The day after tomorrow I’m heading to Estonia and Finland to do a couple of gigs in English. As I write this, the guy I’m supporting, Magnus Betnér, is hosting his own show on Kanal 5 called ‘Betnér Direct’. Like everything he does, it’s groundbreaking (for Swedish TV), it’s controversial (for Sweden) and it pulls no punches. Betnér is a smart bloke.
I’m really looking forward to the gigs in Estonia and Finland, but right now, there’s one thing that worries me. I’m feeling a certain amount of pressure. Magnus’ material puts the world to rights and is usually impressively topical, often covering the events of the last 24 hours.
I should write something mildly astute and relevant to Estonian politics to impress him. Unfortunately, I have got stuck in a writing rut. Everytime I think about what I’m going to do on stage on Wednesday night in Tallinn, all I can think about was the cold baked beans that I was served in a cafe with my English breakfast last time I was in Estonia.
It was disgusting, outrageous and left me traumatised for weeks. And I’m unable to move on. As I play through in my mind what I’ll do on stage, I visualise myself doing various routines about cold baked beans. I’m not saying these imaginary routines aren’t funny, but they are very much stuck within the parameters of the baked bean.
My only hope is that there is some huge international baked bean related incident in the next 48 hours. Fingers crossed readers. If that happens, I’ll be seen as having the sharpest satirical mind in modern comedy. If not, Estonia will remember me as a baked has bean.
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Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @BenKersley
And if you do find yourself in Tallinn, Helsinki or Turku this week and you are a fan of baked beans and/or Magnus Betnér please come along to one of the shows.
Or people will think you’re that English mr Bean guy.
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Just wanted to comment that you were excellent in Turku tonight, at least we Finland-Swedes loved the show!
Det var roligt att tala också, hoppas vi ser dig i Finland snart igen!
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