mostly david ephgrave

Tonight’s sold out St Albans Mostly Comedy with Reginald D Hunter and Hattie Hayridge proved a suitable way to round off our first run at the Maltings Arts Theatre and redressed the balance nicely following our rough-around-the-edges RAF Museum date with Reg last month. The silhouettes of Hattie Hayridge & Reginald D Hunter at tonight's St Albans Mostly (05.07.18) The set-up was a little different to our first show at the venue back in May, when we performed on-the-flat in front of raked seating (whereas the seating was being used for an outdoor production of Much Ado About Nothing by the resident theatre company this month, so we had to put in a stage to eliminate sightline issues), but we ostensibly managed to fix any potential problems, so the show could run sufficiently slickly. We did have a tech flare-up not long before the house was due to open, when we couldn’t get a monitor mix independent from the house mix as part of the sound syst...

As I write, 1450 pieces of 170 gsm-thickness A5 paper with my face on are wending their way through the letterboxes of 1450 homes in St Albans, just like 1450 pieces of 170 gsm-thickness A5 paper should. The reason for this is advertising, more specifically for our forthcoming St Albans Mostly Comedy dates, which start at the Maltings Arts Theatre this week. We’ve paid for this leaflet drop in the hope it will help spread the word and increase interest in our shows, or at the very least to act as a breakwater between all the usual fast-food menus. In an ideal world we would have opted for a bigger delivery, but this was the most we could afford initially. While our flyers are only going to a fraction of the city’s homes, I’m optimistic they’ll have a positive effect, as we only need a little take-up to make a difference, plus the line-ups are more than good enough to entice the odd comedy fan to a venue that's practically in their same postcode...

Today, Glyn and I visited St Albans’ Maltings Arts Theatre - our soon-to-be sister venue for Mostly Comedy - for a quick onceover of their tech set-up so we’re prepared for the first gig in three weeks. We met with the venue’s tech manager, who was super-organised, much like the venue itself. It’s such a pleasant change to visit somewhere that’s the epitome of tidiness and order that has absolutely everything we need in-house. Mostly Comedy should fit the space like a glove, provided we sell enough tickets to make the night work. Sales are healthy - particularly for the last of the three dates with Reginald D Hunter and Hattie Hayrldge - but they could be better; it’s just hard to establish the night quickly when we’re at the mercy of a location without a constant footfall, despite being so close to the shopping centre’s multistory carpark. The good thing is we still have a few weeks to sell the first show. Organsing the first Mostly Comedy Festiva...

Today was a day of low-level admin, including finalising the first line-up for St Albans Mostly Comedy (which is good news), putting together a mailing list mailout for next week’s show (in which I mentioned the news of our soon-to-be additional venue, without actually revealing where it was) and generally not doing a great deal, save a little reading, as I hadn’t slept particularly well last night, so writing wasn’t an option. Within the mailout I mentioned the fact that Red Dwarf celebrated its thirtieth birthday yesterday - something I hadn’t realised until Norman Lovett tweeted about it - which felt pertinent, what with us regularly playing host to both Hollys, which we’re doing again over the next few months. Without double-checking due to laziness, this must put Red Dwarf alongside The Simpsons as one of the longest running sitcoms, though in the case of the former, it’s been a little more off-again on again instead of going straight through. ...

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’...

I was in the strange position of seeing someone I knew on tonight’s festive University Challenge. The second installment in the Christmas series to feature familiar ex-students competing saw Kent and Sussex lock antlers, with the comic Hattie Hayridge taking part on the latter side. Hattie has played Mostly Comedy a couple of times and is a lovely person, so there was no chance of me teasing her on Twitter, but this didn’t stop me mocking some of the other contestants; it seems I can’t help myself. Here’s what I posted on Twitter tonight; it probably reads best if you’d watched the show. Kent Vs. Sussex (20.12.16) 7:31pm: Paxman has no concept of jolly. 7:33pm: As good a time as any to post this. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Box-Canvas-Print-Paul-Ross/product-reviews/B001N6W8U0 7:35pm: "Hello, I'm Tim O'Shea." 7:37pm: ...we like Hattie Hayridge. #MostlyComedy 7:38pm: I'm enjoyi...

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was one to be proud of. First off, with Hattie Hayridge and Henning Wehn on the bill, we had an exceptional line-up. You’re off to a good start when you play host to familiar faces; more-often-than-not, an audience feels most comfortable when the people they're watching have form and a television presence; such is the nature of promoting comedy – but the atmosphere can go through the roof when those acts are on top form, like they were tonight. It was probably the one date in Mostly Comedy’s 2016 diary that made us most tense, what with the difficult task of moving a sold-out audience en mass from Henning’s originally scheduled appearance last month. Ticket holders had four weeks to decide whether they’d like to stay with the April date or switch to the new one, before the event went on public sale. Thirty people did nothing before the deadline, which made us paranoid they hadn’t seen the message (well: the numerous mes...

Some might say sharing next month's Mostly Comedy press release in lieu of a proper blog post is a cheat, but those people probably weren't up until 3am yesterday and therefore too tired to share anything else coherent. If it's any consolation, I wrote it myself - plus it's partially about me. So, strap in: Press Release – 18.04.16 mostly comedy a monthly comedy and music club, at the sun hotel in hitchin While 5th May’s Hitchin Mostly Comedy with HENNING WEHN and Red Dwarf’s HATTIE HAYRIDGE is sold out, there’s still a chance to snap up tickets for the 12th May date with stand-up from KERRY GODLIMAN and DAVID EPHGRAVE. KERRY GODLIMAN is an accomplished actress, writer and stand-up, best known for her portrayal of Hannah in Channel Four’s Ricky Gervais-penned sitcom ‘ Derek ’. She’s no stranger to other TV work, however, having appeared on BBC1’s ‘ Live at The Apollo ’, ‘ Miranda ’ and ‘ Our Gi...

Last night’s Hitchin Mostly Comedy was a good’un. We had a slightly smaller turnout than the last few months, but we’ve been spoilt for audiences since the beginning of the year. The last four shows were all sellouts. Though yesterday wasn’t quite as jam-packed, they were still a lovely crowd, who were happy to listen to everything laid in front of them, comedically speaking. They were a nice bunch, and quite vocal; the laughter count didn’t represent the amount of people we had in (in a good way). Last night saw the first Mostly Comedy appearance of Hattie Hayridge; a veteran of the stand-up circuit, who’s probably best known for playing Holly in Red Dwarf. Although we’ve seen her in the crowd at a few gigs over the years, this was the first time we’d actually met. She was very easy to talk to; we managed to fit in a nice little interview for our podcast, just before the gig went up. Hattie Hayridge at last night's gig. We ...