Lo! A Transitional Email!
PIVOT! PIVOT!
Hey Lo!-sers!
This is a bittersweet email to send. Just as I have finally found a good way to address you all (thanks to my pal Vida for coining the term ‘Lo!-sers’), it heralds the end of a bit of an era. As of next month, Lo! is going to change shape, and, like a Pokémon (or indeed, just an animal), evolve. From April onwards, you lovely folks will be the happy (?) recipients of a differently-named newsletter: Ben’s Book Nook.
Don’t panic - it will constitute almost identical contents: links to my latest gigs, mini-essays on what I’ve been reading, general screed about my life and my brain’s fetid interior, diamond book recommendations for the paid subscribers, and even some fresh new cartoons with more of a literary flavour from long-time Lo! illustrator Will Hughes. So what is really happening here is I am just renaming this newsletter so it’s a bit more obvious what it contains, and so that we can perhaps tempt a few more of the internet’s many floating souls onto our ghoulish life-raft. It seems that the people like it when Ben talks about books. So we are pointing more of my creative output in the direction of Planet Book. By hook or by crook, I will be (already am?) the male Dua Lipa.
Could I write a whole email about how having to signpost everything so that it’s easier to onboard dummies and siphon off their disposable income is narrowing critical thinking and curiosity down to a blunt nubbin? Does my skeleton sometimes literally ache for everything in pop culture not to be understandable after glancing at it literally once? Do I worry that in 20 years we will all just be staring at VR primary-coloured shapes erotically jiggling above the ground while we suck a sort of nutrient-porridge out of a communal pipe? Am I perhaps overthinking what is, in effect, a minor marketing tweak?
The answer to all of the above is: sigh.
Nonetheless, if you’ll come with me, I promise the soul of this endeavour will remain the same. I will still be here, hiding in your inbox, telling you about books (and various of my mental health spirals), with a frankly garish number of adjectives. See you next time folks! So Lo!ng!
Ben’s Gigs + Book Clubs
I don’t quite know how it’s happened but as of this week I have an alarming number of shows and book clubs now on sale. And you are invited to ALL of them!
First up is my stand-up recording - which is this coming Thursday April 9th…
The late show is sold out now - but there are still tickets left for the 5.30pm early show. I’d love to see some of you there!
Meanwhile, the new Ben’s Book Clubs are rattling along. We had one last weekend with Alex Kealy and Alexandra Haddow on the novel Eurotrash by Christian Kracht - and it was a seriously good time: great chat, some deep thinking, some extremely silly gags, and even a very brief cameo from the author himself!
Don’t miss out on the next one which is…
And you know what, since you guys are the loyal newsletter folk, I’ll let you have exclusive access to the next one too! May 25th we’ve got Helen Bauer and Lara Ricote taking on Big Swiss by Jen Beagin…
And finally, I’m very slowly chipping away at a brand-new stand-up hour. I did a set-piece from it at Cadogan Hall last week, and it really clicked up a gear, so I’m excited to be putting it together over the next few months in the following places…
BRIGHTON - May 19th-21st @ Brighton Fringe
EDINBURGH - May 30th @ Monkey Barrel
BRISTOL - Aug 16th @ The Gaffe
…and an extremely fresh announcement: I will be back at the Edinburgh Fringe this year for 5 days with a WIP of the new show! You can find all the info here…
EDINBURGH FRINGE - Aug 9th-13th @ Monkey Barrel
Book Nook
Here it is: the metastasing barnacle-segment of this newsletter that has usurped the crown. Books do tend to have this effect on people. Reading good stuff is like getting scabies, or some sort of intractable spore infection - it gets in you.
So with that horrible image in mind, do feel free to become a paid subscriber, and you’ll get access to my delicious, slow-cooked book recommendations below…