mostly david ephgrave

My main focus for the past few days has been organising and promoting the on-sale dates for July's proposed return of Hitchin Mostly Comedy (provided the Delta COVID variant doesn't keep us on ice) and editing the second and third episodes of The McCartney McAlphabet. Unsurprisingly, sales for Mostly have been cautious. I suspect they'll pick up once we know the Government's plans for 21st June onwards, but even bearing that in mind, the low take-up is concerning. I worry our seventeen-month closure could play havoc with a momentum we may never get back. And while we're prepared for our return to be a slow build, there's only so much we can juggle low figures when the club's not a cheap thing to run, and one too many loss-leaders will spell closure for us. (What a happy cheery chap I am.) The podcast, however, is lots of fun. Our first two episodes are now up , with number three being edited and four at planning stages. I'm really happy with how the fir...

We've had so many lovely messages from everyone who's donated to protect Mostly Comedy through its enforced break. At the point of writing, fifty-eight people have contributed to the fund , raising £1340, which is enough to pull us through the current crisis for a good few months at least. Without it, the risk of closure pressed worryingly, which put me in the frightening position of losing my income overnight. As it stands, I won't be paying myself for a while, but I can at least reimburse a few of the running costs I've been covering from my pocket. But it isn't just about the money, though that's important. It's the evidence of how many people care about the club and would be upset if it went. We knew it was popular as it usually sells well, but as it's grown and its audience has changed through the years, you start to assume it's just a commodity that serves a purpose at time-of-use and that's it. And if it closed, people would make...

I'm surprised the Mostly Comedy Festival's not selling as well as last year's at the moment, outside of the Dr John Cooper Clarke date, which is long sold out. Perhaps the fact the sold-out gig is markedly more expensive than our other dates (we had to keep in line with the rest of his tour) has had a negative impact. Or more likely, I haven't been promoting it enough lately, but it's hard to find the time when there's so much other stuff to do; today, I had a worrying moment when I finally turned the page on my calendar to see how alarmingly close the Fringe is now, and I'm nowhere near ready. And the inevitable extra admin brought on by lack of money and all those cancelled previews is a perfect storm of stress to add to the equation; it's not a lot of fun. The trick will have to be making every day count for the next few weeks, and to very quickly get to the point of putting down the admin and picking up the show itself. It doesn't have to be ...

It was gratifying to see July's Hitchin Town Hall Mostly Comedy date with Dr. John Cooper Clarke sell more than our usual venue The Sun's capacity across the weekend's pre-sale - and more still today - thus boding well for how things should continue. As I've said previously, while I was sure the show would prove popular amongst our audience, there was still a slight hesitation on my part, largely due to the risk that goes with staging an event at a venue that's more expensive to us and over twice our normal capacity. Without going into specifics, it's also easily the biggest fee we've confirmed an act for in our ten year history. That said, the end justified the means as we've already covered that figure in three days of sale-time, which is something we would never have dreamt of when we started the club at The George back in 2008. The good news is this initial spike in interest affords us the opportunity to relax, safe in the knowledge that the show...

While there was no reason to doubt it, I was delighted by the excitement today's announcement that Dr. John Cooper Clarke will play July's Hitchin Mostly Comedy Festival provoked. I'd like to think my judgment of what our audience wants to see is pretty sound, based on the club's popularity, but every so often there'll be a slight undercurrent of worry, particularly when there's either a lot of money involved or the event's taking place at a different venue to usual. In the case of John Cooper Clarke, I'd been working on the booking for a few months and had every crossable appendage assuming the position in the hope it would come good, but knew all along it would only work if we held it at Hitchin Town Hall so we could get enough people through the door to fund it. This obviously meant whittling down a date that both John and the venue could do while striking a deal with both that wasn't too expensive when a show of this nature has more overhea...

My God, it’s been an epic, yet satisfying week. It’s Day Five of our first week-long Mostly Comedy Festival and it’s been so hectic - what with running the Festival and keeping up-to-speed with my Edinburgh prep - it's pushed me horrendously behind with my blog posts; the God of Social Media will be livid, if such a thing exists. It’s fair to say both halves of Doggett & Ephgrave are now running on empty, though the fatigue is a sign of time well spent. The Festival's been a resounding success with three of the five nights sold out, and the other two were well-attended too. What’s particularly pleasing is how many punters have taken advantage of our special Gold & Silver Ticket deals, with a handful of people attending every gig; that, ladies and gentleman, is a festival defined - and let’s not forget last week’s gig at Hitchin Town Hall with Harry Hill and Simon Munnery too; we’ve had a stream of exceptional line-ups. We we...

Today was long but productive, even if was filled predominantly with admin. What pleased me most was I managed to do a little work on some material that, while brief, felt promising; at least I seem to be slowly and gently heading in the right direction with it. I’m trying to do just the right amount of tinkering with ideas without working for so long I become stale and frazzled with it, which suits my currently slightly battle-worn brain. My main mission today was to try and settle an issue regarding medication that had been prescribed to me by the specialist I saw about my constant dizziness a few weeks ago , which ran out yesterday, but I couldn’t get a repeat because the write-up for my appointment hadn’t been forwarded to my GP yet and I had no clear record of what had taken place. While all parties concerned were extremely helpful it still took two phone calls to the hospital where I had my appointment, two calls to 111 to seek authorization ...

Today we announced we’ll be hosting a week’s worth of Mostly Comedy dates - a Mostly Comedy Festival in fact - in July to mark the club’s tenth birthday. It’s something we’ve been toying with for a while, and this year seemed the right time to introduce it. As with last summer, we’re running two standard Mostly Comedy line-ups on the Thursday and Friday at The Sun - the former date with Tony Law and Hattie Hayridge is already on sale - but this time we’re adding three nights of split-bill Edinburgh previews on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Market Theatre next door. This will be in the actual theatre as opposed to the studio where we used to run the club, which is the perfect space for previews in that it doesn’t need a massive audience to have a good atmosphere, or that’s the theory at least. It’s already been super-easy to fill the Market Theatre slots as comics are always keen to book previews in July, what with the Fringe being imminent. Both myself and Glyn’s and ...