mostly david ephgrave

In true Edinburgh Fringe style, today was long: very long. The most frustrating thing is I've had to cancel my first show tomorrow, as all my equipment, which was due to arrive at Edinburgh's Parcelforce depot today, didn’t; nor did my luggage, so I’m now operating at a shockingly low pants-level. What was particularly irritating was Parcelforce made no attempt to contact me; it was only when I decided to phone the depot as my 6pm technical rehearsal drew worryingly close that I was told my stuff wouldn't be available to pick up until tomorrow like I should have known this all along; next year’s show will be sponsored by FedEx. Consequently, what was meant to be my tech was essentially half an hour of standing aimlessly in a room. All's not lost though as, providing everything arrives at the depot overnight as I’ve been told, I’ll be able to use what would have been my first show as my tech run instead; I have a taxi booked for the hour-long round trip to the depo...

Tonight I went down to the Market Theatre to pose for photos for my Edinburgh artwork. Pleasingly, it didn’t take long to get what we wanted, though it will be Glyn’s photoshop that will ultimately swing it and make the idea work. The premise is that I’ll appear to be falling through the air as if I’ve leapt from a plane or off the top of a building, to fit in with the ‘downfall’ theme. To make it work, I jumped up and down repeatedly in front of a green screen, ensuring I lifted my feet up behind me enough that the perspective will look right once we add me to the right backdrop; this seemed the most sensible way to do things, rather than arranging for me to actually leap from a great height. Earlier today, Glyn and I popped into Hitchin Town Hall to organise a few last-minute things for Thursday’s Harry Hill / Simon Munnery Mostly Comedy. What’s good is we managed to alleviate the majority of our concerns about what we know is not the most ...

I sometimes feel like most of my life is spent staring at a computer screen, doing something I don’t want to do. I suppose that’s not an alien concept for many, particularly if you work in an office, which, to be fair, I only do in a self-employed sense. But it’s still frustrating, particularly when more time is spent on admin related to work and not on actual, useful content, such as writing new material. This afternoon’s a case in point: I kicked things off (in the dullest sense of the phrase) by editing copy for the work-in-progress dates I’m doing in Brighton in May , before spending far longer than necessary editing artwork for the last outing of ‘Now Who’s a Comedian?’ at the Leicester Comedy Festival next month . The problem with the latter job is I’m (1) not as adept at Photoshop - or Gimp, to be more accurate, as that's the software I use -  and (2) it isn’t the sort of work I even want to do; other performers have people doing this st...

Today, my wife and I attempted to take some promotional shots for the artwork for my Edinburgh show. I’m pretty sure we got what we were after, but if we haven’t, we’re not far off it. We’d meant to do them all week, but kept being rained off - and any days when the weather was suitable, the location we’d earmarked would have been too busy, as it’s next to Hitchin Market; it’s enough to try to get results without people gawping at you. Even if we haven’t got the exact picture yet, I’m very happy with the concept. I won’t blow it here just yet, but it’s a nice idea that was suggested by my PR, that fits the show title ‘Now Who’s a Comedian?’ perfectly. It also plays right into my preferred style of show artwork, which is to use a single undoctored image that tells the story without much else. It’s also subtle, understated and naturalistic; there’s nothing I hate more than a photograph of a gurning, ironic-face-pulling comedian. The only reas...

Today’s been another day of admin, followed by admin, followed by admin, followed by a tiny bit of writing. Amongst other things, I booked a few gigs in April and two previews at the Etcetera Theatre in July. I could still do with more of the latter in the diary, and would particularly like some at shows I don’t organise myself. For someone who offers other acts work all the time - he says like a comedic martyr - I don’t get many back myself, which is frustrating, as it would be nice to have a little of what I constantly give everyone else: the chance to try new material out to a sizeable guaranteed audience; if you enter people’s lives as a promoter, they’ll never see you differently. I’ve also spent today tinkering with artwork for my Bath dates next month, which are getting close enough for me to have to get a wiggle on with ordering the print for. I won’t need too many posters and flyers as hopefully the location of the venue and the nature of ...

My life often feels like a catalogue of wasted time...as it did today, when I spent a few hours editing a poster for my Leicester Comedy Festival show to the most of a special one-day-only printing offer, only to find it wasn't applicable unless you went to their shop in Brighton to pick the artwork up. (Fuck’s sake.) To be fair, it wasn’t my fault, as the email I’d received from the company made no mention of this caveat until you clicked through to their website to commence your order. While this wasn't a disaster, I wouldn’t have made the poster yesterday if it weren’t for the mention of the special deal, as I had a lot that needed to be done for tomorrow’s Mostly Comedy instead; it’s not as if I can excuse myself from being funny at the gig, because I’d been limping through some primitive graphic design on Photoshop. (The programme I was using was Gimp, but I didn’t mention this above, due to the word's negative connotations...

I just did a some close-to-the-wire ordering of posters and flyers for the dates I’m doing at Leicester SquareTheatre next month , to make the most of a 25% discount; I’m a sucker for a bargain. I took a bit of a calculated risk by forgoing waiting for authorization of a proof from the venue before sending it to be printed, so I wouldn’t miss out on the weekend-only deal and have to pay full price. Hopefully, this shouldn’t be a problem, as I used the right logos, kept within the specifications, and didn’t use the c-word on the artwork once; I’ll keep my fingers crossed this doesn’t lead to a massive controversy resulting me being banned from performing in London / “waitressing in Torquay” again; if it does, I’ll have to revert to my back-up job of trundle wheel adjudicator; no-one recognises a metre circumference quicker than me. Once again, I was lucky to enlist the services of my artwork designing genius double-act-partner Glyn, who made the few...

Today’s been mostly concerned with ordering posters and flyers for my ‘Work in (Hope of) Progress’ dates at the Bath Comedy Festival next month. My double act partner Mr Doggett stepped up to the plate as ever to do the artwork, which is similar to that of last year’s Brighton and Camden show ‘…and Ephgrave’, only with a marginally less smug picture of me. What started as a photo I liked grew irksome over time, particularly once I’d seen it ‘in big’. The combined forces of my smarmy facial expression and the “as smooth as they come” quote conspired to make me look and sound like a bit of a dick, which may be accurate, but it still isn’t the best way to encourage an audience.   I’m keen to turn my attention fully to writing and rehearsing material now that most of the admin for Bath is done (except for writing the press release and booking my accommodation; there’s always something). The more stuff I can work into some semblance of bei...