Hello. It’s been a minute. That’s because I am all over the place mental health wise. I’ve tried everything, most recently self-sabotage. That doesn’t work you know.

Any old hoo one of the major reliefs/helps/outlets for mental health for me is creativity. I have a few outlets. I make no claim to be any good at any of them but, and I cannot stress this enough, that is not the point.

I perform comedy improv. I’m in two teams at the moment. Improvision and Purgatory.

Improvision takes the “Gogglebox” idea and uses it as a platform for Improv sketches. The Perfromance opens with two people sat in front of the “television” (Audience), perform a little skit and in the process takes suggestions from the audience about television proramme types and programm names.

Purgatory is a team of old hands (do excuse the word “old”, I mean experienced because obviously we’re all in our twenties) getting together and just giving it a bit of GOFI (Good Old Fashioned Improv). Someone floted the idea of “The Harold” recently. For some The Harold is peak improv, long form. This wiki entry does it more justice than I could

Another love of mine has been and is Poetry. This is one I struggled with confessing to. I’m a Gen X Northern Irish cishet man with all the attendant patriarchal problems and issues (It might not be my fault but it is very much my responsibility to sort out, that’s for another blog).

I recently went to a poetry reading for the forst time with my friend Elizabeth McGeown and, cheeky get that I am I got up and read one of mine. It was quite a rush and was received quite well.

Create something, it doesn’t have to be Shakespear, Rembrant, Robin Williams, Penn and Teller or anything like it but put a bit of yourself into something. Be vulnerable. Explore the vulnerability.