Sitting Under A Tree with Aidan Jones

Eight years ago I started recording a weekly, solo podcast, and resolved to keep going every week. I had no idea what it was or why I was doing it, but it felt like a good idea so I kept going. In that time I have gone from a lonely, open mic comedian to being a professional artist living in London. I'm so proud of the life that I've built for myself in my life, profession and community. In these...

Tomorrow I'm going to upload every episode of this podcast to a voice-to-text engine, then run all of the text through an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or something, to effectively have this AI engine experience 8 years of my weekly thoughts. Then I'm going to ask it some questions. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Then next week for the last episode I'm going to talk about whatever c...

This is the third-to-last episode of my podcast. I talk about feeling unfocussed and frustrated this week, and trying to find a renewed sense of focus. I'm sick, which isn't helping. Time to pop a Vitamin D tablet, I reckon.

I bought a car on Friday from a car dealer in Coventry, then drove it to Birmingham, Preston, Liverpool and finally back to London today! I've never owned a car before and it's really exciting and scary to have invested so much into this thing. Still, better than lugging my trolley with the keyboard up a flight of 60+ stairs after a gig, as was my fate on Wednesday night. This feels like an import...

Back from almost two weeks in Poland, and for the first time in a year I gave myself permission to completely neglect my professional life. What a joy!! But I'm back in London now and have a very busy week of gigs and travel lined up. Also looking at buying a car. Still need to find a permanent place to live. It's all details, really.

Spent a wonderful 24 hours in Zamosc, this medieval town in the South-East of Poland. I fired a cannon! I'm in Krakow now, in some dodgy tenement-type accommodation with thin walls and the guy in the room next to me is snoring like a motherfucker. It's alright though, I'm travelling, and learning stuff. And really having a fantastic time.

I'm tired today, and it's making me grumpy. I'm off to Poland tomorrow to watch the International Chopin Competition which is just so incredibly exciting! I can't wait to see the city and feel the energy around this celebration of Chopin's music, and I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to go.

I've been in London for a month now, and in that time I've performed at the best club in the city, done a paid 20 for a promoter who didn't even know my name at the start of the month, and done a bunch of sets at great clubs and rooms! I'm feeling really good about the way things are going. This weekend I was in Manchester doing a bunch of shows at clubs and my solo last night, it was great. Every...

I went to the media night of 'Emma' at the Rose Theatre last night, this is the play my girlfriend is in and has been rehearsing for the last 6 weeks. It was INCREDIBLE!! Fuck I loved it so much, as did the 800-odd people who packed out the theatre. I went to the opening night on Wednesday, and even in the time between that and the media night it's changed heaps. I have so many thoughts after this...

I've been in London two weeks now. I'm writing every day, and the gigs I'm doing are going great. Like always, I can't help but think about what things will be like 3 months, 6 months in the future. The one thing I am absolutely certain of is my phone is destroying my brain and ruining my ability to concentrate.

I've just finished reading the book 'Cloudstreet' by Tim Winton - I've been reading it for like six months, so god damn it, it's about time! It struck me how all the characters had, by the end of the story, found some semblance of home by virtue of simply staying put. Some of them left, and in leaving they also departed the story, but the ones who stayed, even though many of them were deeply flawe...

I've finally arrived in London. The Edinburgh Fringe is over, and I'm booking spots for the next few months around the UK. Today is my first full day as a resident of London, and I'm feeling great about the future! Let's go.

The last week at the Fringe my ticket sales have gone up and up! Also I've seen a bunch of wonderful, inspiring shows, I've been getting a good amount of sleep but also have seen friends, and managed to even work on a few ideas for a new show. It's been perfect, honestly, so I'm just reminding myself to be grateful and enjoy this all right now!

I've had a day off today, no shows! In 10 years of coming to the Fringe I've never had a day off, and I'll tell you what I FUCKING LOVE IT!! I'm feeling so good right now, this is smack-bang in the middle of the run, and everything is ticking along smoothly. I've got some plans for after the Fringe, some potential opportunities and some industry people excited about the show. I'm also having fun,...

I have a snotty nose and everyone can fuck off. Nah I'm actually doing great other than that, the show is selling and I have a review coming out tomorrow which I am NERVOUS about. I guess I'm nervous about a lot of things, just thinking about the future. Ruminating. At the end of the podcast I went around my room and described everything, it was an exercise in mindfulness and made me feel a lot be...

First week of the Edinburgh Fringe, got into town today and I haven't had a good, proper night's sleep in over a week. It's currently half past midnight as I upload this and I can't wait to finish, shower, and get into bed. I am going to launch into that fucking bed mate. Don't you worry about me.

Honestly man I always thought jetlag was just like, you wake up earlier and go about your day. I feel TIRED AND WEAK! I've never had it like this before and I hate it. Other than that, and forgetting to pick up one of my checked bags from the airport, everything is sweet. hehe.

Two more sleeps until I leave Melbourne! I've almost finished selling my stuff, just a few more bits and pieces, but the plan is tomorrow night for the last night in my room, I'll be sleeping in an empty room with just packed bags and a mattress on the floor. Pretty romantic image hey? And I'll leave this city the same way I came in, sleeping on the floor like a 21-year-old.

Two weeks from today I'll be about to land in London and start a new life! How dramatic. This week I did two of my favourite rooms in Melbourne for the last time, the next week is going to be full of more last times of stuff and it feels like the process of saying goodbye is really intensifying now. Once I get on the plane it'll all be over.   Brown Cardigan Video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/D...

I sold my wardrobes on Sunday for $200 which was what I was asking, and honestly more than I thought I was going to get! There's a big wardrobe-sized hole in my room now, and all of my clothes are either on the floor or packed in vacuum-seal bags ready for the move. I had a headache for like two days after I sold the wardrobes, and I thought maybe it was a holdover from being sick last week, but t...

The venue I did my show at in Sydney was owned by this legend of a guy (named Guy) who as it happens, also wrote the music for the hit 90s children's show Blinky Bill. Remember that?! "Good old Blinky Bill!" hahaha.   I'm sick as a dog right now, my voice is fucked and I'm coughing up a storm. Boooo. I hope you're well, all things considered.

The title of the pod this week is Norwegian, it's a really funny phrase that a Norwegian person I met on Friday night taught me and I've committed it to memory so that I can impress any Norwegian people I meet in the future, such is my commitment to ingratiating myself to strangers. I'd love to tell you what it means and why I love it, but I guess if you want to find out you'll just have to listen...

This week my football club Tottenham Hotspur fired Ange Postecoglou as manager after he led us to win the Europa League a few weeks ago. There are arguments for and against this decision from a footballing perspective, but ultimately it feels like a complete failure on behalf of the decision-makers at the club to grasp the entire point of following a football club, or of life in general.   The rea...

I did two gigs tonight, and got out an ending to a bit I've been working on for like six months - exciting! I talked about the story around it a bunch on the podcast today, which is a day late I'M SORRY! But it wasn't nearly as shambolic and unfocussed as I would expect after the long day I've had.   Here's the video btw: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKZ5X2HRLuZ/

I've just finished 2500km of driving from Brisbane, to the South Coast of NSW, to Melbourne, and then Victor Harbor to visit my grandparents. I forget how flat South Australia is - as soon as you go West of Ballarat it's just flat in every direction. It's really beautiful. This afternoon I traced the sunset from mid-afternoon and watched it the whole way down, stopping the camper van in a car park...