Skip to main content

Magic Moments.


It’s hard to fathom it, but Paul Daniels appearance at Mostly Comedy was two years ago today.

Nothing will ever top that gig for me. We’ve been fortunate to play host to some truly fantastic acts in our nine years, but when your childhood hero performs at your club and you get to spend a good few hours in his company, you have to sit up and take note. I can clearly remember the huge smile that crossed my face when I walked down to the venue, knowing what was ahead
 “I’m just going to enjoy today”, I thought to myself, and enjoy it I did.

I met Glyn this evening to discuss our plans for our two shows this week, and the subject of our Daniels-iversary inevitably came up; it was a benchmark for the both of us. We also talked about how pleased we are about Debbie McGee’s reinvigorated popularity as a result of her clearly knocking Strictly out of the park (despite ending up in tonight’s dance-off). At risk of feeding the cliché, she really is lovely and deserves to be celebrated for her ability and for just being all-round nice; it’s great that the general public seem to be grasping this (aside from the usual tabloid bullshit).

My favourite moment of that gig two years ago was when Paul asked me to set his props.
“This is a high-tech piece of kit”, he said, as he handed me the gear in question.
“It’s a wooden box I made myself and screwed to a high-hat stand”; I can’t imagine David Blaine being that hands-on about it.

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...

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...

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...