October show: cancelled :(

It is with a heavy heart that I’ve had to cancel the next Oh Dear Diary show, planned for 7th October at the Old Joint Stock. If you have already bought tickets: sorry. Old Joint Stock will be in touch very soon to refund you.

As we often joke, it’s easy to find people to come and watch Oh Dear Diary, but not so easy to find people to read.

Despite numerous call-outs over the last four months, we just haven’t found enough people with teenage diaries to share with us at the OJS theatre in October. To put on a good show, we need at least six people… this time, we were only able to confirm two.

I’m really sorry to those who will be disappointed by the cancellation – not least the guys at the Old Joint Stock box office and Birmingham Comedy Festival, who work hard and could very much do without a festival show pulling out. I feel terrible for letting people down.

To those who have offered to help with a renewed call-out over the last week: thank you. However, it’s not just a question of finding people with diaries who are free on that date. I work hard to make sure that Oh Dear Diary is a good show, and more than just a bunch of people reading out random stuff… and that takes time. Usually at this point in the process, four-and-a-bit weeks away from the show date, I would be meeting up with readers to advise on filtering and extracting their best bits(!), choosing photos and music, putting together slideshows for each reader and working out a running order that I hope will keep people laughing throughout the evening. Even if we did miraculously find four or five new people over the next couple of weeks, I simply wouldn’t have time to prepare a good night. (And yes, I often say “we”, but it is just me.)

If you have a teenage diary that you’d like to share at a future date, do get in touch anyway. I am very keen to keep Oh Dear Diary going and would love to plan another event for next year. If we can find enough willing volunteers!

Sadly,
Emma