Hard Pressed.


I’m a little frustrated by the lack of interest in this month’s Mostly Comedy, both in the local press and in general.

Despite the fact the club's gone from strength to strength, there’s a sense that Glyn and I don’t get the credit for what we’ve built, and when we occasionally shine a light on our own work - as I am this week, by doing an extended work-in-progress set at Thursday’s gig - the local papers (whose job it is to run stories of local interest) - don’t cover it at all.

For nearly nine years, I’ve written press releases for every show and sent them to the papers, and as time goes by, our shows have been covered less and less. I know lot of this is no doubt due to cutbacks across the industry, with fewer journalists available to specialise in any given field, but I also know that good content is good content - yet some of the biggest names to play our club (whose coming to Hitchin constitutes a story) have been a secret outside of our mailing list and our Twitter followers (and their followers, when they retweet it) thanks to not being mentioned in the press; then, when it’s the opposite, and I build the press release around the fact a local performer is working up a show to take to Edinburgh, it’s also deemed unworthy of the coverage.

The saddest part of all is this proverbial radio silence has conspired to make this month’s show the lowest seller in two years, presumably due to a mix of a not so high-profile line-up (the last few months we’ve had Ardal O’Hanlon, Rory Bremner and the like) and the fact people don’t know it’s happening. So, in an attempt to rectify this, see below for the press release deemed too uninteresting to print:

 
Press Release – 01.04.17

mostly comedy
a monthly comedy and music club at the sun hotel in hitchin

With the Edinburgh Fringe looming on the horizon, most comedians turn their minds to putting together a new show. Consequently, April’s Hitchin Mostly Comedy will tip its hat to the time of year by hosting two extended work-in-progress sets from circuit comics TIFF STEVENSON and DAVID EPHGRAVE.

TIFF STEVENSON is an actor, writer, stand-up and a familiar TV face, having appeared on BBC2’s ‘Mock the Week’ and ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’, BBC3’s ‘Russell Howard’s Good News’ and ‘Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled’ on Dave to name a few. She also featured in Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant’s sitcom classic ‘The Office’ and in the West End run of ‘Celebrity Autobiography’ alongside David Tennant, Sally Phillips, Doon Mackichan and more.

Tiff's latest solo show 'Mad Man' was one of the best-reviewed shows on Edinburgh Fringe, receiving ten 4- and 5-star reviews including 5 stars from the Sunday Herald, The Mirror and Funny Women. That same year, The Times picked her as one of their top ten Fringe comics. Her radio credits include ‘Front Row’ (BBC Radio 4), ‘MacCaulay & Co’ (BBC Radio Scotland) and regular turns on BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Comedy Club. This will be her first appearance at Mostly Comedy.

Locally-based actor, writer, musician and comic (and back end of the duo behind Mostly Comedy) DAVID EPHGRAVE will also preview new material from his forthcoming Edinburgh show, following recent work-in-progress dates at the Bath Comedy Festival and before a handful on the Brighton Fringe in May.

Credits with Doggett & Ephgrave include eleven seasons with ‘The Comedy Project’ at the Soho Theatre, numerous shows on the Edinburgh, Brighton, Camden and Leicester Fringe, plus the Time Out-recommended version of Mostly Comedy at London’s Leicester Square Theatre. A notable D&E career highlight was reading an episode of their sitcom pilot ‘Nick & Joe’ in the West End alongside a cast that included Michael Barrymore and Norman Lovett (Holly in ‘Red Dwarf’). They also host ‘Doggett & Ephgrave: In Your Inner Ear’ on SG1 Radio.

David’s solo acting credits include playing Beatles legends John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the UK tour of ‘The Roy Orbison Story’, Buddy Holly in the UK / Ireland tour of ‘Buddy Holly and the Cricketers’ and Richard in the West End production of ‘Dreamboats and Petticoats’. He took his first solo show‘…and Ephgrave’ to the Brighton and Camden Fringe Festivals in 2015, his second, ‘Mostly David Ephgrave’, to London, Brighton, Bath, Leicester and Edinburgh in 2016, and his third, ‘Now Who’s a Comedian?’ to Edinburgh this year. He’s also kept a daily blog for four years at www.mostlydavidephgrave.blogspot.co.uk.

The gig takes place on Thursday 20th April at The Sun Hotel; doors open at 7:30pm with the first act on at 8:00pm. The show will be emceed by “polished, natural comedians” (Camden Fringe Voyeur) DOGGETT & EPHGRAVE. Tickets are £11 and are available in advance at www.mostlycomedy.co.uk. Other acts playing Mostly in the coming months include Mark Watson, Angelos Epithemiou, Richard Herring and Red Dwarf’s Hattie Hayridge.

Date:                Thursday 20th April 2017
Venue:             The Sun Hotel, Sun Street, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG5 1AF
Time:               Bar open all day. Doors at 7:30pm. First act on at 8:00pm               
Admission:      £11.00. www.mostlycomedy.co.uk

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