mostly david ephgrave

From September 2010, every month for two years, Glyn and I would carry four 4.5' square rostra 176 yards from Glyn's dad's chip shop to Mostly Comedy's then-venue The Croft before/after each gig, in all weathers, for a step in the venue floor to render them invisible when we put them in place. It was an utter ballache. Nine years on, these chunky wooden bastards still bug me. The Croft's stage was hardly the Palladium. And when I say "all-weathers", I genuinely mean all-weathers. The worst was snow, although it's not like a sunny day made it any more enjoyable. Not only were the rostra heavy, but they were also very cumbersome. They were wide and a nightmare to keep purchase; it was like holding a butter-coated tombstone with clammy hands. Navigating from A to B was akin to a scene from the Eric Sykes / Tommy Cooper film The Plank with equal slapstick; my knuckles practically dragged along the floor at the end of Orangutan-like arms by the end of our j...

Today I walked past Richard Herring in my local garage, marking the first time I’ve seen him outside of a gig since he moved to the area. It’s funny, as Glyn and I asked him only last week how he’d got on since moving this way, with both of us privately remarking how we hadn’t spotted him at all since he’s been nearby, which was surprising considering he apparently often comes to Hitchin to shop with his wife (and not for one) Spin forward a few days and I’m practically bumping into him in my local shop; it’s a good job we didn’t start wrestling over the last pint of milk. I didn’t say hello, purely because he walked through the door at the precise moment I was leaving, with barely time to do a double-take before the chance had gone. It was ironic really, as I was just thinking I hadn’t sent him an email to thank him for last week’s gig and there he was, like I’d performed some kind of modern-day stand-up-based Bloody Mary witchcraft to make him ap...

Today’s Mostly Comedy was strange in that it just sort of happened, despite a slow and disconnected set-up. Hal Cruttenden and Richard Herring; two comics in love. Part of the problem for me was I haven’t recovered from the shock of my dad’s sudden illness at the end of last week, which nearly proved fatal, to improve just as suddenly at it had hit (he says in a gross simplification for the sake of a simple paragraph). Now the adrenalin's settled, I'm feeling brain-shot and anxious, which aren’t ideal bedfellows for doing stand-up in a crowded room; consequently, it took a little while to adapt to the noise, which was a little overwhelming for my mind-state. Despite not feeling my best, I insisted on doing a couple of new bits, if only to start ticking things off the list. It's more for the sake of getting material in my head at first than seeing it if it works, as it’s all more likely to land well when it’s properly learnt. It was pleasing to see we were pret...

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was another great gig and a lovely way to see us into our summer break. 150 people watch Hattie Hayridge at tonight's Hitchin Mostly Comedy. The bill this evening consisted of Hattie Hayridge, Richard Herring and us, with Richard previewing his new show ‘Oh Frig, I’m 50’ in the second half. While I always enjoy Richard’s stuff, tonight's show was one of my favourites, even at this stage, managing to tackle the topic of his fifth decade on the planet in a typically silly, sometimes thought-provoking and often brilliantly pedantic way. I’m always impressed by his extraordinary work ethic and the quality of the content he consistently puts out; there aren’t many comics that throw so much into what they do so constantly, which clearly has gained him a lot of respect from his fanbase, who were out in force in Hitchin tonight (as was clear by the volume of their RHLSTP shout-out when he name-checked the podcast in his set). ...

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was one of those effortless gigs where everything fell into place. A selection of shots of tonight's line-up, featuring us, Mark Watson, Bec Hill and a bonus pic of Glen Davies. After the show, there was a definite sense between Glyn, our tech Paul that it was a night we should be proud of. Mostly’s one of those things that can comes gently in and out of favour in your mind, what with all the organization and the fact our identities get lost in the midst of an event people forget we’re the originators of. You also start to take for granted the level of line-ups we have as a matter of course, which are really quite extraordinary. This week is a case in point. Tonight was the first in a three-day-straight of Mostly Comedy shows, with Mark Watson and Bec Hill tonight in Hitchin, Richard Herring and Hattie Hayridge tomorrow in Hitchin too and an extra bill of five previews in Letchworth tomorrow topped by Norman Lovett...

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...

Tonight was one of my much loathed putting-together-a-press-release-for-Mostly-Comedy nights. It's not strictly true that I dislike writing them and more the case that I'm a little tired of doing it. To be honest, it gets easier over the years, particularly when a lot of the acts featured have been to the club before so I can just copy the information from a previous press release, but it's still hard to see the wood for the trees when you've done this so much. See below for today's cut-and-shut instalment; hopefully it makes sense:   Press Release – 27.06.17 mostly comedy a monthly comedy and music club, at the sun hotel in hitchin July sees two installments of Doggett & Ephgrave’s popular monthly Hitchin comedy club Mostly Comedy at The Sun Hotel in so many days. While 20 th July’s show with HIGNFY , Buzzcocks and Mock the Week star MARK WATSON and Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit ’s BEC HILL is officially sold out, there’...

Despite being Glyn-less, tonight’s Mostly Comedy was a lot of fun. Mostly Panoramic. Apparently, it’s impossible to get us both in the same room when Richard Herring’s on the bill; I missed our inaugural (don’t mention Trump) Sun Hotel Mostly last January - which Richard also headlined - due to illness, and Glyn missed tonight's as he was Company Managing the Market Theatre’s Adult Panto on the road (which isn't an illness). While all went well last year, it was bound to be a little fraught as it was our first proper show at the venue (excluding the 'Sun-mer Special' the previous summer); for me there would have been less of an excuse. Thankfully, I needn’t have worried as everything was slick and no-one died, thanks to the hard work of the staff, Paul, Gemma, Lisa, Stephen, Clive and Glen, who all stepped up-to-the-plate; while I refuse to include their surnames here, I’m eternally grateful. (I haven't learnt their surnames.)...

Tonight’s Hitchin Mostly Comedy was fun. Me at March 2014's Mostly (Photo by Gemma Poole). I’ve always been proud of the club, but recently it's definitely had a boost. The acts we’re booking just get better by the month. It’s exciting to guess who we might get next. Tonight we had Richard Herring, who is easily mine and Glyn’s favourite stand-up. His work ethic is immense. You can’t help but be impressed by how much he churns out. Richard Herring (Photo by Gemma Poole). We fitted in a nice relaxed chat for our podcast. Interviewing someone who is essentially ‘Mr Podcast’ should be intimidating, but he makes it very easy.   We talked about his recent Leicester Square Theatre Podcast interview with star of The Simpsons and Spinal Tap, Harry Shearer; someone who we have also gigged with in the past. He told us how excited he was to be in the company of someone he really admires, w hich was ironic, considering the context. We also had Mat...

It’s just taken me about thirty seconds to rebook Richard Herring for a date at next year’s Mostly Comedy (which is nice). One of the things that’s great about him is he always gets back to you quickly. It was like this from the first instance, when we emailed him late one night to see if he might be available to cover Henning Wehn’s headlining spot the following evening, after Henning had to pull out last-minute due to illness. We got in contact with Richard on a whim (we thought he was too big an act for Mostly Comedy) – and were both amazed and delighted when he emailed back a couple of minutes later to say he was happy to do it. I have a lot of respect for Richard Herring. His work ethic is astounding: this year saw his tenth consecutive Edinburgh Fringe stand-up show, with numerous other appearances at the festival since the mid-Nineties. He has also written a daily blog for the past eleven years; suddenly my seventy-one day straight run doesn...

I’m really enjoying the process of recording our More Than Mostly Comedy Podcasts. One of the downsides of running your own night is you spend so much time concerned with admin that you seldom have the chance to chat properly with the other acts. From the moment you arrive your attention is split between trying to appease the staff and the audience; dealing with technical problems and customer queries – worrying about whether performers will arrive, and constantly keeping one eye on the time so the show doesn’t overrun, leaving them stranded in Hitchin before the last train. It becomes an exercise in multi-tasking, with so much emphasis placed on what goes on behind the scenes that little or no time is spent thinking about your own material, or talking to the rest of the line-up. A couple of years ago, while we were still at The Croft, we had the idea to record our own podcast. We thought that if we made a point of interviewing every act, w...