Freedom!!!!!

What does freedom mean to you? I think that's something I'm trying to work out with doing this Lands 3nd to John O Groats walk. I'm not sure if I've ever felt 100 percent free.  Here is a list of things I think freedom means to me. 

1. Going anywhere you want qhwnever you want.

2. Doing whatever you want whenever you want.

3. Doing your own thing without caring what other people think.

4. Freedom to say what you really want to say to people without fear. This can mean confronting people you have issues with and maybe telling someone you have feelings for what you think.

5. Freedom things and fail without feeling judged.

There is probably more. I am tired after walking for ages today. I think I'm trying to find freedom.of some sort. I have felt like Andy Dufresne ( Had to Google that spelling) from Shawshank redemption digging his way out of jail over 20 years with a spoon. 

For me I think there are a number of things that hold us back from being free. We'll in my point of view anyway. We are all different.  There is financial constraints, thoughts and beliefs that have been passed down from parents, grandparents etc, thoughts and beliefs from all the people you are surrounded with like friends, workmates etc. There is thousands of different influences that we experience every day from everywhere. It's been a mixture of these influence that have accumulated over the years to make us who we are today. 

Ii feel like I'm rambling now. But I am free to ramble all I want so shut up. I think I am trying to escape a lot of these influences and do life my way. I think that's the type of freedom im looking for. 

On Saturday night. 3 days ago I was sleeping in my tent in a dark corner of a campsite. It was about 11:30 pm. I was in my sleeping bag with extra layers on and I was still a bit cold. The weather outside was shite. It was very windy and rainy. My tend was getting battered about. I though it was going to uproot at one point and maybe I'd end up meeting Dorothy on the yellow brick Road. Anyway. I remember lying there thinking about people home and how they might be in a nice warm pub having a beer or they might be in a nice cosy bed watching TV. Anyway at that point I started laughing my head off and found the whole thing was hilarious. At that point I felt free as fuck. Maybe that's what freedom is maybe its the ability to not give a fuck where you are or what's happening on the outside world. Maybe it's the ability to feel free wherever your outside circumstances. There are stories of people who are locked up discovering true freedom.while being confined to 4 walls..

Anyway. That's enough rambling. Tell me what you think by leaving a comment here or on my Facebook page. Thank. Also you can help me along my walk by supporting one of the two charities I'm doing it for and donating to my buy me a coffee page to help with my living expenses here.  Buy me a coffee. Cash for kids. German Shepherd rescue.

Escaping social conditioning.

I think part of the reason I'm doing this Lands End to John O Groats thing is to escape something. Do.ypu ever feel trapped? I have felt a bit trapped for a few years. Trapped by things like having a mortgage, the pressure to have a day job. All that stuff we are expected.to do in society. I don't like it. It bores me to death :) Thats probably one of the reasons I got into stand up in the first place. 

When I was at school I actually done quite well. I was top of the class in maths, physics and chemistry. Shit at English though. You can probably tell by reading this :) Teachers etc seen a good.future for me going into science engineer based career. I have a specific memory of when I was maybe in 4th year. I was outside having a laugh with a few of my pals. We were being a bit loud but having fun. I was a quiet kid so this was me starting to come.out my shell a bit. One.of the teachers came out and gave us a row for being noisy. He quietly took me aside. He said something along the lines of "You have a chance of a good career. You can't have that if you behave like this". I thought fuck off. If being a success means having no fun them fuck that. Despite that I ended up going to university and studying manufacturing Engineering. I got.my degree but never done anything with it. I always had the comedy thing in the back of mind. 

I remember a few years ago I was talking to an old lecturer friend in the pub. He always used to go on about how good I was at maths and it.was a skill. Anyway. I was telling him in the pub about my comedy adventures. Doing the festival, going to Australia etc. At.one point.he looked at me with a disappointed expression and said " You could have been something ". Really? :) I am doing the only thing I ever really wanted to do when I was a kid. Apart from.being the world snooker champion :)  That never happened. 

Day jobs, working up the corporate ladder, getting 4 days paid leave a year etc.scares the shit out of me. I've had about 35 jobs. I'm a terrible employee. In my mind day jobs and corporate careers get in the way of living a whole life. 

I am scared of getting to the end of my life and not taking the chances on the things I wanted to do. That scares me a lot more than missing a bill payment. 

Anyway. I'm running away from social conditioning. It still tries to pull me back in every now and again. I'm off to Lands End tomorrow from Pymouth. Come and catch me now ya pick. 

Give this a share and follow my journey on social media @obiecomedian

Fuck it. I'm off to Lands End.

At the moment I'm sitting on a bus in Buchanan bus station. Its Wednesday 11 am the 15th June . I'm about to head to Birmingham to stay for the night before going further South tomorrow. I get to Lands End on Friday. 

One of the reasons I want to do this Lands End to John O Groats walk is to get more disciplined. Discipline is probably the main factor in what makes a difference in people success in life. In comedy as well.any other career its not the most naturally talented people that get to the top. It's the most disciplined. The comedians I see progressing quicker in their career are the ones that are the most disciplined with writing and organising gigs etc. I can be disciplined sometimes but most of the time I am a bit of a scatter brain. So now.that I am heading to Lands End to walk up the country I have no choice but to be more disciplined. I need to walk every day to make sure I'm in Scotland in time for the Edinburgh festival starting. I also need to be focused on finding gigs on the way to pay for expenses and bills back home. I don't have a huge budget so this is a big incentive. 

So as I was getting closer to starting this adventure my brain has started ro work out what I need to do every day to help me get to my goals. 

What are my goals of the walk/ tour.

1. Get fit as a fiddle. My fitness is not the best just now. I'm a bit over weight. Walking 15 miles a day should sort that out. Also working for Just Eat is not.good.for eating habits :) I also have a body weight routine I've planned for.the walk.

2. Do at.least 30 gigs. 

3. Build up.my online following. This is.part of my motivation. My main goal in comedy is to do tours of solo shows every year in theatres.from a few hundred to a few thousand people. I have the skills to do the shows. Just don't have enough of a following yet to fill the rooms. 

4. Make some money. Would be good to make.some decent money from the gigs so that I can do some of the things I want to do when it's all.finished

5. Raise a load of money for charity. I have two.good.charities I'm working for. Cash for Kids and a German Shepherd rescue centre. Will.post these on my social.media soon.

6. Find myself. Yes there is some spiritual hippy shit involved.in this :).

I'm working out a list of things I need tondonevery day in my tour to make these goals happen. Writing a blog is one. Doing a.amount of social media is another. I'll work that out over the next few days.

Keep following my blog. The writing will get better honest :).

Running The Marathon.
On My Birthday.

On Sunday the 31st of May 2009 I did my first marathon in Edinburgh. I must admit this is one of the proudest things I’ve ever done in my life. Its something I’ve always wanted to do, but never got round to it. Now it’s been done I believe I can do anything.

I decided to do it when a good mate of mine Mark Nelson put a post on the Scottish comedy forum to see if anybody fancied doing it (Thanks Mark) . I thought dam it so I stuck my name down. So there was no turning back.

I was reasonably fit before then, so I thought I should be ok. I regularly went to the gym. The only running I had really done however was on the Treadmill. I was told I had to run outside because it was totally different. They weren’t wrong. The first time I went outside I was out of breath after a mile. This was going to be hard. I trained quite hard for the first six weeks of the year. Then disaster struck. I developed an injury. I was limping for about three weeks so I could do no training. It turns out I didn’t have the right trainers to absorb the impact of running. I got new trainers and started back training.

I don’t think I was as consistent as I should have been when I was training, but I felt I had done enough.

The week before the gig I planned to eat healthy and stay off the booze. I was doing pretty well until Thursday night when Paddy Clarke ( a guy I work with) phoned me and forced me to go for a beer. His brother was getting married the next day so I had to. Honest. It was a good night. Ask Paddy about speed cameras and flashing.

The next two nights I had gigs lined up. I didn’t drink at any of them, but both of them turned out to be gigs from hell. The first one was just full of teeny boppers and idiots who heckled every single line and spoke through everybody’s act. I got a great review from one of the local mad women. “ You were Shite, but well done” Thanks crazy woman.

The Saturday nights gig was probably worse. It was mobbed, but half of the audience were there to see a band that was on after us. They just weren’t interested in comedy. It was like trying to do a gig at Parkhead during an old firm game. Pointless. I felt sorry for some of the audience. They actually wanted to listen, but didn’t get a chance to enjoy the show.

I got home after one O clock in the morning. The marathon kicks off at Nine in Edinburgh.

I got to Edinburgh on time. I was excited and nervous. It was the hottest day of the year so far. If god exists. He’s a bugger. I started the run feeling good. It was great watching thousands of other runners at the same time. I remember the sound of thousands feet pounding the road. It was awesome. The first six miles was down hill so it was pretty easy. I had a good chat with some of the other runners. One of the most amazing things about the run is the amount of people who are out there to cheer you on. It really was amazing and it does help. There was a guy singing “ This is the way to Amarillo at about ten miles” There was bag pipes going on. It was brilliant.

Up till about seventeen miles I was thinking this marathon running is a easy. That’s when my legs started to hurt. That’s when I started seeing paramedics surrounding drop outs at the side of the road. This must be the wall thing they are talking about.

I still managed to keep running, with the odd wee walking break. I found that my legs hurt more when I stopped running. Every time I felt knackered there was always a spectator at the side of the road shouting encouragement. They were absolutely brilliant. I had a wee chuckle to my self around this point when I got over taken by a Smurph. Brilliant.

Around the course they had flags with the mileage completed so far. I swear to go I think each mile got longer from about 19 miles. Time was going so slowly. But that crowd kept us going. Where were the last two nights when I needed them at my gigs.

At 23 miles. I knew I was nearly there. But it was the longest 3 miles ever. I was still running, but having small walk breaks. I knew I was there though and my time was pretty respectable.

After twenty five miles the crowd was getting bigger. I started feeling amazing. The pain started to go. I was nearly home and dry. The last few hundred yards were amazing. The crowd were going mental. There was a stand full of spectators cheering. I got the most amazing buzz I’ve ever had. I had Goosebumps. That moment will stay with me forever. Going over the finishing line was phenomenal. I had just ran a marathon. Woohooo. I’m alive.

Since I have done the marathon a lot of people have said to me that they could never do a marathon. Absolute nonsense!! Some of the people I seen running that thing were outstanding. There was a 98 year old man who ran it. Ninety eight. That is phenomenal Inspirational old man. The next time you hear someone saying they are too old to do something. Give them a slap. There was people with limbs missing going round in crutches. There was loads of MS sufferers out there as well. And of course there was a Smurph. In fact it was a Smurphet. She was quite sexy. I would have Smurphed her up the Smurph.

If there’s something you want to achieve in your life. Anything. If you have been moaning about not being ably to do it. Shut up. Stop moaning. Just go do it now.

Ninety eight he was.

Obie.


If you fancy doing a marathon. Id recommend you have a look at this guide. click here. It was a great help for me, and helped me with one of my biggest ever achievements.