Skip to main content

Don't Write Me Off.


I’m not going to lie. Writing a blog every day is hard.

I’m finding it particularly challenging at the moment, while I'm also trying to put together a solo show. It makes me feel I have to double my daily output. This pressure is, of course, entirely self-generated. No-one’s holding a gun to my head, forcing me to write (if they were, it wouldn’t help) - but I can’t shift the notion I should be doing more than I am.

Inspiration for the blog comes in fits and starts. I’ll have a week or two when ideas come easy and I’m enjoying it, then I’ll have a dip. It’s the same with anything creative: you don’t always have the requisite imagination or enthusiasm to do it.

The hardest part is getting motivated, when all manner of distractions crave your attention (in my case, it's mostly biscuits). I remember hearing French and Saunders discuss their writing process once in a documentary. They said they spend the whole day gossiping, doing anything but work, then maybe get a few lines down in the last half an hour. I empathise with that. Every time I meet with Glyn it’s the same. I think it’s part of the process. It’s a matter of relaxing your brain, then catching yourself with an idea off-guard.

It doesn't help that today’s been bitty. My attention has been split over a number of things (including my imminent tax return); so much so, that I didn’t feel like I’d seen anything through to its conclusion. I popped into the office late-afternoon to fiddle with some stand-up, but couldn’t focus on just one thing to work on. Then just before leaving, I stumbled across a short blog I’d forgotten about that had potential which fired me up a bit. I made a list of what I’d worked on before going home, which was far more than I’d thought.

I should stop writing now, as I’m getting tired. If I give my brain cells a rest, they’ll be fighting fit for tomorrow. Or not. As Phil Collins once said: “That’s just the way it is”. He also mentioned some nonsense about Sussudio, but we’ll ignore that.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...

"Speaking Words of Wisdom, Let it Shine."

Tonight saw the second instalment of BBC1’s latest advertise-a-musical-for-months-and-then-cast-it-with-performers-too-inexperienced-to-do-it-a-thon ‘Let it S̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ Shine’ (or as I call it: ‘REAL AUDITIONS ARE NOTHING LIKE THIS’). I didn’t watch it (clearly), but being reminded of how angry seeing just five minutes of it made me last week caused me to mull over what I would call a musical based on the band’s songbook, if I was responsible for it. Here are a my suggestions: IDEAS FOR TITLE OF A TAKE THAT MUSICAL: Barlow! Dirty Fat-Dancing Orange! A Million Love-changes-everything Songs Owen! Howard's End Pray Misérables Mamma Marka! Babe (with a pig as the lead) …BUT MY FAVOURITE HAS TO BE: Jason & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. "It was Orange, Orange, Orange, Orange..." (TAKE) THAT’S ENOUGH OF (TAKE) THAT.

Comedy That's Worth a Letch.

Today, I nipped to Letchworth to meet with illustrator (and one-time - two-time - comedy poet) Mushybees, to discuss an event Mostly Comedy will act as surrogate parents to as part of Letchworth’s Arts Takeover in a couple of weeks. Months ago he got into contact to see if we’d be up for co-organising a comedy stage as part of Letchworth’s weekend of arts-based attractions in July; something I’d provisionally said yes to, before things got hectic in the lead-up to Edinburgh and we didn’t take it any further. Despite not getting down to the nitty-gritty straight away, we managed to pull a line-up together in a back-and-forth of emails yesterday, leading to me getting Glyn’s blessing and us deciding we’d officially go ahead with it (whatever ‘officially’ means in this context). In reality, it’s not complicated: from 12pm until 6pm-ish on the 22 nd July, Glyn, Mushybees and I will host four Edinburgh previews from four acts (including me), before Nor...