Skip to main content

Today's Itinerary


I’ve spent the last few hours running the material I plan to do at Monday week’s SohoTheatre Comedy Project gig, plus working on a couple of new bits I might try out at Thursday’s Hitchin Mostly Comedy.

I’m pleased with how it's coming together on the whole. I’m making a point of running the stuff for the Soho show at least once a day, to get comfortable with it. If I can make the meat of the material second nature, I’ll be more relaxed on the day. It’s still very new. While there are a few weak links between set pieces, it’s beginning to feel cohesive. I’m looking forward to trying it in front of an audience. More than anything, I’m looking forward to the Actors’ Temple Work in(Hope of) Progress gig at the end of the same week, as it’s likely to be a more relaxed and receptive environment. My approach can be looser. I can risk doing unfinished stuff, to see how it lands.

Once the Soho show has past I can switch my attention to writing more for Brighton. While I’m conscious of needing to speed up my productivity to meet the May deadline, the fact a few new bits and pieces are coming together that excite me eases my mind. I plan to try out five minutes of new stuff at Mostly this week. I’ve also got a five-minute open spot at a gig in London on Wednesday. I’d like to do the same set there, but it involves projection. There are a few niche references which will be helped with a visual prompt. I may blow up a couple of key images to A3 and take them with me. I’d rather try it out two days in a row to get a better idea of whether it works. Anyone know a quick, cheap printing company? Ideally someone I don’t need to explain my need for a print of Grotbags to. I could do without that.

Popular posts from this blog

Not The Bayeux One.

The Carole King album Tapestry has been my 'getting-ready-in-the-morning' soundtrack for the past few weeks.  It's been a favourite album ever since I was a student, which makes for a pleasantly gentle way to usher in the start of a day. I've always been a fan of a well-crafted song, which is something of a Carole King hallmark, ever since she started writing with her first husband in the early Sixties. Tapestry may be an unimaginative choice for a favourite LP, as it suggests I haven't delved that far into her career, but it's still an undoubted classic; anything with '(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman', 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' and 'You've Got A Friend' on it can't really fail; if nothing else, it proves she likes writing songs with long titles.  Next month, she's set to perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at a gig in Hyde Park, which I would have loved to have gone to, if it weren...

Hitchin is Mine.

As of six o’clock tonight, I take over the Hitchin is Yours Twitter account for a week; a stewardship I’m anxious to get right. I’m proud of my hometown. It’s a great place to live, with so much going for it. I've always sold it to my non-Hitchinite friends; so much so, that a lot have gone on to move here. Any town expansion plans are partly my fault. Feel free to picket outside my house. I love its history and architecture. Take St Mary’s Church, for example. The building is beautiful inside and out, and huge for a town of our size. There has been a place of worship on site since the 7 th Century. Much of the present building dates from the 1300s. You wouldn't get that in America. (Don't forget the British Schools Museum too.)  Hitchin is a hive for creative people and a hub for the arts. It boast two theatres, two comedy clubs, a couple of art galleries, a festival for world music and a thriving music scene. This drew...

'Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream..."

While I’ve been practising meditation for quite some time now, I’ve recently taken to using the mindfulness app 'Headspace' . If you’ve never meditated before, or you’re an old hand at it, it’s a great resource, offering daily ten-minute guided meditations that create a sense of progress, rather than stagnating and going through the same process every day. Until I started using the app, I’d often listen to a handful of audio guided meditations I have on my phone in case of a brain emergency. If you see me with my eyes closed and my earphones in on public transport, I’m probably doing this (unless I’m sleeping and using this blog as an elaborate alibi). While the tracks on my phone are great, they can get a little repetitive as I become too familiar with them and start to anticipate everything the person on the recording will say. This is where Headspace is great, as it offers you a daily course with a different focus each day, as well as pl...