mostly david ephgrave

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was a special one, not least because it featured John Thomson, an act who - like our other occasionally appearing turn Kevin Eldon - is synonymous with so many key comedy roles. John only played the club once before, almost exactly four years ago (which happened to be the day before I went up Big Ben) and that gig's definitely somewhere in our unofficial top ten best shows; partly for the performance itself (which included a brief appearance from Thomson’s alter ego Bernard Righton) and partly for the interview we did with him afterwards for our More Than Mostly Comedy podcast. This interview ranged from discussing his early work with Steve Coogan to the film he made with Bill Murray, all of which he was more than happy to discuss and was genuinely a great sport about. That night was also one of the first times I did an extended solo set, which Thomson was very kind about afterwards, though I do remember him saying, “You...

Fans of John Thomson can either order a mask with his face on with next-day delivery, or come to Hitchin Mostly Comedy tomorrow; the choice is theirs. How to turn people's feet cold with fear. I know which option I’d plump for: the one that isn't terrifying. I’m referring to the latter, if I haven’t made myself clear; I’m not even sure there’s a market for John Thomson face-wear, though the folk at Funkybunky beg to differ.   I stumbled across the mask by accident while looking for good pictures of John to help promote tomorrow's gig on social media. Surprisingly it's among the top results when you look him up on Google Images, which is a little confusing. Apparently more people search for cut-outs of his face than look up the original image in the first place; weird when you consider you could just take a high-quality printout and cut eye-holes in it yourself. Outside of researching acts' faces for tomorrow I also did a bit of gentle rehearsal for ...

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...

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...

Today was an eventful day in the sense that I got a lot done, though there was more time spent in front of a computer screen waiting for technology to work than I'd have liked. I started the day by meeting Glyn for coffee (well, tea for him) for the first time since I returned from Edinburgh. The intention was to have breakfast, but it was such a nice morning when I met him in Hitchin Market Place that we just sat in the Square. I inevitably filled him in on the highs and lows of the Fringe; a conversation with additional contributions from Glen Davies who joined us after bumping into us on his way to get his hair cut (we didn’t get to see the final results). Whilst we chatted I told Glyn of my plan to film my show, which ended with us putting a date in the diary to do this at The Market Theatre on 11 th October; while I’m often reticent about doing my shows in Hitchin as they tend to get a slightly muted response, after weighing it up it stil...

I’ve spent the afternoon editing the next episode of Doggett & Ephgrave’s More Than Mostly Comedy Podcast, featuring John Thomson and Nathaniel Metcalfe. I think it’s a good one. They both make interesting and easygoing interviewees. We know Nat reasonably well, having gigged together a few times in the past, but hadn’t met John until the day of the show. We had plenty of reasons to be anxious. Firstly, we didn’t know if we’d get time to record it. We’d hoped to do it pre-gig, but John was waylaid on his way into Hitchin, so didn’t arrive at the venue until moments before curtain up. Thankfully, he was staying in town overnight, so didn’t mind hanging around after the gig had finished – but we didn’t start recording until past midnight, so were very conscious of not wanting to keep him for too long. We were also a little nervous at the prospect. We’ve interviewed a few prominent comics since starting the podcast, so we've grown used to th...

At tonight’s Mostly Comedy I got to introduce John Thomson in his guise as Bernard Righton, thinking how I used to watch him do the selfsame character on my copy of ‘Steve Coogan: Live and Lewd’ as a thirteen-year-old. What made it particularly ridiculous was, while we were talking over the introduction backstage, he said ‘If you could just mention that Bernard used to be racist and sexist, but has seen the error of his ways’, not realising how often I’d heard Steve Coogan say much the same on my overplayed VHS over half my lifetime ago. They say you should never meet your heroes. I’ve yet to be disappointed. John Thomson was a case in point. He was lovely. He also had the exact same onstage sparkle behind the eyes that drew me to his performances as a youngster; a look that says we’re all in this together, we’re all on-side. It was also a good night for me. I did my longest solo set thus far, and felt I’d started to turn a corner. Half of ...