…for crimes against comedy perhaps…? December 1, 2007

I was quite frankly shocked at Vic Reeves’ new solo venture, the radio show ‘Vic Reeves’ House Arrest’ which started on Radio 2 on November 17^th co-starring Noel Fielding from The Mighty Boosh and Nancy Sorrell of erm… ‘I’m A Celebrity’ fame, also married to Vic Reeves…

clockwise from top left: Bob Mortimer, Noel Fielding, Nancy Sorrell, Vic Reeves © BBC 2007

I was hoping for something with at the very least decent production values. After all Vic Reeves’ is the co-creator of such classics as ‘Shooting Stars’, ‘Smell of Reeves and Mortimer’ and also the criminally underrated ‘Catterick’ (all co-written with Bob Mortimer), however not only did the sound production in this new radio series seem rather shoddy, but the programme fell severely short when it came to material as well.

 

The concept of the show was very promising; it was Vic Reeves playing himself but he was under house-arrest for a crime he didn’t commit. However the first episode just seemed like one huge wasted opportunity.

 

Instead of clever self-contained sketches about things going on in Reeves’ house it consisted of basically Reeves’ ‘narrating’ as himself, bumbling about his house looking for things to do. Now narration on radio I don’t mind but when it’s of the type ‘ooh, I’m in my house now, I wonder what I could do next…oh, who’s that at the door now?’ it really is sub-standard and shows lack of effort. There were some cut-away sections that were spoof adverts or spoof TV shows Reeves was watching, but they were ruined by the sound production as there was no differentiation between Reeves talking in his house and the spoof drama sections…it felt like we were missing out on a visual joke that would signify the shift in location. Sorry Vic, but you’re on radio so we need to be able to hear it!

 

Then later in the episode we had the appearance of Inspector John Fowler who was originally conceived as Kinky John, the club compere in ‘Bang Bang It’s Reeves And Mortimer’ and later reinvented as an American style detective (“Just dial 999 and ask for the American Eagle!”) in ‘Catterick’. Fowler is one of Reeves and Mortimer’s funniest characters, and given the nature of the show, it would have been great to have Fowler pursue Reeves for the different crimes he is supposed to have committed perhaps, or something along those lines. It’s almost a no-brainer really. But whether Reeves thought this was too obvious, or he just intentionally wasted an opportunity I don’t know, but instead we had Fowler simply reading sections from his auto-biography.

 

 

left to right: Kinky John and Inspector John Fowler © BBC

Don’t get me wrong Fowler’s section was actually one of the few highlights of the show as his strange stories in his paradoxically faltering yet grandiose delivery (“The audience are like pu…GINGER in my hands…(long pause)…PUTTY!” as Kinky John in ‘Bang Bang’) are always entertaining, but when presented without contrasting him to a more serious backdrop and without interaction with other characters (as in both ‘Catterick’ and ‘Bang Bang’) they just seem a little one note. The other highlight for me was the monologue by Bob Mortimer as Reeves’ hairdresser Carl. Mortimer’s performance was, as ever, hilarious and provided a much needed element of texture to the sound of the show as I was already zoning out only a short while into the show as up to Mortimer’s appearance it has been mostly Reeves’ voice. However, the character of ‘Carl’ is yet again another character originally shown in Bang Bang as a club bouncer and then in Catterick as the protagonist returning from the army to search for his long-lost son, only now he is reduced to merely a cameo. Oh and did I mention we had ‘Club Singing’ originated in ‘Shooting Stars’ as well? It seems Reeves doesn’t have any new ideas to offer, just recycling old popular ones in the hope we won’t notice. Even guest stars Fielding and Sorell were underused (I never thought I’d find myself writing that sentence believe me!)

 

I don’t know if I can attribute this distinct loss of direction and quality in Reeves’ material to the fact he is writing on his own without the aid of usual comedy partner Bob Mortimer but it does seem suspicious, especially given that the sections of Vic talking have a similar style to that of many interview with Reeves (or rather Jim Moir), by which I mean a slightly infuriatingly evasive tone, mixed with a perhaps self conscious effort to be ‘surreal’ or rather his version of what surreal is. No, despite being a huge fan of most of his comedy material I’m not a fan of Reeves/Moir in interview.

 

Had this been a new series by unknown comedians I would have forgiven the faults in the show and perhaps found them endearing, but really I expect a lot more of someone with such an illustrious comedy career as Vic Reeves, especially as this series seems like a huge step backwards; by this I mean they went from the live sketches of ‘Vic Reeves’ Big Night Out’ to ‘Smell of’ and ‘Bang Bang’ which gave us more polished sketches and mixed the live and televisual elements brilliantly, while also further developing running characters then to ‘Catterick’ which took the characters and gave them a longer narrative, while also incorporating some sketch like elements. In these examples of Reeves and Mortimer’s career there isn’t really a logical progression as such, more that each new venture builds on the best elements of the last whilst also creating it’s own identity; whereas with ‘House Arrest’ it just seems to be rather stagnant and unclear of it’s direction.

 

I hope that this is just a minor blip from which they can recover their comedic originality. I’m sure they will, after all I’m no longer judging them on ‘Families At War’ or Bob Mortimer for his involvement with ‘Tittybangbang’ , though that last one took months of counselling and therapeutic viewing of decent comedy writing such as ‘The Smoking Room’. I will remain optimistic that Vic Reeves (hopefully along with Bob) will come up with something fresh and new that builds on the genius of ‘Catterick’, which in the mean time I recommend you all go and watch, or you want some truly original radio comedy go and download ‘Blue Jam’ by Chris Morris (download available from Cookd and Bombd)…which no amount of my blog space could really do justice too…

Doktor who? November 18, 2007

After the recent of negative posts about new comedy I wanted to show that I wasn’t totally cynical and that there is still some excellent new comedy about. In the absence of decent television comedy at the moment, I feel the need to turn to new live acts to heap praise upon. Although this new act you will have seen and will be seeing each week at the end of BBC3’s Comedy Shuffle.

 

Yes, I’m talking about the man, the myth, the legend that is Doktor Cocacolamcdonalds. You would be forgiven, from his name, for thinking that he is some sort of anti-consumerist protest act in the style of Reverend Billy And The Church Of Stop Shopping or even Mark Thomas, but no, his show has nothing to do with either of these global brand names. The origin of his name is never explored in his act, but that doesn’t matter as it merely adds colour to an already psychedelic act.

 

I saw his act twice at The Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh, so impressed was I with his show. It felt fresh and I saw new aspects of it both times, although his endearingly bumbling manner was actually carefully orchestrated. However he still has the ability to ad-lib to hilarious effect and still keep in character during his sections of audience interaction.

 

And what an original character he has created. Standing on stage in just a pair of brightly coloured underpants, with layers of ties strung round his neck, often talking in monotone. He also sometimes shouts at the audience, not so much in an aggressive manner but more like an upset child having a tantrum. However, he makes the character extremely likeable as he creates an air of pathos, frustration and vulnerability almost like a clown, but not a modern circus clown, more like a traditional Pierrot, but one who has taken too many drugs and is having a breakdown on stage in front of you. There is something about this character that makes you want to look after him.

 

He starts by telling the audience about his early life in almost a fairytale manner, how he was brought up by cats. It almost feels like early Mighty Boosh style territory (that’s meant as a huge compliment by the way) and then the show continues with a series of songs, poems, narration and audience interaction. The songs at first seem rather free-form, almost as if they could have been ad-libbed. But, on a second listen, it becomes clear that they are well thought out, clever and very inventive with language. Songs such as ‘When You Generalise, They’re General LIES!’ and ‘We Didn’t Need It But They Made It Anyway!’ all emerge from his apparently inane ramblings in a slightly clumsy manner, but as the songs progress the structure and the simple but clever lyrics win you over and often get you singing along too.

 

Then there’s the audience interactive ‘Rocky Personality Test’ where he asks members of the audience “Which film do you adore? Rocky 1, Rocky 2, Rocky 3 Rocky 4?” Interaction in shows often has the opposite of the desired effect, as the audience are worried the performer will ‘pick on’ them in some way, however with the Doktor it is all very good natured and thoroughly bizarre- you can’t help but smile when he gets you singing along with both the theme tune to The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and ends with a completely incongruous sing-a-long of Last Christmas.

 

Although the sing-a-long ending was a great way to close the show and ensure the audience went out smiling and remembering his show, however way he chose to wrap up the journey of the character was what I found so clever, and what made the show special for me. He closed by almost coming out of character, saying basically that the costume, the make-up, the keyboards and the songs is all ‘bloody good therapy’. By breaking out of the character that he had just been performing for the last hour, it was a clever way of showing that as a performer, he wasn’t taking himself too seriously and wasn’t trying to create an air of alienating mystery around his act, but trying to involve the audience even more by showing to us as we walked out singing Last Christmas into the balmy August night that it could potentially be anyone of us on stage.

 

 

 

I know I said I was going to be all positive in this post, but I do feel I have to comment on the Doktor’s appearance on Comedy Shuffle and how it could be off-putting for someone who hadn’t seen his full show- you only got one song by him so you don’t get a true sense of his act. The same goes for Pappy’s Fun Club who only got to perform one sketch, whereas I’m told their show is a clever new twist on the sketch show format when seen in full (which I will be doing next week, incidentally, watch this space for review). This is more a problem I have with Comedy Shuffle as a format really. It seems they are trying to appeal to a younger audience by making the show into a Top Of The Pops but for comedy, showing us acts in 5 minute segments as if we all have problems with our attention span. Fine, it does show a variety of acts, and allows lesser known comedy to be showcased but this is only suitable for certain types of comedy really. Instead of trying to create a format and making the acts fit round it, why not just give more decent new acts the air time and let them choose and craft their own format. I’m sure this approach would nurture more inventive and original writing than either giving new acts merely five minutes to prove themselves, or giving more established writers half an hour of televisual rope with which to hang themselves.

Back from the ‘Burgh!! August 31, 2007

Well, what a month for comedy that was! I am almost totally incapable of laughing at anything anymore…almost….

But here I am back home and I feel the need to make a comprehensive list first and foremost of every show I saw, so that if I never actually get round to reviewing the shows in detail then at least I have them here for posterity with star ratings to remind me of what I thought of the good the bad and the ugly of Edinburgh 2007!

OK so here are the full length shows:

• Lemons Are For Emergencies Only **
• Help! **
• 40 Feathered Winks ***
• Bedside Story **
  
• Game? ***
  
• A Porthole Into The Minds Of The Vanquished *****
  
• Dye Young/Stay Pretty ****
  
• The Gently Progressive Behemoth ****
  
• The Ugly Kid **
  
• The Oxford Imps ***
  
• Jarlath Regan (Nobody Knows…) ****
  
• Andrew McClelland’s Mixtape *****
  
• Hannah Gadsby Is Wrong And Broken ***
  
• Gordon Souther: Stamp Stamp ****
  
• Murray Lachlan-Young ***
• Will Pickvance and The Cowgate Cartoon ***
  
• Puppetry Of The Penis ***
  
• Phil Kay ****
  
• Stephen K Amos Talk Show ***
  
• Doktor Cocacolamcdonalds: The One Man Rock Opera *****
  
• This Sketch Show Belongs To Lionel Richie ****
  
• Richard Herring- Oh F*ck I’m 40! **
  
• Paul Foot’s Comedy For Connoisseurs ***
• The Mitch Benn Music Club ***
  
• The Voice Of Things Toilet Paper *
  
• The Psychic Detective (And Those Disappeared) **
• Mouse ***
  
• Mark Watson: Can I Breifly Talk To You About The Point Of Life *****
• Mark Watson’s 24 Hour Jamboree To Save The Planet *****
  
• Simon Munnery’s AGM ***
  
• Benefit Gig for Palestine at The Stand (with Janey Godley, Rich Hall, Gary: Tank Commander, and Daniel Kitson) ****
  
• Daniel Kitson And Gavin Osbourne “The Ballad Of Roger And Grace” *****
  

Plus various acts at Phat Cave, Late And Live, Spank, Free Fringe, etc. including-

Mickey D, Marc Maron, Kirk Fox, Harley Breen, Liz Carr, We Are Klang, Pappy’s Fun Club, David O’Doherty, Tim Minchin, Carey Marx, Jamie Killstien, Gamarjobat , Sista She, Brendon Burns, Jackie Loeb, Alistair Barrie, Craig Campbell, Andy Zaltzman, Phil Nichol…and others she can’t remember….

I feel I’ve just been very generous with my star ratings there, so I may edit at some point and be all harsh in the manner of Kate Copstick

And you thought HiFi was all about jazz… July 21, 2007

…But no…HiFi does comedy too…

I went with some friends to the regular Saturday night comedy club at HiFi Club in Leeds. It’s the basic ‘2 stand ups and a compere’ type affair and the line up tonight was Dan Nightingale compèreing with Gordon Southern and Matthew Reed (can’t find a decent link for him) as the main attractions so to speak. They were all very accomplished comedians and the audience clearly felt ‘safe’ with them, in other words we could tell they weren’t going to be crap and could relax a bit, perhaps a bit too much for my liking really…

 

Being a Saturday night crowd there were the usual birthday groups, girls and lads nights out. One in particular was just a gift to any stand-up, they were a group from an ‘outdoor adventure centre’ near Leeds and a lot of the off the cuff, improvised material was based around them which seemed to work really well for all three of the comedians, despite their different styles.

 

Although Dan Nightingale was compère, he got across an awful lot of his material and you could really get a sense of his individuality and I would be inclined to go and see him do a full set. Well I would be if it was a solo show, I see he’s been doing some shows with the nauseating Josie Long…but we’ll draw a veil over that matter rapidly.

 

Gordon Southern had quite a laid back delivery, so much so that some jokes I felt were lost on the crowd. Not that they needed the jokes explaining or spelling out, it was more the fact that HiFi is more of a live music venue and people were in the mood for chatting while the acts were on, annoying but on a Saturday night after a few drinks, I suppose it was inevitable really. Therefore, despite being an excellent comic, Southern’s humour often didn’t get the appreciation it deserved.

 

Southern started with some material about him being from Brixton and I thought perhaps he would go down the route of ‘North/South divide’ but he managed to avoid taking the obvious comedy routes too often and it became more about class divides that were often specific to Southerners- while it could potentially alienate a Northern audience in fact it appealed all the more as he was seen to be mocking the South but also making some very funny observations. Again it was never the obvious or well-trodden route, but had an edge to it. There was also an informative account of what to shout to get the help of passers-by if you were being attacked by a knife-wielding mugger, although if in real life you might want to leave out the jazz hands that his wife apparently provided Incidentally the comedy geek in me noticed Southern used a joke I first heard done by Ross Noble, about leaving graffiti in the Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms reading “All the best, Love God” now this seems too much of a specific joke for two comedians to get away with using…

 

Nevertheless, despite this very minor complaint, I’d say that Southern is a great comedian with some sharp observations and a wicked way with words who is certainly worth looking out for.

 

Time for the next act, Matthew Reed was greeted by a heckler shouting ‘You look like Jesus’, I’m sure due to his appearance he’s had this heckle before and he seemed totally bored by it, which started his set off with a slightly bitter edge. This turned out to be typical of his style anyway, which, despite liking some of his material, I wasn’t really keen on. His routine seemed to flow well and integrate the improvised bit with his routine, though he did tend toward the one-liner, which can get tedious after a while (for a prime example of this see Jimmy Carr).

 

Towards the end of his set, for whatever reason, it was as if he wanted to get in a few more controversial jokes and they ended up being ‘tacked on’ the end with no real context, though admittedly they were still funny. Perhaps he felt he needed to make an impact before he left the stage? Well whatever the reason the audience was left with an odd feeling following his set, you can’t deny he had some great ideas and jokes, but it all felt a little disjointed on this occasion.

 

However, despite the audience being typically distracted, there was a great atmosphere on the whole and I’d be inclined to take in some comedy at HiFi again in the future.

Riddle Me This…. June 18, 2007

As part of The Liverpool Comedy Festival I toddled along to see Tim Minchin, Jason Byrne and Topping And Butch on a Wednesday night triple bill. I was mainly there to see Tim, but a friend had highly recommended Jason, and we just decided to make a night of it and see all three acts.

We got to the venue (The Royal Court) posing as Rawhide Comedy Club early and got a nice table near the front, as it was cabaret seating. I rarely see shows performed cabaret style so it made a nice change, although really in a venus that size (the auditorium felt very big) there seemed little advantage in this style of seating, and while in a smaller, more intimate venue the informality would have been an advantage, in a large space such as this I felt it just made people want to pay less attention to the shows.

I was very intrigued to see what show Tim would put together. Having only seen his shows in full length ‘best of’ format I was secretly hoping for a rendition of his 2006 Edinburgh show ‘So Rock’ as I missed it at the Edinburgh Festiva, also I have a burning desire to see his songs ‘Fat Children’ and ‘Perineum Millenium’ performed live as they were excluded from his tour show. However ths show wasn’t ‘So Rock’ exactly, but kind of a mini-intro to Minchinism, as it were.

We had-

• So F***ing Rock,
• Rock And Roll Nerd
• If You Really Loved Me
• If You Open Your Mind To Much Your Brain Will Fall Out (Take My Wife)
• Peace Anthem For Palestine
• Darkside
• Canvas Bags

(I’m pretty sure that was the order, but I have a bad memory)

Of course there were the accompanying ‘musings from the muso’ inbetween and despite having heard some of the musings before they still remain fresh and funny (I never tire of the ‘Hungy, Hungry Hippos’ routine), there was also a fair bit of new material incoporating his wife and young child, and also the 30 something attitude to death (on his headstone he’d like “Whos’ the world going to revolve around now?”) which was really very funny.

However, the audience seemed hard to engage from the off…I don’t think it was a dislike of Tim, but more a mid-week, after work ‘I’m-going-to-sit-back-come-and-entertain-me’ attitude. An attitude which doesn’t really suit a Tim Minchin show, a point I’ve previously discussed is that with him, he invites the audience to meet him half way. He makes you think, and is so creative and clever with language that the laid-back, distracted audience coupled with some unfortunate acoustics and sound made for a less than favourable audience response, and as a result there was no ‘Second Encore’.

Such a shame as he most certainly deserved one.

Next up was Jason Byrne, who out of the three acts seemed to get the best response. It was the first time I’d really seen a substantial amount of his material, although a friend had been recommending him to me for ages.  I had asked her to describe him to me, but she couldn’t really find a comparison, and now I understand why…he could be seen as any or all of the following:

• Dylan Moran without the melancholy;
• Daniel Kitson without the arrogance;
• Ross Noble without the monkeys…

But he was none of those really, he was basically a likeable whirlwind of scruffy Irish energy, he told a fantastic story- notably the routine on his inclusion in The Royal Variety Performance and the bemusement that followed, although there was possibly a little too much reliance on the ‘comedy accent’ for my liking. He did alot of material on the rather safe topic of ‘relationships’ and gentle fun-poking at women’s inability to give a straight answer (saying we should precede all comments with the phrase ‘Riddle Me This’…ahem…I don’t know what he means…)

I just have one more point to write about for jason Byrne (the out-of-the-blue magic finale) and then there will be more to follow soon on the last act Topping and Butch….

I know the blog isn’t finished but 1 and a half acts out of three isn’t bad for a Monday night is it?

Bernard Manning Dies June 18, 2007

Hmmm. I’ve read a few comments expressing glee at Bernard Manning’s death.

Yes, he was offensive, rascist, mysoginistic…and I never found him particularly funny, primarily for these reasons. But I certainly don’t wish anybody dead, or even ill health.

But you see, many comedy shows/comedians today are infact portraying similar views masked under layers of so called irony…

So which is worse: simply saying what you think and making no apologies for it, even if it does offend, or saying things and then being cowardly and backing away from what you’ve just said? I was having this conversation with Cara only the other day actually.

On consideration I’d say that you really should strive to do your own thing. I’ll never forget a comment from The League Of Gentlemen in the commentary for their ‘Live At Drury Lane’ show. It was regarding changin certain words and references for the US audiences, and that these were the times that the audience laughed least. Their conclusion? Well that you should just go ahead and be unashamedly ‘yourself’ and let other people catch up. If they don’t want to, if they don’t want to buy in to your humour then fine, but at least you’d have integrity and the fans you have will be all the more appreciative.

So, in a way Bernard Manning was just doing that- doing his own thing. And if people stop doing that where would we be?

We’d more than likey be sat in a focus group trying to decide what we thought which politically incorrect terms were the least offensive.

Well, either that or watching Big Brother.

EDIT: I’ve just stumbled across a quote from Richard Herring which in a way backs up what I’ve been trying to say-

Comedian Richard Herring’s latest show Ménage à Un involves a clever routine in which he pretends to endorse the BNP. “Don’t go thinking I’m the new Bernard Manning,” he tells the audience. “I’m being post-modern and ironic. I understand that what I’m saying is unacceptable. But does that make me better than Bernard Manning, or much, much worse?”

Actually if you read the rest of this article, it makes some very specific points about comedians and masking their material as ‘ironic’….here is it

On The Offensive

Bit of a mixed blog…Mark Watson, Edinburgh and excuses… June 5, 2007

Hmm, I’ve been rather bad at updating this recently. Sorry to anyone who is expecting more comment from me. It’s partly due to being busy with real life, applying for jobs, and bits and pieces of mine and Cara’s writing.

Also, I was a bit worried that my blog was going to be a bit ‘Mitchell and Webb’ heavy as I had a review of Magicians to post up, I wanted to review Peep Show Series 4, and That Mitchell And Webb Sound has started a new series recently on Radio 4. Plus there was my recent comment on the BAFTAs.

So as a result I did nothing Instead I’m writing a blog on the reason why I didn’t write a blog in the first place. Clever huh?

In other comedy related stuff the Tim Minchin fan site is up and running, as is the rather wonderful forum , good work Linzi/Lyndsey/Linzy etc etc.

I’m also getting simultaneously giddy and frustrated at the pre-Edinburgh excitement- I’ve been browsing Chortle’s listings and basically wanting to see everything, sadly due to potential life and work commitments I’m not even sure I’ll go this year.

Which is a shame as there is one event I would give my right arm to be able to go to and that is ‘Mark Watson’s 24 Hour Jamboree To Save The Planet‘. For the past couple of years the stand-up comedian, novelist and seemingly all round nice bloke Mark Watson has been performing marathon shows (24 hour or 36 hours) and this year he has taken the concept of, as you might have guessed from the title, ‘Saving the Planet’. He set up ‘Crap At The Environment‘ as a mySpace venture, enabling people who were concerned about saving the environment, but were actually a bit crap at doing it- not excluding himself.

With another comedian/performer this concept might seem a bit contrived, and there’s nothing I hate more than contrived ideas which are either blatantly money-making or, what is worse, just plain lazy. For example, following Dave Gorman’s success with firstly The Dave Gorman Collection and then Googlewhack Adventure his friend, one-time flat-mate, producer and occasional co-writer Danny Wallace brought out Join Me which was about him starting a cult by accident, and the subsequent collective of people that formed to perform ‘Random Acts Of Kindness’.

Fair enough, I bought the book, and joined up myself. It was a genuine story of how this idea had started and spiralled almost out of control. The book looked retrospectively at the early stages of ‘Join Me’ and was also a ‘work-in-progress’ of sorts as he still had new ‘joinees’. Like Dave Gorman’s books…it was compelling because it was REAL. He hadn’t set out getting people to ‘join’ so that he could write a book about it. However his next offering Yes Man where he vowed to say ‘yes’ more in his life just smacked of laziness- he already knew the concept of ‘project comedy’ worked. But without that spark of genuine sacrifice, pain and personal involvement that infused Dave Gorman’s books…it seems rather flat and futile.

Of course Danny Wallace is far from being the main offender of this type of entertainment, I’m just pulling an example from the comedy-world. There are plenty of worse (or rather better) examples in light entertainment- basically any ‘reality’ TV show. You can almost hear the producers saying ‘how can we make it real?’ When the secret I’d like to let them in on is- you don’t make something real…it’s either real or it’s not- as soon as you add the word make into the equation it all becomes false and therefore uninteresting.

So how am I going to relate all this back to Mark Watson? Well as I said the concept for his show- getting people involved in order to create a show out of the project could seem as contrived as Danny Wallace’s Yes Man after all he is technically setting up a project to create a show. Though somehow the involvement Mark has with the project , the sincerity and enthusiasm he seems to invest in it (he blogs about his own attempts at being crap at the environment) and the fact that he approaches it with more of an attitude of ‘come along for the ride’ rather than a cynical ‘look what I’ve done to try and be entertaining’ mean that rather than contrived it seems a real comedy ’shared experience’. Oh and with the format of his marathon shows he actually pushes the boundaries of comedy performance, which is a rare thing these days.

And if this all seems a bit much, the man does regular stand up too. Here he is at the Melbourne Comedy Festival 2007 oh and he’s a bit of an amateur magician as well

Upcoming shows…. June 4, 2007

Am very pleased to be seeing a triple bill of comedy as part of the Liverpool Comedy Festival.

Wed 13th June at The Royal Court- Tim Minchin, Jason Byrne and Topping and Butch

I’ll let you know what it was like I’m sure. Probably focusing on Jason Byrne and Topping and Butch, as I’m sure you all know my views on Tim Minchin

He’s So Postmodern… May 24, 2007

OK, yes a bit of a fangirl post here, but I just had to express my current admiration for Justin Heazlewood- the artist known as ‘The Bedroom Philosopher’ . An Australian folk/comedy musician who I (predictably) first found through Tim Minchin’s mySpace ,  I was drawn to the song ‘I’m So Postmodern’ not simply because of it’s quirky and inventive lyrics, but more because, as a Theatre Studies graduate I spent alot of time studying the finer points of Postmodern theory (…rolling about on the floor with a skeleton mask on, recording a description of my surroundings late at night under a railway bridge in Leeds…you know, the usual…)

The song emcompassed my feelings about Postmodernism- I have a certain fondness for it, and yet at the same time know that it can be massively pretentious. What is also clever about the song is that it touches on the way it’s misunderstood by most people who think it’s all about being ‘random’ and all about juxtapositioning- yes there is that aspect to it, but of course that is ‘Postmodernism-lite’. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

Back to Justin Heazlewood. I’ve had his album In Bed With My Doona (if you don’t know what a doona is you obviously don’t know any Australians) on repeat for the past few days. It’s a real grower…and yes I do mean by that that it took my a while to get ‘into’. I think beacuse his clever lyrics are so carefully constructed, full of references and often delivered very fast paced that you need to listen a few times for it all to sink in. Also, if you come to it from a ‘comedy musician’ point-of-view like I did, it is a bit of a revelation to find that he’s not always just about the comedy- for example the song Everybody’s Got The Same Insecurities As You may have a humourous edge to it, but really it could just as easily appear on a (Taco) Belle And Sebastian album (listen to McRock to get that reference )

So if you like your comedy accompanied by bouncy upbeat folk-inspired music, or if you like your music to have an edge of intelligent self depreciatory humour, I urge you to go and buy his albums and support this very talented and original artist.

Tim Minchin: The Lowry: Jan 07 May 13, 2007

Having first seen Tim Minchin at a late night stand up gig at the Gilded Balloon in Aug 06, and scouring the internet for any information on him ever since then (and *ahem* making myself known on his website and mySpace) etc etc, I was looking forward to finally seeing a full-length show by the man himself.

We got to the hotel rather late, but with what should have been plenty of time to get ready, however it was 7.50pm before we knew it…and we didn’t actually know how to get to the theatre. My watch said 08.02pm by the time we got there and we still didn’t know which venue we were in. When we finally found it fortunately a fair few others were still being shown to their seats so we didn’t miss anything. I was worried we’d have to be shown to our seats when the show had started because we had front row seats…well I say worried, but I doubt I’d really have minded being picked on by Tim.

As for the show itself, it was a mixture of his first show ‘Darkside‘ and his latest show ‘So Rock’. This was both good and bad. Good, because in fact the majority of his songs from both shows were played- making for a longer show. And you can’t beat a double dose of Tim. Bad, because with the bits in-between the songs you could tell that it was a mixture of two shows, and it didn’t flow quite as well as it could have, however that’s only a small criticism in a show that is 99% spot on.

From the moment he walked on stage he held the audience’s attention completely. At first I think it was bemusement at the contrast between his mad-professor hair, his hippy-ish bare-feet, and the dramatic physical comedy he used in his egotistical opening song So Fucking Rock…however mixed in with this is a large dose of self-depreciation (“the fact I don’t wear shoes is just an affectation…”). The audience seem to then really warm to this very ’small’ and tentative persona he adopts when he speaks (and during some songs) enabling him to do stand-up material about illegal mini-cabs and rape victims and sing lyrics such as “you grew on me, like a tumour…” and yet not offend anybody.

When he talks in-between songs it’s a mix of audience banter and structured stand-up routines, but still to me he’s not a stand up comedian- he’s an actor/musician who happens to have an awesome sense of comic timing and wicked sense of humour, who is also highly intelligent. The ’stand-up’ routine which stands out to me as an example of this is about the theory of evolution. The refreshing thing about it (and much of his comedy) is that it actually treats the audience as if they do have an ounce of intelligence- seemingly a rare thing in comedy at the moment. He never spells out the joke, he expects the audience to do some of the work too and meet him halfway, which they are more than willing to do.

Not only does he have the ability to improvise during his ’stand-up’ routines but also within his songs- especially during his dramatic piano solos. So, although I had heard his songs many times on CD, his facial expressions and physical comedy make them really come alive and, as should be the case with good live comedy (and live music of course), you feel you have been part of a unique experience. In addition you always get the impression Tim is thoroughly enjoying every minute of his performance- there is also often an element of child-like and gleeful ‘showing-off’ mixed into his complex stage persona, endearing him ever more to the crowd.

This was also demonstrated during the finale to the first half, and again he mixed in an edge of uncertainty to his performance. Halfway through his inspiring environmental message ‘Canvas Bags’, he begins to unbutton his shirt, but rather than doing this with a simple air of confidence to match the content of the song, he is at first hesitant. Then, with further child-like glee he decides it is not enough to preach the benefits of ditching plastic in favour of reusable canvas bags via the medium of song…he needs FANS! Rather then a slick and impressive set up, he opts to shuffle off stage to bring on his own fan from the wings and position it in front of himself allowing it to billow out his open-shirt and blow though his impressive locks… so by the end of the song the audience were left questioning whether he was really ‘Tim Minchin comedy performer’ or if he really was some sort of new Environmental Messiah.

(Picture taken by Catherine.)

 

At the end most of the front row and a few other audience members gave a standing ovation, and (caution, fan-girl comments alert…) I am pleased to report he came over to me and waved right at me, and also afterwards in the bar he said hello to me by name. I was pleasantly surprised that he knew who I was, after all he does have a lot of fans on his websites! I also met Lyndsey who frequents his mySpace page, at which point Tim remarked that usually fans were “a bit wierd” when they met each other, to which I replied “well, it’s because we’ve all got you in common!” A fair point I think! After he’d signed a fair few canvas bags for people, he came and sat with me and Cath for a bit of a chat and I finally cleared up the case of misheard lyrics from his song ‘Darkside‘. Overall he was so genuine, polite, and laid-back with a lot of time for everybody.

(I’m on the left, Cath’s on the right.)

 

Quite simply there should be more people like Tim in the world…

And especially in the world of comedy.