Skip to main content

Mostly Done and Dusted.


Tonight saw the last Hitchin Mostly Comedy of 2016, which all in all, was a good way to round things off.

Me, tonight.
We’ve come to the end of our first year at the Sun Hotel, and I now think it’s safe to say our move to the venue has been a success. While the Market Theatre was a lovely space to play and certainly enabled the club to grow, the move to The Sun was the best thing that could happen for us. It enabled us to increase capacity by just enough to make a real difference to how the event runs financially, giving us more of a budget to book bigger acts. The move also relinquished us from the responsibility of having to staff the entire theatre for the night - including the two bars and Front of House - which was a drain on both our finances and our time. Now, we can just concentrate on our tech and door staff, which is of more direct benefit to us - particularly when the theatre wasn't always that accommodating in the first place.

Sean Hughes, tonight.
Despite the fact tonight’s show was good, neither of us were particularly in the mood for the gig when we met in this afternoon to set up. It was probably that ‘end of the year' feeling more than anything, plus we’ve had so little time together to be able to work up anything new.

When it came to it, we needn’t have worried. Our material went well, and Luke Benson and Sean Hughes were well-received. I tried out a tiny bit of new solo material as well that has legs (not literally), as well as recycling a piece from my first show ‘…and Ephgrave’ that I hadn’t touched since last summer, which still has potential. I’m glad I went ahead with my solo set, as I wasn’t sure if I was going to put myself through it, having not had much time to really think it through, but as ever, it’s best to try something in the open than spending too long over-thinking it. If nothing else, I’ve broken the seal on writing a new show; there’s something pleasing psychologically about having done this before the year’s up; if I can just come up with another fifty-five minutes worth, I should be all right.

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Hitchin is Mine.

As of six o’clock tonight, I take over the Hitchin is Yours Twitter account for a week; a stewardship I’m anxious to get right. I’m proud of my hometown. It’s a great place to live, with so much going for it. I've always sold it to my non-Hitchinite friends; so much so, that a lot have gone on to move here. Any town expansion plans are partly my fault. Feel free to picket outside my house. I love its history and architecture. Take St Mary’s Church, for example. The building is beautiful inside and out, and huge for a town of our size. There has been a place of worship on site since the 7 th Century. Much of the present building dates from the 1300s. You wouldn't get that in America. (Don't forget the British Schools Museum too.)  Hitchin is a hive for creative people and a hub for the arts. It boast two theatres, two comedy clubs, a couple of art galleries, a festival for world music and a thriving music scene. This drew...

'Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream..."

While I’ve been practising meditation for quite some time now, I’ve recently taken to using the mindfulness app 'Headspace' . If you’ve never meditated before, or you’re an old hand at it, it’s a great resource, offering daily ten-minute guided meditations that create a sense of progress, rather than stagnating and going through the same process every day. Until I started using the app, I’d often listen to a handful of audio guided meditations I have on my phone in case of a brain emergency. If you see me with my eyes closed and my earphones in on public transport, I’m probably doing this (unless I’m sleeping and using this blog as an elaborate alibi). While the tracks on my phone are great, they can get a little repetitive as I become too familiar with them and start to anticipate everything the person on the recording will say. This is where Headspace is great, as it offers you a daily course with a different focus each day, as well as pl...