mostly david ephgrave

Today, I ate waffles for both a main course and a dessert at The Waffle House in St Albans, thus bringing a whole knew meaning to the phrase 'waffly versatile'.  My wife and I met our friends Philippa, James and their baby daughter Georgie there for lunch today, with no inkling as to whether you could enjoy both sweet and savoury waffles in one sitting. I've since learnt that you can. I'd briefly perused the menu online before leaving, trying to decide whether having more than one waffle-based course would be a culinary faux pas; do you just choose one type over another? If so, then what's the best option? Deep down, I knew my sweet tooth would override the need for more standard lunchtime sustenance, if push came to shove. Thankfully, James threw down the edible gauntlet by ordering both the hummus & avocado waffle and the banoffee waffle, which I'd had my eye on too - and get this: they were bloody lovely. In a few hours, I'd gone from waffle indiff...

I was a bit frustrated with how tonight's gig turned out.  My wife, who was there, assured me it was good, but I was unconvinced. It's the first time I've done my solo show since returning from Edinburgh, and my first gig (I had two others booked in, but one was cancelled due to a poor turnout and the other I cancelled myself), but despite having felt pretty good about it when I've been running it in the week, tonight just didn't gel. It didn't help that I had to take a lot of the tech with me. I managed to streamline things down to two suitcases, a bag and the projector stand between the two of us, but it was still too much. I got a bit stressed during the set-up and didn't settle out of that mindset. There were a decent number of people in - far more than I'd expected - but everyone was sat too far from the front, which added to the sense of detachment, and I felt like I was fighting for attention. I also wasn't happy with how things sounded, but...

It wasn’t until I posted a tweet to advertise the next two months’ Mostly Comedy line-ups that I realised the acts appearing were all men. I’m annoyed about this, if I’m honest, as I try hard not to make this the case. There should always be an equal spread of male and female comics, though admittedly, however aware I am of this, sometimes acts’ availabilities mean the line-up I aim for may not be the line-up I get. However good our intentions may be, we ultimately want a bill that will sell, plus we reach a point where we just need a bill confirmed. It’s not that I want to go down the same route the BBC famously – and controversially – went with panel shows, insisting that every show should have at least one woman in the line-up. If anything, this made their male-to-female ratio worse , with them settling for just on e woman per show, instead of an even amount. Also, why make panel shows the scapegoat, when male bias is a problem across the bo...

The Great British Bake off has been through the mire of gossip, assumption and controversy over the past few days, what with it changing channel for 2016, that just watching the programme itself today was a little anti-climactic. It was what it was and it is what it is: a lowish budget baking show, with a lot of charm and gentle humour – and a soon-to-be sayonara from the low-key, unintimidating Mel and Sue at the helm. Today’s show was mostly about savoury baking. See below for this week’s adventures, as according to my Twitter posts. 8:03pm: A little heads-up to the people at Love Productions: WE'RE AVAILABLE. 8:06pm: Perhaps C4 can change the format to a Big Brother / Bake Off hybrid: "GB-BB-BO". (I'm fully aware that BB is now on C5). 8:07pm: Val's husband doesn't exist. 8:15:pm: Only Selasi could make crackling sound sexy . 8:5pm: Aunt Bessie would be furious. 8:20pm: Just think how much better the camera work on t...

While in many ways, this evening was fraught with disaster – I was meant to be taking my dad to see Sean Lock in Dunstable, but he wasn’t feeling well enough to go, and the person who was set to give us a lift to the venue had to pull out last-minute, as his car’s battery had died – the positive upshot was I got to take part in Quizzy Monday, and keep tabs on the latest bunch of knob-headed University Challenge contestants to face the impenetrable wall that is Jeremy Paxman. See below for this week’s standard bitching. One day I’ll grow out of this (he says, unconvincingly). 8:03pm: Edinburgh's Smith would kill you (if he hasn't already). 8:04pm: Stenner-Matthews is Smith without the glasses. 8:05pm: Jeremy Paxman just said the word 'lubrication'. Sexy.   8:06pm: I can't take the piss out of Brophy, due to his close proximity. (Hitchin / Hatfield). 8:07pm: Boyle used to be in the Traveling Willburys. 8:07pm: Boyle. Gimp. ...

In times of trouble, I remember John Lennon was Frank from Everybody Loves Raymond's Best Man and my mood is lifted.  Even John looks surprised to be there. There's something about the whole situation that verges on incongruous. He couldn't look more like Lennon 'The Legend' that no-one should have been in close contact with, let alone entrusting their wedding rings to; if anything, Ringo would have been the more obvious choice. Who conducted the ceremony? Idi Amin?  While I consider myself something of a Beatles aficionado, I had absolutely no knowledge of this trivia, until my wife stumbled across the it and told me it was the case. There's something pleasing about the fact these two people whose work I enjoy moved in the same circles. If only Frank (A.K.A. Peter Boyle) had truly been married to Marie. The only tidbit to rival this is the fact the murderer in the Hitchcock classic Rear Window was the same actor who played Perry Mason; sometimes, t...

My favourite bit of tonight's Billy Joel gig was when Billy Joel came on and sang some Billy Joel songs. The show was at Wembley Stadium (it's the first time I'd been inside, having only been to concerts in the Arena, and never having seen a football match there), and was truly great. I've had a soft spot for Joel's work for a long time - he wrote one of my favourite songs, no less, but we'll get to that - but probably wouldn't have thought to see him, if it weren't for the fact my mother-in-law's a fan, and my wife offered to take her to the gig, thus giving me an alibi. He's an exceptionally good showman, with a voice that's still very much in tact, which was inspiring to hear. He's one of a tight group of "songwriters' songwriters" , such as McCartney and (early) Elton John, with a deep musicality and a varied ouvre, from pop (that's on the right side of jazzy without being conceited) to rock and folk and a little b...