mostly david ephgrave

In the interest of tying up a few loose ends related to my recent Edinburgh Fringe adventures, I thought I'd share videos of two shocking events that occurred there. (Brace yourselves.) The first documents a washing machine with musical aspirations. View this post on Instagram A post shared by David Ephgrave (@ephgraveseyeview) The second shows at least one way my digs stuck the knife in. View this post on Instagram A post shared by David Ephgrave (@ephgraveseyeview) Popcorn, anyone?

It's fair to say my last week on the Fringe didn't progress as I intended. The first enemy at the gate was my old friend, the vestibular migraine, which surfaced a couple of times over the first few weeks like a sinister prelude for what lay ahead. Then on the penultimate weekend, what started as a low-level toothache escalated to the point that I had to call 111 to arrange an emergency appointment for a suspected abscess (good times). I hadn't realised how swollen my bottom jaw was because my beard had concealed it the same way it hides my hideousness from day to day. By last Monday evening, it was extremely uncomfortable and had sent my vertigo into hyperdrive. I was vomiting and felt like seven shades of shit (and that's a lot of shit-shades to deal with). To cut a long story short, that meant no more shows for me. Firstly, my face was too swollen to speak at length, which is pretty much the definition of standup. I was prescribed antibiotics for the infection, which...

 A little over a week has passed since my last blog post, and I'm still in Edinburgh doing my thing. Monday was my first official day off, which was much-needed, though I did squeeze in an interview for my McCartney McAlphabet co-host Clary Saddler's podcast Mouth-Off and a therapy appointment too. The show itself is going well , though I'm still struggling for numbers. I don't mind performing to a small audience generally as it reminds you to connect instead of going on autopilot, though it's not a cost-effective way to do a fringe run. It also doesn't help you build a grassroots following when so few people get to see it. What's nice is people are getting on board with the subject matter. No show is a wasted opportunity, though it's the stuff around it that's frustrating. For example, yesterday, I set up my gear - no mean feat itself - to pack down moments later because just one person came. Days like this when no one has booked in by the time I...

I was sad to stumble across the news on Twitter that Lynn Ruth Miller - who up to then was the world's oldest working stand-up - passed away last week. Interviewing Lynn Ruth Miller for More Than Mostly Comedy (13.12.20) I'd only been talking to her via email in July when we rescheduled Mostly Comedy's reopening to September and moved her next appearance at the club to next month as a result. But sadly, that lineup wasn't to be. She was More Than Mostly Comedy's penultimate guest  back in December, and what an eye-opening it was. It's no wonder she made the Telegraph's obituary section at the weekend as she practically squeezed four lifetimes into one. And she was a picture of resilience, having picked herself up more times than a pin in a bowling alley. It sounds like a stock phrase, but she was truly inspirational, and the comedy world is markedly emptier and less colourful in her absence. Not to mention younger. It's not often you share a bill with so...

Today, I took part in my first online group meditation session via the video conferencing app Zoom (which is very much the app of the moment). It happened to start in the nick of time as I received an email from Just the Tonic seconds before to inform us off-the-record that this year's Edinburgh Fringe was cancelled. I knew it was unlikely to go ahead with the COVID-19 situation as it is, but it's still a blow that's hard to compute; particularly when I lost last year's Fringe to circumstances beyond my control too. The meditation session itself was great. My old meditation teacher Neelam led us through it with finesse. I'd booked to attend their in-person meditation classes this term, but hadn't been along, so the video version was a welcome diversion. There were fifteen of us taking part and a real sense of solidarity despite our enforced isolation as we followed Neelam's instructions; he has a wonderful turn of phrase that helps you see your prac...

I've got to break through the fug of my current mindset to get my comedy-writing mojo back. My ideas pad (mostly full of bus times and general admin). It's hard to find the energy or will to write at the best of times when procrastination looms & lurks like a loom-lurker, without the current circumstances ramping my lethargy up a gear. It's not that my sense of humour's gone, though I now need dowsing rods to detect a joke. And even when I find one, my bastardly depressive mind kicks in to scupper it: "What's the point, David? No-one will pay you for this." When Glyn and I started renting an office six years ago , I'd get into the routine of going down there first-thing to work. But before long, I'd be swamped with admin of running a comedy club without the joy of something creatively worthwhile to offset it; at least when I was writing a show I had a place to run it - albeit a tiny one - though, in time it became another isolatio...

With the current coronavirus crisis progressing as it is, it was nigh on inevitable that we'd cancel next week's Hitchin Mostly Comedy; it wouldn't have been responsible to go ahead, irrespective of whether the government's banning public gatherings yet. ( https://www.thecomet.net/what-s-on/theatre-arts/hitchin-mostly-comedy-night-postponded-1-6561683 ) The question is: what happens, from here on in? If the virus continues to spread, theatres, venues and the entertainment industry as a whole will grind to a halt, as may be necessary for public safety, but what might be a luxury item for the audience is a way of life for those who work in it. And in the same way that heightened terrorist activity or economic crises often lead to poor turnout, the fear of contracting COVID-19 could potentially decimate the number of people going out. Short-term, postponing next week's gig was the right thing to do all around. Firstly, ticket-sales were already down, presu...

It's with real sadness and frustration - though it's totally unavoidable - that I've had to cancel my Edinburgh Fringe run. As I've intimated on social media and on my blog, I'm in a punishing situation involving long-standing issues, which have proved too much to work around. Add to this the loss of my dad, the fight to get my PIP reinstated, plus my poor mental health and this final twist was the straw that broke the camel's back. Firstly, I can't thank everyone enough for the ridiculously high level of support I've had to raise the money I couldn't get to due to my dad's assets being frozen after his death. My JustGiving page raised £3120 of the approximate £6500 grand total, which was bloody incredible. I hope no-one thinks the money was pocketed & not used for the cause (said while wearing my gold lamé jacket). While it's true some was spent on things I wouldn't need if I'd known I'd be cancelling - train ticket...

Today, my wife and I took the promotional image for this year's Edinburgh show, so all that's left now is to write it. (And find a technician and flyers, and work out how to get my dog there. And organise shipping of my luggage and equipment, and raise the rest of the money. So nothing much, then.) While time's super-tight for all of the above, I do have flashes of positivity about what's ahead. After all, the show is knowingly a compilation of old material and not a new entity. That was always my intention even before losing my dad, so there's no shame in it still being the case; it's like a placeholder, a premise that conveniently fits the title, 'Niche'. So fuck it. As previously mentioned we set the shot up yesterday, to make today less stressful. After all, it's never fun to split focus between the mechanics of a photo to being its subject. Consequently, it didn't take too long to get something we were happy with, which was a blessed r...

Today, the Edinburgh fundraising machine (which may be overselling it) saw donations pass the £2000 mark, which was splendid, although there's still a long way to go (says the eternal pessimist). One thing that should certainly help things along is an article about my predicament, which was published on the BBC News website this afternoon . It came about, following a conversation with the journalist Alex Pope after being alerted to the situation after seeing my story pop up on Twitter; proof once again of the positive power social media can have. We spoke with me firmly in the knowledge that nothing may come from our chat, but it was another metaphorical iron in the fire, so to speak. I can't help but wonder what my dad would have made of the attention levelled in his direction if you could remove the context. I'm pretty sure he would have been flattered, proud and pleased that it was helping me. I know he would be frustrated to have been part of the cause of my pr...

I haven't really achieved much today, but I guess that's to be expected, considering the circumstances. Yesterday, I cancelled the last of four proposed work-in-progress dates on the Brighton Fringe, which was another run pulled to match my two shows on the Bath Fringe in April. This was a shame as they were put in the diary to help me work towards this year's Edinburgh, but in all honesty, I haven't written anything new anyway, as most of my time had been taken up with looking after my dad. I wouldn't have wanted this to be different - this was inevitably my priority, but it does leave me feeling unfunny and unprepared. There's still time to turn this around, however, particularly as I always intended to treat this year's Edinburgh as an unofficial Best Of, with the work-in-progress dates there to give me a chance to see if the muse struck, more so for the future than for now. The only potential issue is the lack of previews booked in between now and Au...

I spent much of today registering this year's Edinburgh show, although I kept being sidetracked by other things that need doing too. I was mainly distracted by the renewal of Glyn's and my public liability insurance, which expires at the end of March. We're in a frustrating situation as regards cash flow, which is being exasperated by a long line of bills that need or needed settling over the last few weeks. The main culprit that's made everything so tight was the hire fee for the Town Hall for July's Dr John Cooper Clarke date; a show that's selling excellently, but the fact the venue costs had to be met in advance long before we receive settlement hasn't helped us. Add an accountant bill, web space and domain-name renewal, a string of extra expenses for last month's Mostly Comedy plus the usual office rent and act fees, and suddenly we're brassic; everything will ultimately settle, but not without carefully moving some money about. The fine art...

Today, I finally finished compiling my 2017/18 tax records (with my wife as my unpaid assistant), which makes for depressing reading unless you're a fan of minus figures. (If so, then get ready for  this : -4922.679232) (I know: phwoar) I find myself at a crossroads over what to do next. The past four years have been primarily about performing stand-up to fringe audiences to work up my solo chops, having always performed comedy as one half of a double-act up to that point. While I've taken shows to London, Brighton, Bath, Leicester, Hitchin and Letchworth over that time, there's no doubt Edinburgh was the biggest underlying factor, with the other dates being either a warm-up for or a cool-down from three consecutive Edinburgh Fringes, with me writing another solo show in 2015 that I didn't take to Scotland, but was still put together with going there alone as my motivation. There's no denying the experience has been challenging, both creatively and financial...

The other day, I watched a rough cut of the performance of my show we filmed at The Market Theatre in Hitchin last month and Glyn has done a splendid job with it; I look set to be in the uncharted territory of being both almost happy with a representation of me doing stand-up and looking forward to sharing it. I’m not saying it’s perfect - it wanders off a bit towards the end, but it did as a piece anyway - but the vast majority is a good quality reading of what I was trying to do that the audience were really on board for; I hope that by having a solid copy of my stuff to give to industry people, I may be able to end the stand-off between trying to book dates for them to come to and them being available to see it. In a way, the video is like having evidence: proof of the fact I’m not as bad a comic as my inner monologue tells me or like a handful of misunderstanding reviewers might say. I was actually quite proud of what I wound up with this year,...

As I hid from the Edinburgh rain in my digs tonight with just two shows left to go, I found myself pondering whether it's all been worth it. I mean this pragmatically. I’m not likely to lose sleep over it as I know the way it goes, but it’s at this stage that I can’t help but wonder whether putting so much energy and focus into the Fringe ever pays off. It’s genuinely been my priority all year - as it was in many ways in the two or three years that proceeded it, and to a lesser extent the years that passed since Doggett & Ephgrave were up here too - and yet, unless you have a top production team actively promoting you, it doesn’t matter how much good work you do, you’re still likely to sink without a trace. One thing’s for certain, I tried something very different to my previous output this year and tackled some difficult subjects along the way, and I’d like to think I came out with a more rounded show than the other three as a result. Stra...

Today I reached that inevitable point of the Fringe where frustration and exhaustion bubbles to the surface and you feel irritable and - put simply - want to go home. That’s not to say I’m not enjoying being here or that I'm unhappy with my show - it’s actually quite the opposite - but however you feel about what you’re doing or how it’s going, bringing a self-produced solo show to Edinburgh is pretty much the dictionary definition of testing your stamina and everyone has their boiling point; I’m glad I have a day off on Monday, so I can regroup for the metaphorical final push. My negative mindset was kicked off by today’s show, which was one of the busiest I’ve had, yet didn’t gel. There were some nice moments and a few happy faces, but try as I might, I couldn’t get much of a vocal reaction, so I was left with little time to breathe. It’s not that people weren’t enjoying it; they just weren’t an audience for big laughs, which was badly timed ...

Here's an little interview I did with the Theatre Blogger West End Wilma about my forthcoming Edinburgh show; you can also read the original article here , if you're that way inclined.   Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your performing background? I’m either a multi-tasker or a Jack-of-All-Trades, depending on how you look at it; as well as being a comic I’m also an actor and musician, which has led to lots of jobs involving both, including playing John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Buddy Holly in various UK tours and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stint in the West End in ‘Dreamboats and Petticoats’. I’m also one half of the double act Doggett & Ephgrave and a stand-up in my own right, plus I’ve kept up an almost-daily blog for five years; the money rolls in, as you’d imagine. Tell me about your show, what it is all about? It’s essentially a one-man self-character-assassination with a few jokes thrown in for good me...

I’ve spent much of the evening compiling one-liners from my Edinburgh show to be submitted to the press for consideration for their 2018 best jokes’ lists. I feel a twinge of pressure, as I was lucky enough to feature in couple of these lists last year. It was completely unexpected, so in that sense, it’s probably best to remember I had no inkling anything I’d put forward might stand out; it was just a luck-of-the-draw thing. To frame it more positively, the fact it even happened meant I must have been doing something right, so I can only approach it the same way this year and leave it to chance; it’s not like it means anything anyway: it’s all arbitrary. Finding jokes in my material is a bit of a struggle anyway, as it’s not really how I write. The only place you’re liable to see a one-liner from me is on Twitter and that’s solely due to the episodic nature of it; on stage, I’m more likely to tell a story - or share something visual - than do a gag; jokes have never been to my t...