Last week I was invited to perform in a comedy club in Bethnal Green, London by Nerd Nite. My last slot on a similar stage had been kiboshed by an inflatable pig ... I had been given a chance to perform with Robin Ince and host of other amazing people at his famous 'Nine Lessons and Carols' show in December - but the chemist who was on before me had let his hydrogen filled pig float up to the ceiling - where it snuffled among the lights causing a real risk of fire, so the theatre shut the show down, just before I went on stage!

So what has this to do with hedgehogs? Well, I have another 'hat' and that is the country's (possibly, world's) only hedgehog stand up comic ... what else I am going to talk about? In this instance my mind took me on an eccentric journey to the revolutionary capacity of hedgehogs - from philosophy to Ukrainian anti-tank defences and onto the Women's Institute!

Along the way I got to talk about our petition - and maybe, just maybe, we have a few more signatures ... I did encourage people not to laugh too much and to take notes! 

On the coach into London I found that people were staring at me and it was only when I got off that I realised in taking off my jacket everyone could see my shirt - with 'Crazy Hedgehog Guy' on the front!

Over the years I have found that my talks have often veered towards the comic - and it is one of my utter delights in life to see that I have reduced a member (or more than one!) of an audience to helpless tears of laughter. 

I hope that the humour is an effective device to get the serious content across. Because while we are having a laugh at the fact that mating cannot take place while the female frowns, we are also considering the necessity of a serious of hedgehog highways to enable the encounter to take place at all!

If you are intrigued - I have my next night of comedy booked in on 16th April - as the interrupted Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People has been reborn for easter! Book a ticket if you can - there are a few nights and many amazing people - and a promise of NO PIGS!

In other news - I have (been) tamed (by) a robin ... no space for photographs on here but if you have access to twitter or instagram I am quite findable, and there are lots of images! 

Oh - and just to get the date marked in your diary - we are running Hedgehog Awareness Week again this year - from 1st May - so there will be lots of hedgehoggy activity I hope!