Skip to main content

Streets Ahead.

While tonight's gig in Whitehall may have been cancelled, I did get the chance to have a peek at Downing Street. 

Despite working down the road for a few months at the Playhouse Theatre, and having passed the Cenotaph in the past, I'd never been up to the gates at the end of the PM's street until today. If it weren't for the machine gun-brandishing policemen on the other side of the fence, I might've rustled up the courage to scale it, removing my clothing on the way, and then sprint up to the handleless door of Number Ten and desperately tried to get purchase with my fingers. 

The city looked particularly picturesque today, in the fading light of sunny day. I got off the tube at Embankment and walked towards Whitehall - giving a nod to the Playhouse as I went past, in memory of my equivocal experience there in Dreamboats & Petticoats - with a view to heading straight for the venue, before glancing at my watch and realising I had time for a quick sightsee; you can't be so close to an iconic British institution and not look at it. 

Cast of The Gig That Wasn't (gotta love my gimpy face).

The venue for tonight's aborted gig was the Clarence Pub; a high-class bar, with a room upstairs where the comedy was set to take place that looked more like a Gentleman's Club to place wagers with Phileas Fogg than a place to be funny. I say this in jest: it would have been a great room to play if there'd been an audience, but sadly, being a Monday, there wasn't. The host, Jonny, was hugely apologetic, but it couldn't be helped. Thankfully, I have another gig booked in in a few weeks with him at a busy venue near Covent Garden, so I should get the chance to satiate the Cancellation Demon (if there's such a thing). I'm only glad tonight's show wasn't meant to happen on the 11th, or I would have got caught up in the Tour of Britian; there's nothing worse than a load of dyslexic cyclists.  

Labels:

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...
Read more

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...
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