In The Beginning.


Today I find myself in the strange position of having had a very productive day preparing for my work-in-progress dates this week, while also feeling it’s quite likely a lot of what I’ve been working on won’t actually make it into the show I take to Edinburgh.

The reason for this isn’t to do with the standard of the material, but more because there are certain points I want to get across to fit the theme of my Edinburgh title ‘David Ephgrave: My Part in His Downfall’ that aren’t there at the moment, and by the time I’ve ticked them all off there weren’t be much room for what I already have. That’s not to say I won’t keep things in if they really work, but I suspect the biographical stuff I want to include will be more suited to the final concept.

Bizarrely, this had left me feeling encouraged, as I’m starting to see the beginning of an outline that might work, and that by writing more specifically to a theme instead of doing my usual stringing together of blogs that already exist as I did with the last three shows, the outcome will be better served. One thing that works in my favour is I’m used to writing quickly without too much over-consideration, thanks to keeping this blog in the first place, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to flesh things out; either way, this week’s run of three dates (taking in Hitchin Mostly on Wednesday and the two shows on the Brighton Fringe on Thursday and Friday) should be a good breeding ground to find out what works; I can at least try out material by treating it as a rough first draft that can be genuinely tinkered with before decamping to Edinburgh in August; the trick now is to remain encouraged and not be drawn into overthinking it.

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