mostly david ephgrave

Today’s show was a strange one in that it started well, but then halfway through I seemed to lose them. I’m not  sure what happened, but for the first thirty minutes or so the laughs were big and pretty constant, so much so, it took me by surprise. The moment the audience truly got on board was when I did the bit about the arrogant statue in my local Oxfam, which was going so well that one woman was laughing uncontrollably, but somewhere towards the middle of my set, these laughs began to drop off, and while there were still bits that got a good response through to the end, it was definitely more muted; I can only assume I blacked out for a few minutes and inadvertently said something racist. One thing’s for certain: I’m relieved to be nearly done. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed myself - it's been great - but it definitely reaches a point when you need to wind things up and head for home, as the stamina required to bring a show to the Frin...

Today I was deeply surprised to find out one of my jokes had made it into The Telegraph’s list of 20 Funniest One-liners from the Edinburgh Fringe . STOP PRESS. It’s fair to say I’ve never had this level of coverage for something I’ve written myself, even if it’s just a few words, and it’s a hugely encouraging prelude to my Edinburgh run. I know these lists are arbitrary but there’s still a tiny sense of accreditation about the whole thing, particularly for someone who in his darker, less confident moments questions if he’s even a comedian at all; today, in a small way, a member of the national press said I was, and that’s a small achievement. Why is someone else confirming you’re a thing so important? My problem is I’ve always been a bit of a ‘Jack of all trades’ type, with the secret assumption this makes me a master of none; I’m an actor / musician - which sounds like a compromise - who’s wormed his way into writers’ groups and runs a comedy club by accide...