golf AND Made Up Games before crushing our minds with this comedic anvil of goss?! Well, dear reader, not quite. I will be touring a new show called 'Howl' from Sept-Dec 2023. I will also be doing some form of run in Edinburgh next year too. I am tantalisingly close to announcing the dates and providing you with delicious links for tickets. But, well, I don't know if you can imagine what it's like when a seasoned tour promoter chats logistics, venues, routing and costs with Ol' Johnny JR?! Suffice to say it takes a while and he gets through A LOT OF GAVISCON. What can I say, I'm just a fun guy who LOVES DETAIL. Rest in the knowledge that you will be the first to know, so if you have like-minded Robins apologists in your life then get them to sign up to this mailing list asap.
Russell Howard on The Moon Under Water
Well isn't it the darndest thing! My old pal and erstwhile flatmate Howy Russ dropping in to The Moon Under Water! And what a treat it was to have him in The Correct Realm! You can listen to our chat WHEREVER YOU GET YOUR PODCASTS, or, indeed, on the greatest website in the history of earth, BBC SOUNDS.
Any Other Business
Apart from stacking one cubic metre of logs for my fire (which is way way more logs than I imagined in my mind when imagining one cubic metre of logs) there isn't a huge deal more to report. I am appearing on a live podcast called Desert Island Dicks tonight in a pub in Balham. If you're free and super quick there are some tickets left here.
I have Glis Glis in my roof, but they're being remarkably chilled about the whole affair thus far. Whenever their music gets too loud I drop them a message on our Whatsapp group and they pop it down a bit. Haven't mentioned their imminent destruction yet but am worried that might sour relations.
I also had an idea for a one off podcast so stupid that it just might get made. If it does you'll, as per, be the first to know.
Love you bye! x