mostly david ephgrave

I've had a small idea for a new podcast over the past few days that I may pursue, though I'm not entirely sure the best way to go about it. My main issue is who I should approach with it. I'd go to Glyn with the concept - partly as having a new project could breathe new life into our act - but I don't think it's necessarily suited to him even if it would ultimately be the most likely route to become a reality. There's no substitute for the shorthand that comes with years of collaboration, but if I'm honest, I feel like we may have run our course when it comes to brand new output. And I'd like to enter into any future joint projects with equal enthusiasm and a fresh slate. The other person I have in mind is probably more suited to it anyway, and we've talked for years about working together more directly. And while he's not a performer per se, he'd probably be more available and keener. So it's pretty much a no-brainer. And it's not li...

I kind of feel I've reached the limit of what I can do by myself creatively without someone else to believe in me. It might just be the gloom of the New Year without the impetus of something to sink my teeth into (cliché), or it may be a genuine reflection of where I'm at, but I'm just not feeling excited about what's ahead. I've worked so hard over the past four years, with my 2018 Edinburgh show 'David Ephgrave: My Part in His Downfall' ending up something I'm very proud of, and yet I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. Mostly Comedy has become something of a compulsion with me checking our emails and the ticket reports far too regularly, but despite the frequency I tinker with things to do with it, I've started to resent it. To be honest, it's been a love / hate relationship for years, but as it stands I've started to dread the shows as they've become an exercise in organisation I'm bored with in an atmosphere whe...

Today I met my PR at The Ivy for a catch-up and to discuss our plans for this year’s Edinburgh. It’s great to work with someone I get on with so easily, who makes me feel positive about my ability and whose opinion I trust; there’s a definite sense we’re both singing from the same hymn sheet and while we didn’t get as many people in to see last year’s show as we would have liked, he still brought lots of positive attention to me while I was up there; more than I’d had in the past. Ultimately, you need someone to hand over the promotional side of performing on the Fringe to, as it’s too much to do yourself with any kind of authority. I’ve tried it in the past when working with Glyn and you never do yourself justice; too much is chased up too late and I suspect you may even end up being taken less seriously. It’s also nice to have a degree of separation from it all; you don’t always want to be the first port-of-call, nor do you necessarily want to read your reviews if you can help ...

I’m in the midst of what I’d best describe as a writer’s block when it comes to stand-up at the moment. Try as I might, I just don’t seem to be getting anything done. I have lots of blogs I’m considering developing into material, but what’s stopping me, I think, is that I’m just not feeling funny, or at least, I haven’t got the spark of energy that usually comes from being inspired to see an idea through because you’re genuinely amused with it. A lot of this is to do with a few imminent deadlines, which are making me try double-hard to finish things, but more for the sake of being able to move on than it being naturally complete; it’s all forced with one eye on the clock, which is the worst way to do anything creative; I really wouldn’t recommend it. I’m not sure what to do really, other than give myself a break for a few days, so I can return to it with fresh ears. The problem is, I don’t really have the luxury of that time at the moment. ...

It was with some sense of relief that I did the first new material I’ve tried in a few weeks at last night’s Mostly Comedy, and it got a reaction I was happy with. It’s not that I haven’t been working stuff up with a view to putting in a new show, or blogs I’ve earmarked for this purpose; I just haven’t had the time or the mental space to learn it. I’ve been rushed off my feet lately, and rather than share stories that aren’t enough in the noggin for public consumption and make a hash of them, I’d sooner tinker with them in my own time a little longer, so as not to lose faith before they’re ready.  Saying that, it’s often not until new material is performed at a gig that you find the missing pieces that make it worth listening to. Last night was a case in point, as a lot of the little incidental lines I threw in off-the-cuff got the best response. I wasn’t so aware of it at the time as I was caught up in my administrative 'running a gig' mindset, b...

I enjoyed tonight’s Mostly Comedy, and had fun doing my work-in-progress set. Me, after they told me I'd have to do an hour at tonight's Mostly The turnout for the gig was considerably less compared to our recent run of sold out dates; a point that elicited a negative reaction from just about everyone I spoke to. “Oh,” went the standard refrain. “You usually have a lot more than that,” as if I didn’t know. The point is though: that’s fine. You can’t sustain high numbers every time. The fact we do as well as we do consistently is pretty astounding, but that’s not to say that there isn’t room for the odd quieter date, particularly on a night like tonight, where the line-up were trying out new material. What made this evening work as well as it did was the fact that people seemed to know what they were coming to see (as regards the event as a whole) rather than being enticed in by the headliner, without considering it’s a show with a...

Tonight's been mostly 'off duty', catching up on recorded episodes of The Simpsons and The X Files, with a cat on my lap. My cat, to be specific; not just any old cat. If it weren't for the technology I'm using to write this, you'd be fooled into thinking it was the early 1990s, thanks to my viewing habits. I may be behind the times, but I don't care, as I enjoy it. It's nice to switch on my TV and switch off my mind. I'd hoped to work on some new material today, but try as I might, I couldn't get into the right mindset. It didn't help that I didn't get started until mid-afternoon, as I met parents for lunch. I'm not complaining - I had a nice time - but I'd hoped to get more done. Frustratingly, it wasn't until minutes before I left the office that I had a small burst of inspiration, which I quickly made note of before I walked home. At least this gives me a checklist to work through over the weekend and into the week. I...

A quick flick through some of my recent blog posts has given me a confidence boost when it comes to writing new stand-up material. A downside to writing a blog every day is you quickly forget the content. It’s like satiating the Beast: you see an idea through to its resolution and then it slips from your mind. Thankfully, you’re left with the written evidence – but it takes a lot of sifting to find the bits that would work in a live setting. I like the thought of employing someone to do this sifting for me; partly for a second opinion but mainly due to laziness. There’s a lot to get through. It would be like employing a cleaner, chucking your house-keys at them and saying, “ You deal with it”. (If I did this, I’d be more polite.) The good thing about this form of creative amnesia is that what you’ve written will often take you by surprise. You see it with fresh eyes. Believe it or not, the odd line I reread this morning made me lau...

What would you write a blog about, when you’ve already written 223 this year and 695 in total? Okay, I'm not Richard Herring yet - both in terms of my comedy career or blog output - but I’m not doing badly. I’m proud of myself for keeping it up. That said, some days it can be a bind: a brain searching, empty-headed, what-the-hell-am-I-going-to-write-about-today bind. (Like today, for instance.) It often fills me with dread. This probably sounds ridiculous. It’s a self-enforced deadline; no-one’s holding a gun to my head (or at least that’s what my blog-loving captor wants you to think). The world won’t end if I don’t write something, and if it does, it’s unlikely to be my fault; my laptop has no nuclear capability. I'm worried that if I miss one, I’ll miss two...then three, then four and then five. If I put it down, I may never pick it up – and it's proved so useful, for working up ideas and for keeping my mind busy. I wouldn’t have written ‘…and Ephgrave’...

The downside of writing a blog post every day is you'll sometimes think of a subject, only for a quick Google to reveal you’ve already written about it. Such was the case today. It didn’t help that I set to work quite late, after spending a couple of hours sifting through old posts looking for ideas for stand-up. The sift proved lucrative, but left me creatively spent. There’s only so much of my own writing I can take in one sitting. When it came to thinking of something new, I kept drawing blanks. That was until I remembered a conversation I’d had with my friend Steve earlier this week. We were talking about caricaturists – as you do – when I recounted the story of the time I posed for one as a kid. For some reason, I took it upon myself to pull a weird face to help the artist out; briefly forgetting which of us was supposed to be doing the caricaturing. In doing this, I scuppered myself, ending up with a picture looking nothing like me. I thought this would be good...

If there's one thing that frustrates me most about myself, it's the fact that I used to be a songwriter - but somewhere down the line, I seem to have lost the knack to finish anything. If you’d asked me to define myself a decade ago that's almost certainly what I would have said. I’d been in a band since junior school, and had always written my own material. It was my main creative outlet – and as time went on, I gradually got better at it. I went to drama school - but to be honest, that was just a way of biding my time while I waited for my band to take off. I had only ever set out to be a singer / songwriter, and anything else I ended up doing would always have been second best. I didn’t really find my stride as a writer until around 1999 (when everyone else was just too busy partying Prince-style). My band Big Day Out had been going since secondary school as a four-piece – but all of a sudden, the other major creative force behind the band up and left. For q...