mostly david ephgrave

Shock! Horror! Tonight's preview had an audience! It was so nice to perform to a roomful of people (stretching that definition a little) who were up for comedy and  were there to enjoy it and have a good time (something it's easy to forget along the way). Their reaction was warm and inclusive and they were more than happy to go with me on the various twists and turns of a nearly-but-not-quite-actually-yet-put-together-show.  The set-up was aided by the fact I'd been to the venue a couple of weeks ago for the cancelled 'with Phil Kay' gig. This enabled me to streamline the equipment I took, making my journey comparatively luxurious. I still got a taxi from King's Cross, as this was far easier than wrestling with the tube. Despite the simple route in and a straightforward set-up, I still got a little stressed, through doing it on my own; at which point my wife arrived (with a few of the props I couldnt manage) and helped do the last few bits and pieces, while ...

is it a cop-out to share the press release I wrote for this month's Mostly Comedy today in lieu of a proper blog post? Yes, it probably is...but when you're tired and preparing to nip off to Bath for a few days to perform at their comedy festival, you're allowed to give yourself a little break. It's only so much of a cheat anyway as I still wrote it - even if it wound up being a cut-and-shut of various other press releases in the past. I was pleased to see the resulting article is already displayed on the  Hertfordshire Mercury, plus we've also managed to shift a few more tickets today, which is presumably as a result of this, so that's good. See below for the press release that inspired it, and then visit www.mostlycomedy.co.uk to book. ---- Press Release – 04.04.16 mostly comedy a monthly comedy and music club, at the sun hotel in hitchin 21st April’s instalment of Doggett & Ephgrave’s Mostly Comedy sees a variety of familiar faces return to the cl...

I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do today. I’ve got a number things I should be doing, but can’t really get started until I receive either an email or a phone call. As a result, I’m just sitting, waiting for something to happen. A lot of my life is spent doing this. This time next week, Doggett & Ephgrave perform our show at Dave’s Leicester Festival for two nights. I feel like we’re on schedule; I just hope that we have an audience. We did quite well for sales last year, amazingly, considering our relatively low profile, but that was on a Thursday and Friday. This time we’re performing on a Monday and Tuesday - so I’m expecting this to have a knock-on effect. We’ve also got our first London Mostly Comedy of 2014 next Wednesday, with Phil Kay and Sam Fletcher joining us on the bill. It will be nice to have a three-day run of gigs (we’ll also be doing our Leicester show in the second half), I just hope we have a sufficient...

What more satisfying way is there to end your day than using a pair of tweezers to pull a large, painful splinter from your finger?  (Don’t let it be said that I don’t know how to live .) It got stuck in there about an hour ago, when I lifted the lid off the wooden staging we use Mostly Comedy, after the gig, to replace some of the equipment that we store beneath it. It went straight in with no messing about, then proceeded to give me gyp for the rest of the evening. (People don’t use the word ‘gyp’ enough these days. Perhaps I can bring about gyp resurgence, though I'd better double-check the correct spelling before I do this.) I quite enjoyed tonight (splinter notwithstanding). I wasn’t looking forward to it beforehand, mainly because myself and Glyn haven’t been able to work together much over the last few weeks; you can easily fall out of the natural rhythm you have as a double act when you haven’t spent much time in each other...

Myself and Glyn are currently sitting on the train from King's Cross to Hitchin; on our way home from the comedy night that never was. Tonight was supposed to be this year’s final Leicester Square Theatre installment of Mostly Comedy (we still have two more Hitchin dates to go). We had a cracking line-up booked, including Red Dwarf’s Norman Lovett, Foster’s Best Newcomer Nominee Sam Fletcher, Time Out’s “rising star” Nish Kumar and us (no prefix). It was a great gig on paper – but sadly no-one wanted to come and see it. That’s not strictly true. There probably were plenty of people who wanted to come and see it, but only two people booked - and when the performers outweigh the audience 5/2 it’s less of a comedy night and more of a hostage situation. We’d probably have to rebill the gig as Mostly Comedians. I think the problem is we haven’t quite got our marketing right. The London gig is obviously up against a lot of competition ...