mostly david ephgrave

Yesterday ended up turning into a bit of a mad-panic-dash, as I rushed to register my show 'Mostly David Ephgrave' as part of next year’s (Mostly) Dave (Ephgrave) ’s Leicester Comedy Festival in time to meet their final deadline. I’d pretty much written off taking it to Leicester next year, having applied very late, so was pleasantly surprised when a slot came up last-minute. This was the reason for my sprint to-the-finish to get everything submitted. Thankfully, it wasn’t too much of a bind, as most of the promotional copy already existed, but I would still have appreciated a more leisurely pace than the the twenty-four hours I had to meet the final call of midnight tonight. Still, I’m pleased to be doing it, as it was very much a part of my plans for next year until I'd nearly scuppered it. The Leicester date (Saturday 25 th February 2017 at The Lightbox at Grays@LCB Depot: more details to follow) will almost certainly be the last ti...

Some days you don't have much to report.  I was meant to be going to watch the wrestling in London today (as you do), but I ended up cancelling, as my labyrinthitis decided to do its worst this morning, meaning it would be better not to go. Instead, I popped to the shop to pick up some croissants, so my wife and I could enjoy breakfast in bed, which was far preferable to watching a load of men pretending to fight each other in their pants.  In the afternoon, I briefly popped into town to do a little shopping, and to go to the office, so I could send a couple of emails and run some material for tomorrow's gig. Frustratingly, I seem to have made the same mistake I made last year, and have sailed too close to the deadline for the Leicester Comedy Festival, meaning I probably won't be taking my show there next year. Yet again, I'm irritated by this, as I hate missing opportunities, and - while I'd intended to take my current show there next year for its last airing be...

I'm annoyed that I've sailed so close to the Leicester Festival deadline that I don't think I'll be doing it next year.  That's the downside to being in charge of all your own admin: things can easily slip through the net. Glyn and I nearly missed the deadline the last time we played Leicester two years ago too, but through knowing a promoter, we just managed to squeeze in. They no longer run a venue, so I was unable to pull the same trick this time around. "Dicks".  (I'm the dick, not them.) It's frustrating, as it was part of my game plan for working up a show for next year. If I don't get in, I'll have to substitute it for a few dates elsewhere, but it's great to have the cross-promotion of a festival to shift tickets; I am, after all, an extremely unpopular person. It's a shame, as I really enjoyed the festival both times we did it.  There's still a chance I might snap up a venue last-minute. Be it a shed, a ...

Today, myself and Glyn spent the afternoon putting the finishing touches to our Leicester Festival show, Doggett & Ephgrave Project Stuff.   I think it’s in pretty good shape. We’ve made a point of cutting out a lot of the waffle that was slowing down the show the last time we performed it. As a result, it’s running a little under time (clocking in at about 45 minutes), but it definitely feels better for it. We’re also not taking the audience reaction into account, which should hopefully add a couple of minutes. If we have an audience, that is. If we don’t, we’ll be sure to leave an appropriate length of silence after each joke, to take the place of any potential laughter. In the past, we’ve found it difficult to make the show come across as a cohesive whole. I think we’ve finally managed to address this. The joins between material have been smoothed over – and nothing feels too out of place. We considered putting in another chunk or two of material to flesh ou...

I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do today. I’ve got a number things I should be doing, but can’t really get started until I receive either an email or a phone call. As a result, I’m just sitting, waiting for something to happen. A lot of my life is spent doing this. This time next week, Doggett & Ephgrave perform our show at Dave’s Leicester Festival for two nights. I feel like we’re on schedule; I just hope that we have an audience. We did quite well for sales last year, amazingly, considering our relatively low profile, but that was on a Thursday and Friday. This time we’re performing on a Monday and Tuesday - so I’m expecting this to have a knock-on effect. We’ve also got our first London Mostly Comedy of 2014 next Wednesday, with Phil Kay and Sam Fletcher joining us on the bill. It will be nice to have a three-day run of gigs (we’ll also be doing our Leicester show in the second half), I just hope we have a sufficient...