Edinburgh here I come… June 24, 2007

I had wanted to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for about 10 years and finally last year I made it up there for a weeks holiday. The original intention was to see a friend in his play, sadly that play fell through but we had a great week up there soaking up the atmosphere and seeing a wide variety of shows. I’ve got a list somewhere, with reviews as well. I should post that up sometime actually, I first discovered Tim Minchin there, and saw Daniel Kitson’s amazing C90…which were my personal highlights.

Thing is, although I’d wanted to go, somehow a holiday wasn’t enough. I didn’t like *just* being a spectator and felt like I was missing out a bit. After all, one of my long time ambitions was to put on a show there (well I’d follwed in The League Of Gentlemen’s footsteps to Bretton Hall, so why not to Edinburgh as well?) Despite all of mine and Cara’s writing, we know that it would be some time before we’d be at the financial stage to think about getting a show put on (not to mention the distance) so when circumstances conspired in my favour somewhat I decided to apply for a job at some of the venues. As it turns out I only applied for The Underbelly and The Gilded Balloon- these being the main two comedy venues for the Fringe Festival and really the only two I really wanted to work for, having enjoyed seeing productions there in 2006

To cut a long story short (TOO LATE!) I got a job in the box office of The Gilded Balloon.

I’m ultimately over the moon about this…I’m not just thinking of all the free shows… Late and Live, the So, You Think You’re Funny competition, Geraldine Quinn, and the Pete and Dud play ‘Goodbye: The (After) Life of Cook and Moore’ etc etc…because I know that I’ll be working alot and not get chance to be seeing shows all the time…I’m also thinking of the experience. Like I said, I love to be involved and this will be the ideal way for me to do so.

All I need to sort now is a place to stay…

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.

That’s BAFTA-WANG!! May 22, 2007

It is very safe to say that it wasn’t a great night for comedy, but then 2007 hasn’t been a great year for comedy overall, so it was slim pickings indeed. The Vicar Of Dibley was nominated more than once, but why I am surprised I don’t know. Dibley seems to get nominated at every single awards ceremony, every single year whether it’s been on TV or not. Perhaps in a few years time we can look forward to it being awarded the ‘Best Comedy Never To Have Been Awarded A Music Prize’? Plus Richard Curtis was getting the Lifetime Achievement Award…say no more.

As for Best Sitcom we had IT Crowd, The Royle Family, Green Wing and erm…that other one that nobody had heard of… Pulling…? Or should that have been ‘Scraping (The Barrel)’?

IT Crowd was passable but even the brilliant Chris Morris as Denim couldn’t really make it better than average. Talking of Morris many people see Green Wing as a cheap Morris (specifically Jam/Blue Jam) rip off with it’s jumpy camera work, music and speedy-uppy/slo-mo effects, but against the other nominations I think it should have won- I think The Royle Family, despite it being of a high quality, has had it’s day. Green Wing was at least a truly contemporary success, plus I can’t ignore the fact it has two young female writers involved. Oh and did I mention that I actually find it funny?

Best Comedy Performance was a wash-out, a total waste of a category. Dawn French for Dibley, Liz Smith for Royle and Merchant and Gervais for Extras. Yawn. Oh what I would have given to see Chris Morris win it for Denim, the crazy boss in IT Crowd! Or failing that, I think Joan Rivers should have taken it for her intro-

“Gervais, he slept with my cousin, and never called her again. A mean thing to do to a Jew with a hare-lip… and she had just learned to say ‘Riii-cckyy!’”

“Stephen Merchant, I don’t know who the fuck he is so he can’t help MY career!”

Poor Merchant, I think they only nominate him so that when Gervais wins and ‘is unable to be there as he’s filming in America’ there is somebody to carry it home for him. I say Poor Merchant, but he seems to enjoy playing second fiddle to Gervais…I’m certain this wasn’t the first time he’s gone up to accept a BAFTA on his behalf…or maybe I’m wrong and it was the other way round- Gervais going up to accept Merchant’s? Either way it smacks of smugness, on both their parts.

So, the last comedy related category of the night was Best Comedy Series and the nominations here were quite a mixed bag. In the introduction, reference was made to the nominees reliance on catch-phrase, which in the cases of Little Britain Abroad and The Catherine Tate Show is a fair point- it’s what those two programmes base their success on (as well as crude, lazy writing and a lack of originality or vision…), but when was the last time you heard anybody quoting the very poor and slightly obscure Little Miss Jocelyn? Come to think of it when was the last time you spoke to anybody who had ever seen it?

That Mitchell And Webb Look does have it’s catch-phrases, granted, but it seems to sit on the fence in this respect- never going all out and using them as a launch pad for dolls, pencil cases and a whole host of meaningless merchandise, but they still, if not exactly flog their catchphrases to death, certainly in some cases they beat them into submission. ‘Numberwang’ being the main example of this. However what saved Mitchell and Webb with this particular sketch is that the more they did ‘Numberwang’ in different variations it ended up going past the point of being a repeated catchphrase and actually could have been seen as a comment on televisions predilection for the repetition of a single idea/sketch thinly disguised in various forms. I don’t know if this move into what could be tentatively called a meta-sketch was intentional or not, but I really hope it was.

 

I was of course very pleased that That Mitchell And Webb Look won this award despite feeling that it wasn’t really the best they have to offer us- a fact a fact we all know deep down but some of us don’t like to admit. In addition, winning the award could be seen as faint praise when it was clear to any true comedy fan that the other nominees were completely dire. But I don’t see it as faint praise considering the commercial popularity of The Catherine Tate Show (and Little Britain) as we all know that ‘they’ (the TV producers, execs, commissioning editors etc.) like to try and give people what they think they want. For once the award seems to have been given on merit. And if nothing else they’ll now be able to use one of those ‘BAFTA Winning’ stickers when their DVD comes out rather than just ‘BAFTA Nominated.’

Now, what we’ve all been waiting for, and what was possibly the highlight of the whole show for me…the screen caps of Catherine Tate’s face when Mitchell and Webb won the award. I’ve gone for before and after shots of course.

“No BAFTA?? How very dare they!!!”

 

My Gawd… May 15, 2007

Just a quicky…

So ‘Shooting Stars could be set to return.

Good news for Vic and Bob fans?

I don’t think so. After all the 2002 return of the show was distinctly lacklustre, it felt like it was trying too hard. It upsets me when comedians who are capable of alot simply repeat past commercial successes.

They should be bringing us a new series of something as original as ‘Catterick’, which if you haven’t seen I strongly suggest you invest in. To me, it felt like all their past work had been leading up to this one programme, but without being a direct ‘copy and paste’ job. A true one off, I suppose. Which is a shame.

Hand.

“Such detail!” The League get scribbling again… May 14, 2007

No, I’m sorry to disappoint you but they’ve not come up with a new series (well not just yet…) The Gents have been busy compiling a new book. Thanks to Deborah (Geoff Tipps Joke Writer) from Local Shop forum for posting the heads up on this little beauty which is sure to be gracing my bookshelf as soon as September comes around…

The League Of Gentlemen’s Book Of Precious Things

Now clearly I can’t do an advance review of it, but judging by their past efforts, and the care that they put into any endeavour, this book should be another gem which I can sit pouring over for hours and yet still manage to find that extra little detail when I pick it up again days later.

Their two previous books have been much more than just ‘TV tie in’ books, cobbled together by somebody who knows little about them and consisting of little more than screen grabs of the TV show. They have both been wonderfully creative in format and rich in detail (I’m sure Geoff’s art teacher would be proud )

The ‘Local Book For Local People‘ took on the format of a scrapbook created by the shopkeeper character Tubbs, found after the Local Shop burned down. An interesting premise which allowed them to include items such as newspaper clippings, photos, and other scraps (of the paper kind, not scraps of Special Stuff) found around Royston Vasey and simultaneously provide the reader with a new insight into their existing characters (providing the sections of backstory they would never have time for on television) and also introduce new ones. It also allowed them more freedom with material- they could include mock ups of television magazines, record covers and also show off their artistic ability’s- alot of the art-work was doodled or painted by themselves.

‘Scripts And That’ was not only a comprehensive documentation of their scripts from all three series plus the Christmas Special, but it again included exclusive behind the scenes photos and most exciting of all it had notes from The Gents themselves, which included doodles, deleted and never-before-filmed scenes, character ideas, lists of quicky-gags, newspaper cuttings and much more. It would have been so easy to simply put together s script book but, as ever, The Gents add that extra little flourish to make it something extra ’special’.

I do have a slight gripe about the new book however, it seems that despite them wanting to leave behind Royston Vasey…they just can’t seem to do so. Don’t ge me wrong, I think reading about their influences etc will be interesting and that they will create something fresh and creative allowing an insight into their work…but in a way I would love them to move on completely. We all thought their latest tour ‘The League Of Gentlemen are Behind You’ was a fond farewell to Royston Vasey, but it seems that the ‘village of the damned’ lives on, but just in another format.

Oh mommy! Oh daddy! Let’s all play Kabadi! May 14, 2007

Just a quicky observation or two here…probably totally inconclusive though…

After watching ‘Perfect Night In‘ with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (ahh the beauty of syntax, I can make it sound like they were round my house!) they showed two episodes of Spaced that they had picked themselves. First was the clubbing episode and second was the gun-fight episode- the real names escape me…will edit later!

Anyway, first thing I noticed was the presence of an ad break. I was rather shocked at this unexpected punctuation of the episode, but at the same time I was interested to see where Edgar, Jess and Simon had decided to break off the story for maximum effect. You see I’ve watched them mostly on DVD, where I can pick and choose when to go and get my Jaffa Cakes from my coat pocket and eleventh cup of tea (twelve’s my limit though ).

Which brings me to my next observation- that this was probably (almost certainly) the first time they’d been repeated on terrestrial TV since they were first aired (possibly series 1 got a repeat, but I’m certain series 2 didn’t) and this, to me, is a complete crime! Possibly one of the most original sitcoms of recent years just doesn’t get the air time it deserves. But I suppose it’s not hindered them really has it? Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead obviously did really well, and talking to some folk it seems they’ve done well without people even knowing about Spaced. I have since tried to persuade these ‘folk’ to go and get the Spaced box set and give it a whirl. Which goes back me being annoyed that the episodes have not been repeated and people not being aware of the show.

As I have somewhat come full circle with my observations, I think it’s as good a place to end as any.

Be lucky! Oi! Oi!