mostly david ephgrave

I’m officially on pet-sitting duties for the week, staying at my mum’s to look after her dog and cat (two separate animals) while she’s on holiday in Rhodes. There’s a slight air of responsibility to the whole affair, although I’ve looked after both in the past and have walked my mum’s dog a lot over the years, so I’m sure I’m up to the challenge. As I type, the dog’s asleep in the kitchen and the cat’s asleep on the bed upstairs, so all’s going according to plan for the moment; I haven’t set fire to the house yet. Hopefully it will make for a nice change to spend a few days here in their company. I’ve got quite a lot to prepare for over the next three weeks, what with two Mostly Comedys and the filming of my show, but there’s no reason I can’t do most of the prep here. I’ve brought my computer, my acoustic guitar and my show notes, so there’s little to hold me back; the change of scenery may even help, plus my mum has a nice garden I can sit in if...

So, we reach week two of Strictly and the voting starts in earnest. There were a lot of dances to get through tonight what with it being so early in the series; so much so, I reached a point about two-thirds in where I couldn’t for the life of me work out which celebrities we hadn’t seen yet. Despite being a long evening I still enjoyed myself, although this enjoyment was sullied by some of Craig and Bruno’s bitchy feedback to Susannah in particular. While I know Craig tends to work in sound bites and will usually give his negative comments first closely followed by the positive, when he only has time to say one thing, I don’t know why he’d go for something completely soul-destroying and unconstructive and often confidence shattering. Both he and Bruno are choreographers and the dance world can be an acid-tongued business, but surely with all their experience they’d know a scathing comment goes a long way toward making a non-dancer want to give up; I know I would. ...

Last night I dreamt Ray Winstone gave me a lift to Hitchin, though we took a wrong turn and ended up driving along a railway track, unable to find a safe exit. At least I think it was a dream; maybe it really happened, though if it did I’m not sure how I got home as the last thing I recall is us speeding down the railway with Winstone getting progressively anxious. I don’t know why I was in a car with him as just prior to realising he was at the wheel, I was leaving my office, which had somehow grown bigger and had my actor friend Adam Astill working in it; the more I think about it, the more sure I am that it was all the work of my subconscious. It makes me wonder why my brain decided to mash such a load of nonsense together and why I didn’t work out at the time that it couldn’t be real; I’m pretty sure I’ve never shared a car with Ray Winstone, and Adam’s never been in my office, though I did spot him walking down the road from it the other day (though I saw him too late to say...

It was nice to sing through the songs from my show today to exercise that part of my brain (and voice) again. A pleasant byproduct of Edinburgh last month - though surely it was longer ago? - was I was singing every day, which meant my voice was in good shape; I may have lost my hearing by the last week, but I could still hit the notes, though whether they were in tune I couldn’t pass comment. I don’t know why I forget it so easily but I’m always happier when I look after my voice; it’s a simple thing, but it’s very important to me. It’s nice to not have to stretch to sound good and to feel you have command of your abilities. That’s why touring with Buddy was good at first, as singing and playing regularly kept you match-fit; you had the luxury of a band to play with, plus the intrigue of a new town and venue to keep things interesting. It’s even better when you work on your own stuff as singing through a few songs feels like opening a window wide to let the fresh air in. That’...

It's a time for press releases right now as I set to work on promoting the various forthcoming Mostly Comedy dates and rather crucially (as it's being filmed it to showcase my comedic ways) a performance of my recent solo show at the Market Theatre in Hitchin. In the case of Mostly Comedy it's working out nicely, as the last-minute edit of a press release I'd originally written for St Albans' aborted October line-up (which has since moved to Hitchin) and sent to The Comet on a whim on Monday has resulted in some excellent coverage in today's edition; this should help boost sales for the show, which is perfect as it only went on sale last weekend. Herts-based fame. The press release for my show hasn't been taken up yet, but there's still time, although I did use part of it in an email I sent to our nearly 900-strong Mostly Comedy mailing list last week (who are all these people?) See below for the press release, then join us on the 11th ; the s...

If a typical episode of the Bake Off isn’t enough to raise your blood pressure, tonight they made biscuit chandeliers. This was the Blue Peter Advent Crown, Tracey Island and Mark Curry punching the head of a Lego statue all rolled into one, or like fifteen baby elephants excreting on the floor of Television Centre while the nation watched; I’ve never been so tense and I suffer from anxiety. It’s fair to say I watch each installment of GBBO through clenched fingers, and with every passing week it gets harder to see through the gaps, but tonight's took the biscuit, to use an obvious pun; the idea of presenting them as a mobile seems alien to someone who keeps his in barrel (and one the size of a water butt). While tonight’s viewing was tense I still summed up the courage to tweet along at safe intervals. See below for what was said and when. 8:02PM: Today, Terry's come disguised as a stereotypical Frenchman. 8:07PM: ...

One thing I did today (besides a jeans-wash) was edit a press release for next week's impromptu extra Hitchin Mostly Comedy with John Thomson. We had to move it to Hitchin as it was selling poorly in St Albans and we wanted to preserve the booking so no-one missed out. It seems we made the right choice as nearly seventy tickets were sold in the first day compared to seven in St Albans across a couple of weeks. See below for the press release (and then book if you're feeling lucky): Press Release – 24.09.18 mostly comedy a monthly comedy club at the sun hotel in hitchin The duo behind Hitchin’s successful ten-year-old monthly comedy club Mostly Comedy ( DOGGETT & EPHGRAVE) are delighted to present a last-minute addition to their autumn season, on 4 th October, featuring cult comic legend JOHN THOMSON. John has enjoyed a career in film, television, theatre and radio spanning over two decades. He first hit our sc...

It seems the Gorgon Craig Theatre in Stevenage have booked two mediums in the space of a week; didn’t see that one coming. It’s strange the people in charge of putting together the programme didn’t notice it, not to mention Psychic Tony and Psychic Sally themselves; I guess the offer must have come in on a day when there was a lot of static breaking up their intuitive signal. Maybe it was around the time that volcanic ash cloud prevented all those planes from taking flight, though that was probably long enough ago to not have a bearing on the scheduling of a Herts-based provincial theatre’s Spring 2018 season, unless mediums book their tours extremely early; I suppose you’ve got to get in before all the amateur groups confirm their productions of Guys and Dolls. What's great is both dates are suitably close to Valentine’s Day for couples to make the most of the special occasion and book tickets for a loved one, though let’s hope their sign...

…and so the live-tweeting along to Strictly Come Dancing started tonight again in earnest. This is what was said; READ IT: 6:19PM: They can't be emotive yet. 6:20PM: I had a dinosaur poo once that was petrified. 6:27PM: No-one defines what I do when I walk down the stairs. 6:34PM: I like how no-one reacted to Tess' "one cool cat" joke. 6:36PM: The vocal sound for Top Cat was excellent. 6:38PM: Queen could perform under pressure live too. 6:43PM: Seemed like a very low-tech camera to film the news with. 6:44PM: I was oozing too. 6:46PM: That's my favourite Beatles song: "We Can Work on This". 6:53PM: Lauren needs to dance to the theme from Going For Gold at some point. 6:54PM: 6667: Lauren scored the Number of the Dance Beast. 7:04PM: Each time the judges' score my PIN I down my drink. 7:08PM: Graziano won't feel the ben...

Considering we only had just over two hours to set up today’s Mostly Comedy as there was a meeting in the ballroom before us, things came together alarmingly quickly without much stress. We were so ahead of the game I even had time to get changed before we opened the doors and started letting people in, which never happens. Admittedly, I was still forcing down a pesto pasta salad as the audience started filing in, but it was still a relative luxury; I almost had time left to think. While tonight was a great gig and was a really good way to kick off our autumn season, it was slightly overshadowed by Glyn’s and my ongoing discussions about what we should do about 4th October’s date we had booked at the Maltings’ Arts Theatre with John Thomson and Jenny Collier. Until we’d made the final decision to move it to Hitchin - which is what we’re going to do - we’d only sold seven tickets, which was nowhere near the amount we need to comfortably cover the cost, and on balance, the best move ...

While it’s a slow process, I’m trying to get myself into better shape and slim down a bit I’ve never been one to carry much weight - to paraphrase The Beatles - though in the last year or so, a combination of taking medication that can increase the lbs I’m packing, plus - let’s face it - a few too many biscuits have seen me loosen my belt a notch or two for the first time in my life (except for when I drop my trousers). This has inevitably affected my morale as no-one wants to be dragging along unnecessary ballast. Therefore the time has come for me to do something to address my advancing waistline before it becomes too hard to reverse. My main approach has been to increase my exercise; I already do a lot of walking (which is one of the prerequisites of a non-driver) though I’ve made an active point of upping my footfall by doing thirty minutes on a step machine every day, which is something I intend to keep up (and if anything add to) in the hope ...