Skip to main content

Doo-Dah Doo-Dah Day.

The dust has barely settled from last week's Mostly and we're already promoting the next one; this time, headed by the member of musical comedy royalty that is Neil Innes.

See below for the press release for it:

Press Release – 20.10.19

mostly comedy
a monthly comedy club at hitchin town hall


Hitchin’s comic duo DOGGETT & EPHGRAVE celebrate the eleventh birthday of their successful monthly club Mostly Comedy on 3rd October by hosting a cracking line-up at the Town Hall, headed by honorary seventh member of Monty Python, NEIL INNES.

Innes is a British writer and musical comic best known for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and The Rutles. He studied at the Norwich School of Fine Art, from which he was thrown out around 1963, allegedly for "spending all day playing music, instead of making things".

In the period 1962-65, Innes and several other art school students started a band which was originally named The Bonzo Dog Dada Band after their interest in the art movement Dadaism, but which was soon renamed the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Innes, with Vivian Stanshall, wrote most of the band's songs, including the Ivor Novello award-winning I'm the Urban Spaceman, their biggest hit (which was produced by Paul McCartney) and Death Cab for Cutie, which they performed in the Beatles' cult film Magical Mystery Tour.

In the 1970s, Innes joined with Eric Idle of Monty Python to create the television comedy series Rutland Weekend Television. This show spawned The Rutles (the "prefab four"), a Beatles parody in which Innes played the character of Ron Nasty, who was based on John Lennon. The band starred in their own eponymously-titled film in 1978, which featured cameos from George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, and a soundtrack written by Innes.

Neil also appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl and in Terry Gilliam's film Jabberwocky - and was unofficially dubbed “the seventh Python” by Michael Palin.

Fellow musical comic JAY FOREMAN joins Innes on the bill. Jay’s a hit with the critics, having received five- and four-star reviews almost across the board for his four sold-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He supported Dave Gorman on his 2011/12 tour Dave Gorman’s PowerPoint Presentation and has made a variety of documentaries, with his 2010 film The General Election Xplained winning Gold at the New York Festival.

The gig will be emceed by the club’s custodians: the “polished, natural comedians” (Camden Fringe Voyeur) DOGGETT & EPHGRAVE. Doors open at 7:15pm with the first act on at 8:00pm. Tickets are £15.00 and can be bought in advance at www.mostlycomedy.co.uk.

Date: Thursday 3rd October 2019
Venue: Hitchin Town Hall, Brand Street, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG5 1JE
Time: Doors at 7:15pm. First act on at 8:00pm.
Admission: £15.00. Book at www.mostlycomedy.co.uk

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...

Comedy That's Worth a Letch.

Today, I nipped to Letchworth to meet with illustrator (and one-time - two-time - comedy poet) Mushybees, to discuss an event Mostly Comedy will act as surrogate parents to as part of Letchworth’s Arts Takeover in a couple of weeks. Months ago he got into contact to see if we’d be up for co-organising a comedy stage as part of Letchworth’s weekend of arts-based attractions in July; something I’d provisionally said yes to, before things got hectic in the lead-up to Edinburgh and we didn’t take it any further. Despite not getting down to the nitty-gritty straight away, we managed to pull a line-up together in a back-and-forth of emails yesterday, leading to me getting Glyn’s blessing and us deciding we’d officially go ahead with it (whatever ‘officially’ means in this context). In reality, it’s not complicated: from 12pm until 6pm-ish on the 22 nd July, Glyn, Mushybees and I will host four Edinburgh previews from four acts (including me), before Nor...

"Heh Heh Heh Helection Half Hour."

Thursday morning’s a time I look forward to, as the episode of Hancock’s Half Hour that was broadcast that week becomes available to listen to on iPlayer, and consequently becomes the soundtrack to my bath. Today was no different, with this week’s instalment being the frighteningly appropriate ‘The Election Candidate'. In the episode, Tony is convinced to stand for parliament as a celebrity candidate (*cough* Donald Trump *cough*) and while it’s definitely one of the best - though let’s face it, pretty much all programmes that exist have stood the test of time wonderfully - my favourite moment has to be when Hancock is asked who’ll he’ll vote for, before he’s convinced to through his own hat in the ring. “Neither of them,” he replies. “I shall show my contempt by going down to the polling booth, taking my form, crossing both their names out and writing ‘get knotted’ in”. (Some things never change.) The episode was first broadcas...