mostly david ephgrave

Whenever I put together a show, the music I choose to use - both in and around it - has always been very important to me. The songs I settle on are never there by accident, as they’re an essential way of contributing to the feel of the show as a whole. Admittedly, I’ll often go for something by The Beatles or Paul McCartney as their music is something I’m very passionate about, but invariably I’ll pick something obscure I suspect the wider public won’t be aware of, but I think they'll like. 'Hey Bulldog' is a perfect case in point. The song was only cut by The Beatles as something to do while shooting a video for the single ‘Lady Madonna’ in the studio, and was if anything a bit of a toss-off, but despite this it has long been a personal favourite; consequently, it’s been the play-out at every single Mostly Comedy that’s ever been. It doesn’t matter how many times I hear the song in that context, it still has the same impact. I love the...

Today, Glyn and I visited a museum in London where we’re likely to be hosting a one-off Mostly Comedy in June (as if we don’t enough Mostly Comedys to contend with in the near future). When you’re approached to run a club by a venue that doesn’t usually stage theatrical events you can never be quite sure if they’ve considered fully how you need a focused space. This was even a problem at one of Mostly’s past long-term homes; this particular venue was managed by two people, one of whom was 100% onboard with our requirements, while I suspect the other had pictured it more like a musical open mic night with someone strumming away on a guitar in the corner while the audience drank and chatted away. That kind of set-up is bad enough when you’re playing music - I’ve done enough gigs like that myself, believe me - but it's disastrous for comedy, which requires complete attention to work; you can’t build a story with people coming and going, both literally and...

Show number two was a fun one today, somehow contradicting the unwritten rule that second shows never go well. There’s something about the relative let-down compared to the nervous energy of the first one that tends to make your second show not so good, but thankfully I somehow managed to navigate around that. It was a smaller crowd - which was as to be expected at Sunday lunchtime - but they were nice and very much on board, which was lovely; it’s great to be met with smiling faces and people who pick up on the smaller details and are clearly enjoying themselves. Yet again, there was a German contingent in the room - every show seems to have this - but today, for the first time, they were able to translate the phrase I throw out towards the beginning, so my thanks go out to the German woman yesterday who gave me a few pointers (not the dog). I occasionally worried whether the popular culture references would be too niche for them, but they were sm...

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 ...

Tonight sees the first night of my few days' break to Center Parcs , and as it's a suitably middle-c lass destination, I've decided to play a game of Count the Gilets. I’ve been looking forward to this for months, following a stressful year, with my first solo Edinburgh Fringe sitting dead-centre like an ominous, foreboding summit, peeping every so often through the clouds as I trudged my way to the top and then back down the other side. This, combined with some non-work-related bits and bobs made for eleven months that alternated between being difficult and settled, with a few peaks and troughs along the way. I have my wife to thank for booking the holiday early this year, giving us both something to set our sights on as a little time for us to relax. We visited the same site (and stayed in the same cabin) last October and had such a lovely time we decided to do it again - and though there were occasions when I thought the break would never arrive, being over...

When you regularly organise shows like I do, far too much of your time is taken up with logistics. Such was the case for me today, and primarily tonight. I have a preview in London tomorrow that I organised, booked and promoted myself at a venue I’ve worked at previously, which doesn’t have much of a tech set-up. Consequently, I’m taking most of the gear there myself. This wouldn’t have been a problem if I had someone coming with me to share the load, but sadly, a couple of people who’d originally been hoping to do this had to pull out unavoidably. As a result, I spent most of this evening with my brain zoned out, as I tried to figure out a feasible way of carrying everything I need on my own in one go; if only I possessed a pit pony. Part of the reason for my brain freeze was due to spending a long day split between rehearsing, organising, promoting, procrastinating…and other words that end with ‘ing’. It can be hard to multi-task with such little...