It's Kevin (Again)

Tonight's Mostly Comedy was a lovely way to usher in our Autumn season, but of course it would be, when you have Kevin Eldon on the bill. 

Kevin Eldon at tonight's Hitchin Mostly Comedy (22.09.16)  Photo by Gemma Poole. 

I can't understate how much I rate him as a performer; something I know Glyn would definitely agree. I still remember how excited we both were the first time he said yes to playing our club. I said in his introduction tonight how just about every time a one-off character in a sitcom or sketch show sticks in your mind, it's almost certainly played by him; he was the laughing guy in the lift in I'm Alan Partridge, for Chrissakes. Not only that, but his performance as Bill Kerr in the excellent Radio 4 series The Missing Hancocks was spot-on to the point of being eerie; to call him an unsung hero of UK TV comedy of the past twenty years would be a conservative understatement. 

The line-up for tonight's show was a great one, even after putting Eldon to one side. The lovely Nathaniel Metcalfe did a great set in the first half just prior to Kevin (which was great to see, having not had him on at Mostly for a couple of years), plus we had the equally lovely and razor sharp (and consumate comic) Matt Green close the second half with his Edinburgh show 'Writing to Harvey Keitel, which I last saw when we shared a venue on the Brighton Fringe in May of this year. Kevin Eldon is a tough act to follow when so many people would clearly have come to gig to see him, but if anyone could do it, it's Matt; particularly when performing a show with such an interesting subject. 

It was also a good night for me Glyn. It was notable how relaxed I felt on stage on sharing it for the first time since Edinburgh with him. It's a whole other beast to doing stand-up on your own and was a welcome release from all the solo work I've been doing recently. We managed to dig out a piece of material we haven't done for a couple of years and give it a bit of a spring clean, which made it more fun. I also snuck in my Twitter Six Word Film Plots piece, which got a nice reaction too. The only slight setback was that sales were a little lower than usual, but then, to be fair, it had only been on sale for a week. Considering the tight turnaround. It did pretty well. On the flipside, next month we have Rory Bremner, which is already sold out. How do you like them apples?
 
(You needn't respond.) 

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Image
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...
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce...
Read more

Hoo-ray and up She Rises.

So much has happened since my last post in March that this blog risks sounding like an itinerary. The main news is that Hitchin Mostly Comedy will return in the summer at a new venue, the Queen Mother Theatre . The road to this decision was convoluted, though enough fell into place en route to leave me optimistic about this new start. The catalyst was a survey I ran via our mailing list a few months back, in which I asked, "If the club returned in the current climate, with tickets still around £15 (and with similar line-ups), would you still attend?"; the response to which, in simple terms, was a resounding yes. Nearly 250 mailing list subscribers responded in a single week, with around a hundred also taking the option to leave some feedback. And only two people were abusive, which counts as a win when you consider they posted their comments online anonymously. Imagine how many more insults we would have received if the comedy club was a woman. Particularly if she was Diane ...
Read more