Hi Everyone,
Happy Thursday.
How you all doing? I'm fine and dandy. Early post today as we have an extra matinee of Wicked this afternoon because it's half term. 9 shows in one week! The audiences are great. It's packed, which means approximately 20,700 people will see Wicked this week alone. Isn't that insane?! No need to respond, that was rhetorical!
So it's been a busy old week, as ever. Last Thursday I cleaned my flat. But like REALLY cleaned it so that it was gleaming. Then I headed to the gym and to the pool for a good old workout. After the show I had a catch up with a mate and it was so nice to then get home and have a spotless apartment. I'll be honest though, my flat is always pretty OCD clean. I'm an organised freak most of the time.
So Friday I did a lot of work during the day at home and then I hit the gym and pool again before doing a great phone interview as part of some album promotion. When it's all published you'll all be the first to know.
The show was great on Friday and afterwards I stayed at a mate's house to have a chill out and then woke early Saturday morning to go and do my new favourite pass time, which is sitting by myself in Le Pain Quotidien restaurant/cafe and reading my book and eating their amazing food. It is so lovely. It's a really relaxed atmosphere and I usually have either a 2 or 3 course breakfast! I can seriously put food away quite easily!!!
What I've forgotten to mention though was that when I woke up on Saturday, I could not straighten my arms. I'm not being dramatic, they physically wouldn't straighten, especially my left arm - because I had clearly worked myself too hard in the gym the two days before. So after my breakfast on Saturday, I did a lot of work on my laptop and then to try and get some movement and mobility back in my arms I went for a swim before the matinee. It was hard work but I think it made a difference. That'll teach me to push my biceps till they nearly burst eh?!
In between the shows on Saturday I joined some of the ensemble for a lovely roast chicken dinner in the dressing room. This resulted in me eating far too much (including about 12 biscuits - no exaggeration!) and therefore performing Saturday night's show with a pregnant looking belly. I estimated that my food baby was due for arrival in about 2 months which meant I was 7 months 'food pregnant'! So worth it though cos the food was gooooood!
I had to get up at the crack of dawn, or as I like to say 'Dawn's crack' on Sunday to get the first train back to North Wales to visit some family. It was a tiring early start but I am so glad I went. I adore my family. I was picked up from Chester station by one of my best friends Aimee, we then went to the restaurant where I used to work as an overweight waiter in my teens - my mum and sister still work there now, and we had the most incredible 3 course sunday roast. We were given special treatment because I worked there for 6 years. The food there is incredible and if ever you're in the Denbighshire area in North Wales, go and eat at Nant-Y-Felin restaurant. You'll really enjoy amazing home cooked food.
After that we went home to veg on the sofa whilst watching the omnibus of the Welsh soap opera - Pobl Y Cwm.
My Mum and I then visited a member of my family in hospital before visiting my brother's family and then my sister's family. So it was a great day of catching up! Ended up having a chinese take away with my sister, her husband and my mum whilst having deep philosophical conversations! Wow, it's all about food this blog eh?! A lot of my early blogs where about food a lot of the time. Isn't it just the most amazing thing though? I get so much pleasure from nice food and drink! Yum!!!
So I woke at about 6.30am on Monday morning as I needed to head back from North Wales to do the first rehearsal for my TV special 'An Evening With Mark Evans/Noson Yng Nghwmni Mark Evans' which is being filmed on November 13th and broadcast early next year. There are a few free tickets left apparently but not many, so if you want to be in the studio audience in Cardiff that Sunday all you need to do is email Steffan.watkins@boomerang.co.uk and he'll send you all the details.
So Monday's rehearsals where with my choreographer Ashley Wallen who is incredible. He works with loads of artists from Kylie, Jamelia and the Sugababes to the current campaign with Will Young and he also Choreographed the West End show (and soon to be Broadway Show) Ghost which is fantastic.
What he has done for my show is amazing. His vision is incredible and I have 8 of the best dancers in the commercial industry dancing on the show so I was very excited about it all by the time the rehearsal finished at 5pm. I then had a quick meeting with the producers of the programme before heading to work to do the show. I was very tired after a busy weekend but the show was good.
Tuesday morning I woke really early and headed to Le Pain again for my breakfast. I LOVE it in there. I then did some work in my dressing room on loads of different things before heading to meet my stylist Judith to shop for the TV special. I cannot tell you how much easier it is shopping with a stylist than it is by myself. The session started with a coffee and a cache up and I handed over my 'look book' that I'd created which is basically lots of images I like that I found online and printed off as inspiration and then she showed me her ideas and we made some notes so we knew what we needed to achieve by the end of the shopping session and then we hit Westfield like never before! She had a little trolley thing with her so neither of us had to carry any bags, it was a stress free fun afternoon and my goodness we got some seriously cool clothes for me to wear. I am going to want to steal them all after the show. So the session ended at 5pm and the best thing was that I didn't have any bags to then lug with me on the tube to work. Judith had either bought everything or made a note of what she needed to buy for me and then I just left her to it and she headed back to Cardiff.
It's exhausting though eh? When you are shopping for 4 or 5 hours you really feel the tiredness the first time you sit down don't you?! I sat on the tube and almost instantly fell asleep.
I pushed through the show on Tuesday night before heeding home and getting into bed for a really good sleep before the first matinee of the week.
Woke up yesterday (Wednesday) and did some work at home before heading into the theatre. Had a really good day yesterday. The two shows were really fun and last night's audience were amazing. Not to mention the amazing food I had in between the shows. (yes I'm still talking about food!) Good times.
I got home last night and had a great night's sleep. So waking up this morning I feel fresh and ready for another matinee. It feels so odd waking up on a Thursday and thinking "I have two shows today!" I always say 'Happy Hump Day' on a Wednesday because the online urban dictionary says that your HUMP day is the day which is the exact middle of your working week and usually after a Wednesday we have done half of the week's shows and we're on the down hill side of the hump, but because of today's extra show I feel like this week has a bump on top of the hump! So……Happy bump on hump day everyone. I hope you have a great one!
A few parish notices you may want to know:
I am performing a few Album songs at WICKED DAY this Sunday. Be there for a fun afternoon. All info is on the WICKED Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/WickedLondon?sk=app_185244704886035
My Christmas show is on sale - I have my first meeting about it tonight to create some genius festive stuff with Craig my Musical Director. Get your tickets here:
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/137318
For those of you who haven't ever seen Marcaroni the kids TV show I star in, watch this so you can see what it is I filmed 52 episodes of earlier this year. It's crazy fun kids stuff.
http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/c_level2.shtml?series_id=404536083
I now have an online shop!!! How cool is that. You can buy my album from here and the price includes P&P. There will be more and more stuff added to the shop as time goes by!!!
http://markevans.bigcartel.com/
This is even cooler - I now have an 'app' - You can download it from itunes for your phones etc - check it out. Loving my life. HA.
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mark-evans/id473253707?mt=8
Right I think that is about it. I need to head to the theatre. Thanks for reading folks and for all your constant support as always.
Love your lives and love yourselves cos if you don't, no-one else will! I love you ALL!!!
Sh-boom!
Mark
