mostly david ephgrave

The last few days have been a bit of a mad panic dash to book line-ups for our autumn Mostly Comedy season in Hitchin, which - despite being organised very close to the finish line - has turned out really rather nicely, if I do say so myself. The show I’m personally looking forward to the most is the one I’ve literally just confirmed in the last hour or so: October’s gig will be headed by Kate Robbins, with the no less excellent Jay Foreman bringing up the rear. And while I haven’t had the chance to speak to Glyn about it yet I suspect it will be the same for him too, as Kate was someone we’ve both had in the back of our minds as an act we’d like to book, ever since we went to see her Edinburgh show in 2008, while we were in the midst of our first EdFringe run with The Balloon Debate, which was at the Gilded Balloon too. It was just so good, and such a great mix of music and comedy from someone who was a consummate, grounded performer who was as gr...

Today saw my second Edinburgh show and my last preview.  I actually felt far better about today's performance compared to yesterday's, which was ironic in a way, as we went up late due to a waiting for five audience members who'd rushed to the door of the venue, thinking they could buy tickets there, to be redirected to the box office only to never come back; I have that effect on would-be punters. This late start meant I had to consciously pace things up and cut the odd line here and there to finish on time, which actually made the whole thing feel more cohesive; on this basis, I'm going to start tomorrow's show next Wednesday.  Amongst today's bijou audience was the technician from Glyn's and my first Edinburgh show The Balloon Debate, with his girlfriend, who we last saw in either 2010 or 2011, when we were up here with Mostly Comedy (and possibly our Meadow Bar show Big in Small Places; it's hard to remember which, as each year rolls into one).  A...

We took a Polaroid during every performance of our 2008 Edinburgh Fringe show 'The Balloon Debate'. See below for the lot. "It's been a hard day's night..." The play was set in the basket of a hot air balloon. Two thousand feet above East Anglia to be precise. The show was a three-hander, with me as Dan, a tetchy friend to the idiotic Gary (played by Glyn), with the funniest actor I've ever worked with, Calogero Tumminello, as the pilot. Gary's plan to propose on a balloon trip backfire when his girlfriend pulls out last-minute and Dan is roped in as a reluctant replacement. Things then go from bad to worse, when the pilot falls out of the basket mid-flight. The Polaroid scene was the hardest-not-to-corpse moment of my life. Cal would offer to take a souvenir photograph, to which we’d reluctantly agree. He’d whip out his camera and spend ages ushering us into position before releasing the shutter. He’d hold the...