mostly david ephgrave

Tonight’s instalment of University Challenge was a total washout for Team Cardiff. For much of the game their score was frozen at minus five, which is worse than even I would manage; consequently, they spent most of the programme wearing a look that was a mix of exhausted confusion and grim inevitability. They’d been steamrollered and they knew it and every passing second compounded their failure; they may as well have all started sucking their thumbs. As ever, I covered my view of the programme on Twitter. See below for what I said and when; who wouldn’t want to read that? Southampton Vs. Cardiff (31.07.17) 8:01PM: "Asking the questions..." a tetchy, miserable bastard. 8:01PM: Ledesma loves it. 8:03PM: Ledesma's borrowed Paul McCartney's septuagenarian hairstyle. 8:04PM: A bow tie on this programme is always a cause for concern. 8:04PM: "Rook's off". 8:06PM: Con...

In typical me-style, I had to rerecord a jingle from scratch that I wrote today to put into my show when the file decided to corrupt at the last minute, after having worked on it for a couple of hours. To be honest, the end result actually came out better after remaking it and it didn’t take as long to do, but it was frustrating when all I wanted was to relax for my penultimate evening at home before I bugger off to Scotland. It was one of those classic ‘should have saved it earlier’ situations, but it worked out all right in the end, so I don’t have much to complain about. There’ll be a lot to fit in tomorrow before I go, inevitably, but hopefully it won’t be too stressful a day. I treated myself to a couple of new suitcases today; I’ve been using the same one for touring since I first did Buddy back in 2005, so I think it was time for an upgrade. I also renewed my railcard that was conveniently set to run out tomorrow and sent a few Edinburgh-rel...

Today I was deeply surprised to find out one of my jokes had made it into The Telegraph’s list of 20 Funniest One-liners from the Edinburgh Fringe . STOP PRESS. It’s fair to say I’ve never had this level of coverage for something I’ve written myself, even if it’s just a few words, and it’s a hugely encouraging prelude to my Edinburgh run. I know these lists are arbitrary but there’s still a tiny sense of accreditation about the whole thing, particularly for someone who in his darker, less confident moments questions if he’s even a comedian at all; today, in a small way, a member of the national press said I was, and that’s a small achievement. Why is someone else confirming you’re a thing so important? My problem is I’ve always been a bit of a ‘Jack of all trades’ type, with the secret assumption this makes me a master of none; I’m an actor / musician - which sounds like a compromise - who’s wormed his way into writers’ groups and runs a comedy club by accide...

My labyrinthitis kicked in with a vengeance today, which is something I could do without. Quite often when it rears its ugly head, it’s the dizziness I notice last and the emotional response I notice first. Around lunchtime today I was overtaken by anxiety. Initially, I assumed this was due to the enormity of what I have to do over the next few days and the more mundane fact that I was waiting for Parcelforce to pick up the parcels I was shipping to Edinburgh. I thought it was just 'The Fear': the moment your body decides to exhibit the nerves you’re subconsciously feeling that haven’t bubbled to the surface yet. Of course there’s nothing wrong with feeling anxious about the job ahead when you have a lot coming up - that’s natural - but it wasn’t until I walked into town to do some shopping and started having problems coordinating my way past dawdling pedestrians that I realised my head was spinning and that was why I was on edge. The most frustrating thing about...

My Edinburgh prep is now at the manic, multitasking stage. It's been an exercise in juggling from the beginning to be fair, with too much attention given to the administrative side of proceedings, but things are approaching their most difficult. Next Wednesday I somehow have to orchestrate checking out of the hotel I’m staying in for one night as my digs won’t be ready yet (hopefully leaving a month's worth of luggage behind) to get a taxi to a depot on the outskirts of town to pick up my screen, projector stand and a suitcase full of gear; bringing them back knowing I may not have a place to store them until I can get into my digs after 4pm (which I have to pick the keys up for from an office that’s another taxi ride away). I also have to collect my posters and flyers, meet my flyerers and my technician and do a technical rehearsal in the evening; I’ll be lucky if I end the day on top of everything and still in one piece. Today was stressful enough in itself, when...

I didn’t find out until the morning that one of my old junior school teachers was at last night’s show. It’s a shame I didn’t know he was there, as I would have liked to say hello. It’s lovely to think he saw my name somewhere, remembered it and thought he’d come along to see what I was up to now. Apparently he’d been to Mostly Comedy a couple of times so he must have known what I do for a while, but it was still nice to find out someone from my past was checking in on me; it’s proof that you never quite know how many people still have you somewhere in their minds. It was pretty notable that he of all people should come, as he was the one teacher who dropped the odd hint or two that might I end up doing comedy. He described me as having a dry sense of humour that was blink-and-you’d-miss-it and suggested I might one day turn my hand to being a comedian; it turns out his premonition was eerily right; so much for using a pile of school reports as an excuse to ‘phone it in’. As I sa...

I found tonight’s preview at The Market Theatre a tiny bit frustrating, but to fair, most of that frustration was more to do with what was happening in my head then what was happening on stage. Me in victory stance at tonight's preview at The Market Theatre. (25.07.17) The main problem for me is was I couldn’t help bit compare it to my final preview this time last year at the Broadway Studio in Letchworth, when I could tangibly feel things falling into place; so much so I walked off-stage content with the fact the show was there; it was finished, it was done. Tonight’s show, conversely, was a personally a little hit and miss. For the most part, it felt reasonably slick and there were some good responses from the audience, but there were also moments when the reaction was a little muted and slow. Some of this was to do with the Curse of the Hitchin Festival; it’s a wonderful thing to be a part of and I’m very grateful for the cross-promoti...

Can it really be that time again? Has the new series of University Challenge come around this quickly? The answer to both of the above questions is yes, as barely three months after we waved goodbye to the likes of Monkman and Bobby Seagull, the world’s most perplexing quiz - both in terms of the questions and the style choices of some of the contestants - is back on BBC2. Unfortunately, I missed the first episode last week as I was gigging, but I was in front of my TV in good time today, with my phone in hand for a spot of live tweeting. See below for the bumpf I said; I like to offer an audio descriptive University Challenge experience. Trinity Cambridge Vs. Bristol (24.07.17) 8:03PM: Petrie? PETRIE?! What a dish. 8:04PM: Look at Bowes. 8:05PM: Hosegood...Hosegood...he's Ebenezer Good. 8:06PM: I hadn't noticed the curls in Bowes' beard until the close-up. I'm speechless. 8:07PM: Bowes ...

Today has generally been spent recovering from the exhaustion of the past week. Without wishing to sound unduly sorry for myself, I’m shattered, thanks to the combination of two Mostly Comedys, my two Etcetera Theatre dates at the beginning of the week, the outdoor Mostly event in Letchworth yesterday and a few other bits and bobs besides. I was supposed to be previewing tonight at The Actors’ Temple with the comic Daniel Cook but we decided to pull it this afternoon as there’d been no sales, which was a relief really, as I was finding it hard to sum up the energy to consider doing it, particularly when I would have had to lumber a lot of gear into London with me, due to the venue’s limited tech set-up. One thing I did do today was draw together a list of the people who’ve played Mostly Comedy so far this year to post on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to act as a space-saver until we’re back again in the Autumn. This served to reiterate how great the line-ups have been si...

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was another great gig and a lovely way to see us into our summer break. 150 people watch Hattie Hayridge at tonight's Hitchin Mostly Comedy. The bill this evening consisted of Hattie Hayridge, Richard Herring and us, with Richard previewing his new show ‘Oh Frig, I’m 50’ in the second half. While I always enjoy Richard’s stuff, tonight's show was one of my favourites, even at this stage, managing to tackle the topic of his fifth decade on the planet in a typically silly, sometimes thought-provoking and often brilliantly pedantic way. I’m always impressed by his extraordinary work ethic and the quality of the content he consistently puts out; there aren’t many comics that throw so much into what they do so constantly, which clearly has gained him a lot of respect from his fanbase, who were out in force in Hitchin tonight (as was clear by the volume of their RHLSTP shout-out when he name-checked the podcast in his set). ...

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was one of those effortless gigs where everything fell into place. A selection of shots of tonight's line-up, featuring us, Mark Watson, Bec Hill and a bonus pic of Glen Davies. After the show, there was a definite sense between Glyn, our tech Paul that it was a night we should be proud of. Mostly’s one of those things that can comes gently in and out of favour in your mind, what with all the organization and the fact our identities get lost in the midst of an event people forget we’re the originators of. You also start to take for granted the level of line-ups we have as a matter of course, which are really quite extraordinary. This week is a case in point. Tonight was the first in a three-day-straight of Mostly Comedy shows, with Mark Watson and Bec Hill tonight in Hitchin, Richard Herring and Hattie Hayridge tomorrow in Hitchin too and an extra bill of five previews in Letchworth tomorrow topped by Norman Lovett...

Sometimes, I have very little patience with humanity; last night was such a time. I was travelling back from my preview in London when I found myself opposite a man on the train, who was displaying the sort of horrific eating habits you’re likely to be confronted with when on a train late in the evening (as Eric Clapton might put it). As is often my way, I decided to vent some spleen about him on Twitter, as apsychological release; here’s what transpired, compiled together for posterity; enjoy: 9:56PM: There's a guy in the second carriage of the 21:52 fast train to Cambridge who's eating crisps in a way that makes us all a part of it. 9:58PM: To compound the situation he's wearing headphones...and keeps wiping his face elaborately with the back of his arm after each & every crisp. 9:58PM: I won't lie: it's disgusting. 10:00PM: He just answered the phone by saying "Yow". He's also ge...

It didn’t matter that there were only two people in for tonight's show, as it was both enjoyable and useful in equal measure.   It just goes to illustrate that you can never predict these things, other than taking an educated guess at the moment. Yesterday, only two people turned up as well, and as soon as I started talking to them beforehand to see how they felt about it and whether they wanted it to go ahead, the width of their eyes made it clear that they weren’t comfortable with it; I understood completely, as there aren’t many who would be. Conversely, I could tell very quickly when I spoke to the two women who came tonight that they were more than happy to watch it and if anything, that they thought it sounded quite fun. They seemed nice and good humoured, so the me that at other times might have decided to pull it before I went out-front thought, “What the heck”. I should state for the record that they were exceptional sports. With the wrong people, havin...

The fact I had to cancel Monday's gig goes to show how much harder it is to get an audience in London than anywhere else. "Now Showing..." To be fair, that’s a little simplistic. London is saturated with previews at this time of year, with many far more well-established performers vying (yes: “vying”) for attention, so it’s always going to be difficult; it’s a process you just have to go through to pull a show together, but an expensive one at that. The preview procedure is a bit of a lottery; you start by putting as many dates as you can in the diary, striking a balance between places you’ve played before and a few you haven’t, taking into account which venues are cheapest, which have their own audience and which are best equipped. The Etcetera (where Monday and Tuesday’s dates are booked) is one of the best spaces for me, as it’s perfect for comedy, has a good profile and has a projector and a screen rigged and a proper PA, whereas somewhere lik...