Now Who's an Underwater Comedian?


It was a little daunting to arrive at my venue today to find the stone floor completely soaked, as a wise man once told me that water and electricity don’t mix; that or they mix all too successfully.

I remember this being the case last year too, and I’m used to the slightly lax but inevitable Edinburgh Fringe attitude to health and safety, but while it’s most likely all will be fine, I’d sooner not turn my show into an exercise in snuff comedy, as that’s hardly a viable model for a sustainable career.

It doesn’t help that apparently one of the last shows in the room uses a bubble machine and a hazer; surely neither are a very good idea in an entirely enclosed windowless stone wall-and-floored space. They usually have cleaners in first thing in the morning - and last year they had a dehumidifier too (decadence) - but based on the evidence they couldn’t have been in today; all we have to push the damp about this year is a single fan, which I moved around as much as I could this morning to make a token gesture at drying the floor off before I taped my leads down; even the taping was a largely pointless affair, as the Gaffer wouldn’t stick to the damp.

Other than risking life and limb, today’s show went well, though the audience was pretty quiet. Some days feel more like a lunchtime slot than others; today’s definitely did. I threw as much energy as I could into it and could see people were enjoying it, but it can be disheartening when you get little back; that’s the curse of an early show, I think. Still, at least I’ve got my wife up for a few days now to give my mood a boost, as I’m starting to flag a little bit.

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

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