mostly david ephgrave

A month since my last blog about September's Hitchin Mostly Comedy , we've nearly reached the limit of what we can do to keep the club afloat, which is pretty inevitable in the current climate. A video still of Doggett & Ephgrave performing at the first Hitchin Mostly Comedy (23.10.08) The sad thing is sales for October's gig had improved considerably in the week after our first show back. It was probably the simple fact that a gig went ahead after so many cancellations since Covid hit that had reinstilled people's confidence. But seven days later, in classic sod's law style, the faeces hit the air-cooling device. The main act pulled out for a better-paid gig and, because the other comic originally scheduled to appear had sadly passed away, the complete change to our line-up put us in a situation when we'd have to at least offer refunds to ticketholders first. Doggett & Ephgrave interview Phil Cornwell (far left) at the last Hitchin Mostly Comedy (23.09....

It was very heartening when the virtual doors opened on our first-ever ZOOMostly Comedy last night to see so many people logging in and know we had lots of interest. We'd only announced we'd be pushing the podcast aspect of the originally-billed show online under a fortnight ago, so the turnaround was tight. The fact the interview was with the main pull of the night - Arthur Smith - was likely to go in our favour, but there were no guarantees people would be tech-savvy enough to want to try it. It shows how attitudes have changed since lockdown began that asking audience members to join us via the meeting software Zoom wasn't a big deal. And in many ways, I think the interview we presented was probably all the better for it, which is fortunate as it's likely to be the way Mostly Comedy will run for a good few months at least. Arthur was, as ever, the perfect guest. He's always warm and friendly and - unlike many younger, less experienced and less astute com...

It's been a while since I've posted a Mostly Comedy press release in place of a blog here. And as our next Hitchin gig's just thirteen days away, now seems as good a time as any to do it: Press Release – 04.03.20 mostly comedy a monthly comedy club at hitchin town hall On 19th March, Doggett & Ephgrave’s popular monthly club at Hitchin Town Hall, Mostly Comedy, will play host to the Olivier-nominated comedian, writer, broadcaster and all-round British institution ARTHUR SMITH , who will both perform and then be interviewed by the duo for their More Than Mostly Comedy podcast. Arthur is best known for his appearances on BBC's Grumpy Old Men , QI , Have I Got News For You and The One Show , plus hosting BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Comedy Club and BBC Radio 2’s Smith Lectures . He is a Spirit of The Fringe award-winning Edinburgh Festival stalwart and the Olivier-nominated writer of An Evening With Gary Lineker . He started out as a member of the 1980s’...

Tonight's Mostly Comedy was the perfect way to kick off our 2019 season, thanks to an exceptional line-up and a sold-out crowd who were with us from the get-go, giving the gig a boost that left me optimistic for the year ahead. For one, we had Phil Kay and Arthur Smith on the same bill, which any comedy aficionado would tell you is a very promising start point. On top of this we had the fab Katie Pritchard (who's one of the hardest-working people I know, always jumping from gig to gig) who was on sparkling form. The only fly-in-the-ointment was we were Glyn-less, as he was company-managing the adult panto tour in Dudley (lucky him), but despite his absence, the show was a slick problem-free affair, which is always a relief when I'm running it alone. Not that I was alone, really. First off, my friend (and one of the first acts to perform at the club when we kicked off in 2008) Stephen Halliday came down from his midlands base (which makes him sound like an evil genius) t...

This evening's debut Maltings Arts Theatre Mostly Comedy was an enjoyable way to kick off our St Albans dates. My prevailing post-gig thought is it felt like a perfect fit. The auditorium is extremely comfortable to work in, and perhaps the most focused space where we’ve presented the club, with the Market Theatre or Leiceste r Square Theatre at a very close second-and-third place. While there are lots of positives about the Sun, the biggest stumbling block is how easy it is for the audience’s focus to be lost, particularly when the performer isn’t a well-known one with an instantly recognisable rhythm. It’s a vast, high-ceilinged room with a tiny stage in the midst of a wide wall, with so much potential for distraction. Our techie Paul does an excellent job of lighting it to make the best of what we’ve got, but despite the definite improvement since we first started there, it’s still lacks the cohesion to be a great performance space. Theatre’...

As I write, 1450 pieces of 170 gsm-thickness A5 paper with my face on are wending their way through the letterboxes of 1450 homes in St Albans, just like 1450 pieces of 170 gsm-thickness A5 paper should. The reason for this is advertising, more specifically for our forthcoming St Albans Mostly Comedy dates, which start at the Maltings Arts Theatre this week. We’ve paid for this leaflet drop in the hope it will help spread the word and increase interest in our shows, or at the very least to act as a breakwater between all the usual fast-food menus. In an ideal world we would have opted for a bigger delivery, but this was the most we could afford initially. While our flyers are only going to a fraction of the city’s homes, I’m optimistic they’ll have a positive effect, as we only need a little take-up to make a difference, plus the line-ups are more than good enough to entice the odd comedy fan to a venue that's practically in their same postcode...

Today, Glyn and I visited St Albans’ Maltings Arts Theatre - our soon-to-be sister venue for Mostly Comedy - for a quick onceover of their tech set-up so we’re prepared for the first gig in three weeks. We met with the venue’s tech manager, who was super-organised, much like the venue itself. It’s such a pleasant change to visit somewhere that’s the epitome of tidiness and order that has absolutely everything we need in-house. Mostly Comedy should fit the space like a glove, provided we sell enough tickets to make the night work. Sales are healthy - particularly for the last of the three dates with Reginald D Hunter and Hattie Hayrldge - but they could be better; it’s just hard to establish the night quickly when we’re at the mercy of a location without a constant footfall, despite being so close to the shopping centre’s multistory carpark. The good thing is we still have a few weeks to sell the first show. Organsing the first Mostly Comedy Festiva...

Today was another day of note for Mostly Comedy, with the mailing list pre-sale for Bobby Davro's appearance at the club on 23rd May - sharing the bill with work-in-progress from me - beginning at 9am this morning, with me keeping an eye on proceedings, as always, making notes as I watched. I'm often tense on these occasions, particularly when it's a slightly unusual line-up, as you never know for sure if it will grab people's interest; our pre-sales are quite a good indicator of how an event will do, so when thirty tickets were snapped up in the first ten minutes today I relaxed a little bit. It's still selling healthily as we speak. I quickly knocked together a press release for our first St Albans date too, which I've included below; hopefully the more I can clear the decks of any admin over the next few days, the sooner I can devote time to work on new material, which is very important to me. My life feels like a sea of press releases and pre-sales and I...

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy at the Sun Hotel with Arthur Smith and Phil Wang was a great way to draw a line under what's been a truly exceptional year for the club. Arthur Smith, on-stage at The Sun Hotel, Hitchin (13.12.17) We’re all too aware of how lucky we are to be running an event with such ardent and consistent support. Just the last few months have been a case in point, with Jack Dee, Phill Jupitus and Henning Wehn’s dates all selling out in a matter of minutes; a few years ago we would never have dreamt this possible and yet here it is; we always hoped the club would become a hot ticket that stayed in a smallish room and didn't lose it roots and that’s exactly what’s happened; it’s extraordinary really. Doggett & Ephgrave being weird, pre-show. It shows how much we’ve grown to accept the calibre of line-ups we host to have an act of Arthur Smith’s stature play the club again for us to barely bat an eyelid. It helps ...

Tonight saw the first Broadway Cinema & Theatre Mostly Comedy (in the company of Norman Lovett and Arthur Smith) and it’s fair to say that we all had a lovely evening. A Doggett & Ephgrave whistle duet (02.03.17) It was nice to present the club in a proper theatre and to able to use Glyn’s and my experience in th at kind of space with our other work in a Mostly Comedy context. On a personal level, it 's quite something to note the journey the club has taken since its early days in the tiny room above the George pub in Hitchin eight and a half years ago . The Br oadway's not a venue I’d ever anticipated working in, having always been a cinema up to its recent refit ; it was a definite step up from my only other gigs in Letchworth up to that point with Big Day Out at the Arena Tavern over the road , and with both Big Day Out and the Buddy show at Plinston Hall. Helping Norman find his glasses. It helped that we had exactly the right bill fo...

Yesterday, I met Glyn briefly to go over business related to March’s Mostly Comedy at the Broadway Cinema & Theatre in Letchworth. The gig is less than five weeks away and we’re pretty much up-to-speed. It should prove to be a nice optional extra to our Hitchin shows, with a gentle nod to our occasional   - for want of a better word - upgraded Summer Specials. Every so often, we’ve staged a version of the club at a bigger venue to wherever we were based at the time, which have always been a successful, slightly posher alternative to the usual gig. This will be the biggest room to date, in keeping with the club’s gradual growth over the last eight years, and the fact it’s in a theatre (instead of the studios and ballrooms of the past) should make for a well-earned, slick, higher-grade event. (No pressure.) There are a few challenges. The main one is seeing if the fact the venue has only just been reworked from a cinema into a theatre...

One thing I did today - besides making the most of my new Fitbit (7884 steps and counting) - was put together a mailout to Glyn's and my mailing list, primarily promoting the extra Mostly Comedy date we're doing at the Broadway Cinema in Letchworth in March. Whilst doing this - which took far longer than it should - I also wrote compiled the press release, which was good as it technically means I'm now ahead on the game, as I usually send it out much later. I thought I'd share it below, along with the poster for the show; if you like the sound of show, you should come on down (and bring 399 friends so we can reach capacity). Press Release – 11.01.17 mostly comedy a mixed bill of some of the finest acts on the scene, hosted by doggett & ephgrave The duo behind Hitchin’s eight year-running Hitchin event Mostly Comedy ( DOGGETT & EPHGRAVE ) are delighted to present the first Letchworth gala version of the club at the newly rewor...