8 JULY 2026

Hello, Pretenders.

Liam and I made a rather whimsical discovery yesterday when we happened upon a tiny robot in a Canary Wharf shopping centre that printed out free short stories for whomever desired them. They were typeset on long reels of paper that spooled out of it like a sales receipt. You could request a one, three or five minute story. Here is Liam with his one minute story. Doesn’t he look chuffed?

Gotta love these tiny instances of magic. Alfred Adler called them dancing with the moment.

I also tried lime cold foam for the first time.

AND I found out what cold foam was.

On the SAME DAY.

Life truly is a treasure trove of riches.

Rule of three

[Film] The Invite
If possible, go into this movie without watching the trailer or knowing pretty much anything about it. I found it both hyper-specific in its humour and surprisingly moving. Everyone here is doing top-tier work whilst obviously having the time of their lives. At Sundance, Seth Rogen said “This felt like making a movie with my friends. If I was friends with Penelope Cruz. Which I am not.”

[Theatre] Raising Gays
Went to a staged reading of this new musical by Showstopper! extraordinaire Jordan Paul Clarke (with Micha Mirto writing the book). It’s about a support group for parents with queer children, set in a small rural community. I was knocked out by its honesty, pitch perfect jokes and achingly-beautiful harmonies. Make a note of the name because I am certain you’ll be hearing more about this show.

[Book] Deep Work
Love the central conceit of this book which is essentially - to do big exciting important things, you need to give yourself time to think big exciting important thoughts. And that means finding a way to disconnect from the thousands of tributaries of connectivity and information we plug ourselves into every day. In practice for me, I’ve been testing out three 90 minute periods per work day where I turn off all notifications and take a swing at something big - a piece of writing, a lesson plan, a funding application. The good news is you can then do what you want with the other 19.5 hours.

Spotlight

Do you live in Bristol? Or feel like you could get to Bristol over the summer? Then boy do I have some Chris Mead/ improv-related things for you to do.

Improv Cinema Club
I created this with the brilliant film critic and improviser, Tara Judah. Watch a film and then attend a workshop where we explore the ideas and themes of that film through improv.

We’ll be at the Watershed Cinema and you have a choice of films (which you can also watch on the big screen during the same weekend).

Goodbye, Dragon Inn, Friday 24th July, 10am
Ghost World, Sunday 26th July, 10am

If you’d like to know more, Tara has written about the event in this article.

Bristol Improv Theatre Intensive

Some of you have asked if I’m doing any summer intensives.

Currently, this is the only one I’m doing. A five day deep dive at the beautiful Bristol Improv Theatre where we’ll explore, rehearse and ultimately perform my Dead End format - playing souls trapped between heaven and hell - slowly getting to know each other and looking back on their lives whilst their eternal souls hang in the balance.

FUN!

If you’re looking to do more theatrical, relationship-based improv, I promise you this will be right up your street, and the intensive format means you really get to know and trust your fellow players.

You can apply for a place here, or if you’d like to know more, feel free to contact me by hitting reply. We’ve already got enough people to run the event but I’d love two more in an ideal world.

Radio contact

The heat is back and the lad really doesn’t know what to do with himself.