Bouncy Bouncy.


Tonight I went down to the Market Theatre to pose for photos for my Edinburgh artwork.



Pleasingly, it didn’t take long to get what we wanted, though it will be Glyn’s photoshop that will ultimately swing it and make the idea work. The premise is that I’ll appear to be falling through the air as if I’ve leapt from a plane or off the top of a building, to fit in with the ‘downfall’ theme. To make it work, I jumped up and down repeatedly in front of a green screen, ensuring I lifted my feet up behind me enough that the perspective will look right once we add me to the right backdrop; this seemed the most sensible way to do things, rather than arranging for me to actually leap from a great height.

Earlier today, Glyn and I popped into Hitchin Town Hall to organise a few last-minute things for Thursday’s Harry Hill / Simon Munnery Mostly Comedy. What’s good is we managed to alleviate the majority of our concerns about what we know is not the most user-friendly space, thanks to the size of the room and a number of bizarre modifications they made to the venue when it was recently refurbished.

The seed of worry was firmly planted at the weekend when I emailed our contact at the Town Hall (through which we’d made the booking) for an out-of-office reply to shoot back saying he’d left the company. This didn’t exactly fill us with confidence as, despite trying to get him to put our agreement in writing - even informally - he never did, so a number of things were now going to be just on trust; also, it was good of him to let us know he was off.

Thankfully, the woman we spoke to at the venue today was completely on-it. For starters, when we arrived she told us she’d just replied to the email that I’d forwarded to her once I was aware of our contact’s departure, which, when I looked at it, she’d done the nearly unheard of and answered all my queries; this almost never happens, so it was a pleasant surprise to deal with someone who was very efficient.

At least, I now feel we can head towards Thursday’s show with a modicum of confidence. This also hopefully means I can spend much of the rest of this week working on my show instead of being snowed down in admin. Watch this space...

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