Blog: The Aroma Of Alan Moore

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On Monday night The Chapters In My Book and I went to see Alan Moore being interviewed by Stewart Lee about his new book "Jerusalem". SPOILERS: it was dead good.

It was a Guardian Live event at the Shaftesbury Theatre, so we met in the pub next door which shall forever be known as That Pub Where We Watched The Olympic Opening Ceremony. A QUEUE was forming as we finished our beers so we supped up and nipped in to try and get a good seat. However, once we got in we were LURED away by the BAR, so when it was time to get sat we ended up having to go to the upstairs balcony, for LO! it was dead busy. Also, weirdly EXCITABLE. There were a lot of people who were CLEARLY Alan Moore/Comics fans who are not exactly known for being jumpy and squeaky, so I guess it was General Guardian Readers who thought they were there for a Stewart Lee gig. There was a LOT of Inappropriate Giggling throughout, also jiggling in seats, WHOOPING (whooping!) at statements and general Odd Behaviour. When you go to events at comic shops there is usually SILENCE!

The talk was dead good with Stewart Lee was EXCELLENT throughout. He'd clearly done his homework i.e. actually READ the book (he asked how many people in the audience had finished it and not many hands went up, unsurprising as it's over a thousand pages long!) and knew his stuff AROUND the subject AND Alan Moore. He was also very good at letting him speak, gliding over interjections from the audience, and butting in when needed to. It's strange seeing him in a situation like that though, clearly enjoying himself and LARFING a lot, when you're used to his stage persona!

Alan Moore himself was FAB, but then I would say that OBVS. He started off quite jokey, in line with the atmosphere that some people seemed to expect of a Stewart Lee led show (I liked it when he was asked if HE'D ever read "Jerusalem" - he said "I've been putting it off, it looks a bit difficult" and there were GUFFAWS of acknowledgement from the crowd), but then got more serious and IN DEPTH, while still being DELIGHTFUL.

There were questions at the end, most of which were Dead Good and INTERESTING, and only one of which was asking about "The Killing Joke" - Mr Moore dealt with this in the same way as he had when I did a gig with him in Northampton, and someone asked about Rorscharch: he explained politely that he didn't really like to talk about characters that had been stolen from him but was glad they'd given pleasure to the person asking. However, he THEN seemed to be about to talk about it ANYWAY, but Stewart Lee pulled him back!

The HIGH POINT of the evening, however, was when someone asked him what stuff he LIKED. Amongst the general Philosophical Points Mr Moore revealed that he REALLY likes Lush Bath Ball! He THEN went on to reveal that he had been in talks with Actual LUSH to produce an Alan Moore Bath Ball!!! I think this may be the most brilliant FACT I have ever heard!

posted 11/11/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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