Totally exhausted, I HAD to go to the Coolin open mic last night in Paris; it was Henry Tipping’s last night as MC in this finest of Paris open mics of recent months in Paris. It was a classic Coolin open mic, but I woke up this morning with – aside from a head ache – a huge regret.
I started last week my new series of podcasts speaking to people at the open mics around the world, and although I brought my recording device to Coolin last night, I did not interview Henry, the genial MC of Coolin’s before he heads off to another Coolin bar in another city, where maybe he will do another open mic. It would have been perfect to talk to him about his two months or so setting up and running the Coolin open mic and making such a huge success of it.
Why did I not? Fatigue was one part of it, as I arrived back from Malaysia only a few hours before after a nearly sleepless 30-something hours. A refusal to believe that Henry was really leaving. A refusal to want to send out a message that his departure will mean an end to Coolin – in fact, it should not, as his job will be taken over by Etienne and the open mic will continue. Oh, and the combination of a small amount of sleep and a large amount of alcohol was a deadly mixture that led me to believe that I would sound pretty drunk if I did the podcast…
So say nothing of the fact that there were so many musicians, it was such a great night, that there was practically no time to drag Henry into a quiet corner to ask him about his experiences. Oh, and there was also the idea that as Paris is my home, I will not bore listeners with a repetitive experience of podcasts in this city, but only go for the very special ones…yeah, like the one this would have been….
Wishing Henry luck and hoping to see him again soon, I’m sure there will be another chance for the podcast. In the meantime, I did do a few videos to mark the occasion – which, by the way, included a visit by Henry’s dad, who also plays guitar and sings….