Skip to main content

Two-Week Hiatus.


I’ve decided to pull the shutter down on writing any new stand-up material for two weeks.

This will help me to focus on getting to grips with what I’ve already got. Three deadlines are scorched into my brain: the first work-in-progress gig on 28th February, the Comedy Project date at the Soho Theatre on 23rd March and my first Brighton Fringe show on 8th May. The middle one is the most ominous. I’ve always found Soho Upstairs difficult to play. I’ve never performed solo there before, but have been in countless sitcom readings, plays and sketch screenings with Glyn in the past. It’s wide and sound doesn’t travel well. A panel of industry people will also be watching, who give feedback afterwards in front of the audience. This adds extra fun to proceedings.

As a result, I’ve been frantically trying to get new stuff down to give myself a head start. Quite a bit of material has either been tried out once or twice or never tried at all. By stopping for breath, I hope to let what I’ve written sink in. I can then use the fortnight before the 28th to perform and tweak it. I’ll probably do a short, primarily new set at Thursday’s Mostly Comedy and try to squeeze in an open spot in London sometime before it. I’ve got a couple of gigs in the diary the following week too. Once the first work-in-progress show has passed I can take stock on what I’ve got; hopefully, more than I think.

Popular posts from this blog

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...

Not The Bayeux One.

The Carole King album Tapestry has been my 'getting-ready-in-the-morning' soundtrack for the past few weeks.  It's been a favourite album ever since I was a student, which makes for a pleasantly gentle way to usher in the start of a day. I've always been a fan of a well-crafted song, which is something of a Carole King hallmark, ever since she started writing with her first husband in the early Sixties. Tapestry may be an unimaginative choice for a favourite LP, as it suggests I haven't delved that far into her career, but it's still an undoubted classic; anything with '(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman', 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' and 'You've Got A Friend' on it can't really fail; if nothing else, it proves she likes writing songs with long titles.  Next month, she's set to perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at a gig in Hyde Park, which I would have loved to have gone to, if it weren...