Mostly Promotey.


Today I completed easily my least favourite task to do with running a comedy club (or putting shows on full-stop) and wrote my first press release of the year for this month’s Mostly.

Actually, while it may be the first press release I’ve written this year (not "may be"; it is) it’s not the first copy I’ve put together, having already supplied blurbs for Brighton, applications for Edinburgh and mailing list mail-outs for the club (and all the associated website listings and ticketing links that go with it), so I’d already done as much in all but name - so it’s no wonder I find it so tedious, when it’s the least satisfying and most time-consuming part of what I do.

While I don’t enjoy it, I'm fortunate that it’s a job that hasn’t been so pressing recently (no pun intended), what with how often our dates sell out in advance, though I still have to write them even then, as you can’t run an event without promoting it, however well it’s sold; so at least today it felt it was more of use. I know it wasn’t my best work as it was a little cut-and-shut, but it should do the job; hopefully reading it will make you so excited at the thought of coming to the show that you’ll be chomping at the bit; if you are, visit www.mostlycomedy.co.uk and you may snap up the last few tickets; I’m ever the salesman:

 
Press Release – 11.01.18

mostly comedy
a monthly comedy club, at the sun hotel in hitchin

While February to April’s Hitchin Mostly Comedy dates with HENNING WEHN, PHILL JUPITUS and JAMES ACASTER have all sold out, there are still a few tickets left for 25th January’s show, featuring cult comic favourites SIMON MUNNERY and BRIAN GITTINS.

SIMON MUNNERY is a Chortle Award winner, Barry Award winner, Sony Radio Award winner, British Comedy Award nominee and Perrier Award nominee, who was most recently seen/heard on Stewart Lee’s Alternative Comedy Experience on Comedy Central, BBC2's Culture Show and Radio 4's News Quiz.

Simon's 31-year stand-up career has seen him regularly perform all over the world and star in several major television and radio projects. He is best known for his characters Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, Buckethead and The League Against Tedium; his genre-bending innovations such as La Concepta (an interactive conceptual restaurant show) and his TV/radio projects such as series BBC2's Attention Scum, Radio 1's League Against Tedium and Radio 4's Where Did It All Go Wrong?

Character comic David Earl joins Munnery on the bill as BRIAN GITTINS; a roadside café owner and self-professed nasal spray addict, described by RIcky Gervais as 'one of the best comedy characters of the decade'.  Eagle-eyed fans of Gervais’ work will recognise Earl as Kev: a regular character in Channel 4's Derek.

January’s line-up also features comic actor LORNA SHAW, who is one half of the critically acclaimed Edinburgh and Soho Theatre sellout act That Pair. Lorna's TV and Radio credits include The Midnight Beast for E4, BBC Comedy Feed’s Life Guru and BBC Radio 4’s Newsjack amongst others.

The show will be emceed by DAVID EPHGRAVE (“as smooth as they come” BBC). David’s credits include playing both Lennon and McCartney in the UK / Ireland No. 1 tour of The Roy Orbison Story, Buddy Holly in multiple tours of Buddy Holly and the Cricketers and Richard in the West End production of Dreamboats and Petticoats. He most recently featured in the Daily Telegraph’s 20 Funniest One-liners and Comedy Central’s 35 Funniest Jokes from 2017 Edinburgh Fringe.

The gig takes place at the Sun Hotel. Doors open at 7:30pm, with the first act on at 8:00pm. Tickets are £11 and available in advance at www.mostlycomedy.co.uk.

Date:              Thursday 25th January 2018
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. Tickets via 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