15 JULY 2026

Hello, friends.

Welcome to Pretend Post - the newsletter of me, Chris Mead, and more widely, The Pretend Company, which I co-founded with Ali James and Liam Webber.

How has my week been?

Let’s see:

• It’s still too hot.

• People keep talking about football.

• We have a really phenomenal show coming up on Friday (see Spotlight section below).

• On Monday, I got so excited at an improv jam in Southend that I rung a bell and somehow cut my forehead open.

So that’s how I am.

Rule of three

[Book] Meditations for Mortals
We’re all big fans of Oliver Burkeman here at Pretend Post (I’m writing this like the newsletter is written by a huge team of people). His book Four Thousand Weeks (the approximate amount of time we have to play with in a lifetime) legitimately changed the way I thought about existence. This book is his follow-up and it’s basically now we all understand how limited we are, how do we decide what to do with our time? It’s designed to be read, one chapter per day, over a month and that slow, steady rhythm combined with Burkeman’s beautiful prose creates the conditions for real revelation.

[Bike] Headfirst helmets
Over a year ago I backed this project and I’m seriously impressed with the product that arrived earlier this week. It’s a bike helmet that molds to the exact shape of your head, it looks cool and it has a built-in brake light that uses motion sensors to activate when you stop moving. Wearing it, I feel like I am a cyclist from the future.

[Dogs] This absolute hooligan of a dog
These videos give me so much joy. It’s always the same set-up, a man asks his five dogs to do something - react to a bubble machine, receive a kiss, ‘save’ him from drowning, take a small bite from a burger. And then the same thing happens every time - Blue, Titan, Goose and Maverick all achieve the task pretty well and then, my friends, Bauer arrives. And Bauer is an agent of pure Machiavellian chaos. Whatever the task, Bauer proceeds to fuck shit up in the most tremendously entertaining way possible. I don’t care if it’s real, I don’t care if it’s a set up - I love Bauer (although I completely understand that I’m more like Maverick).

Here is some fanfic that I wrote:

Man: Eat this biscuit, dogs.

Blue: *eats biscuit*
Titan: *eats biscuit*
Maverick: *eats biscuit* (gives man a hug)
Goose": *eats biscuit in a cute way*

Bauer: *smashes biscuit into atoms, takes man by the neck and throws him into the sun*

Spotlight

A very simple plea this week.

Come to Pretend Night on Friday 17th July.

We have an absolutely STACKED line-up.

The Newlyweds (from Australia)
"I haven’t seen an improvised comedy show that is as consistently funny, surprising and skilful as The Newlyweds. Their ability to craft a narrative punctuated with BIG BIG laughs from almost nothing is masterful!"
- Oliver Coleman

Bemme & Melange (from Austria)
“I’ve watched a lot of brilliant improv from all around the world. Bemme & Melange are the funniest duo I’ve ever seen. The level of performance telepathy these two have is spooky bordering on paranormal.”
- Chris Mead (me)

The Pretend Company (from here)
“We don’t have any quotes about us yet.”

I have rarely been this excited for a show. I’d love to absolutely pack out the Omnibus if possible.

So …

If you’ve been with us since the beginning.
If you’re a regular.
If you visited us for the first time last month.
If you’ve never been but keep meaning to come.
If you’ve never even considered us before.

THIS is the one.

Radio contact

A tender family moment caught on camera.