mostly david ephgrave

Tonight was one of my standard ‘travelling to London to set up for a show that didn't happen' affairs; an experience I seem to go through with alarming regularity. To be fair, it was almost inevitable tonight's show would be cancelled, what with it being a Monday night in the midst of the World Cup and on the first day of Wimbledon, smack-bang in the middle of a heatwave, with a late gig kick-off of 9pm; you didn’t need to be Mystic Meg (or whoever her modern-day equivalent is) to predict that. Nevertheless, I went through the motions in the hope I’d have a chance to talk through a few ideas for Edinburgh to some semblance of an audience, be they last-minute bookings (which didn't happen) or comps given out to paper the house (which I offered with no uptake). I nearly didn’t go into town anyway, as for some reason I had barely no energy as I got ready to leave, I had been feeling a little battered down by the whole process over weekend, largely due to being sick o...

Yesterday, I finished registering my work-in-progress dates at the Brighton Fringe next May and booked in a performance of ‘Now Who’s a Comedian?’ at the Etcetera Theatre toward the end of January, to plug the gap between now and my show at Leicester Comedy Festival in February , thus setting the wheels creaking into motion for 2018. It felt good to get back on my feet following last week’s unpleasant review, instead of stewing for too long on it, though I won’t deny, it hasn’t left my mind quite yet; it’s frustrating to be grappling with unnecessary self-doubt as I consider my next move, as any creative person has enough of this to contend with, without someone else sticking their head around the door to shout, “You’re SHIT”, before buggering off again. It’s just so tiresome. I’m already struggling to face the idea of working up something new to have to waste time bolstering myself from an outsider’s negative commentary; my brain ignores positive ...

It didn’t matter that there were only two people in for tonight's show, as it was both enjoyable and useful in equal measure.   It just goes to illustrate that you can never predict these things, other than taking an educated guess at the moment. Yesterday, only two people turned up as well, and as soon as I started talking to them beforehand to see how they felt about it and whether they wanted it to go ahead, the width of their eyes made it clear that they weren’t comfortable with it; I understood completely, as there aren’t many who would be. Conversely, I could tell very quickly when I spoke to the two women who came tonight that they were more than happy to watch it and if anything, that they thought it sounded quite fun. They seemed nice and good humoured, so the me that at other times might have decided to pull it before I went out-front thought, “What the heck”. I should state for the record that they were exceptional sports. With the wrong people, havin...

The fact I had to cancel Monday's gig goes to show how much harder it is to get an audience in London than anywhere else. "Now Showing..." To be fair, that’s a little simplistic. London is saturated with previews at this time of year, with many far more well-established performers vying (yes: “vying”) for attention, so it’s always going to be difficult; it’s a process you just have to go through to pull a show together, but an expensive one at that. The preview procedure is a bit of a lottery; you start by putting as many dates as you can in the diary, striking a balance between places you’ve played before and a few you haven’t, taking into account which venues are cheapest, which have their own audience and which are best equipped. The Etcetera (where Monday and Tuesday’s dates are booked) is one of the best spaces for me, as it’s perfect for comedy, has a good profile and has a projector and a screen rigged and a proper PA, whereas somewhere lik...

Tonight saw the final performance of last year’s Edinburgh show in London, or at all, outside of my date at the Leicester Comedy Festival in February . The venue was the Etcetera Theatre, which is one of my favourites to work in, both for what it feels like to play and for its tech set-up. It’s a home from home really, as I’ve been there so many times on my own and with Glyn that I know just what to expect, which is helpful when your get-in is likely to be a little rushed. There’s a projector and screen rigged too, which is great as that’s two less things to take, plus they’re both good quality, which is something of a rarity in Fringe venues; two spaces instantly spring to mind with projectors with lamps so old they barely reach the wall they’re meant to hit. The Etcetera screen’s also huge, which makes my stuff work so much better. Another thing the Etcetera is great for is its support. They constantly retweet and promote your show and are very h...

Today, I booked another London ‘Mostly David Ephgrave’ date for 30th January next year. I decided to go for the Etcetera Theatre this time, as it’s a great space to play and has a projector rigged too. It all works out quite well, as the date falls nicely between now and my show at the Leicester Comedy Festival in February , and gives me another chance to invite industry people to see it in London. It would be nice to get some interest and support out of it, before I start getting my head around what my new show will be; I’m bored of doing everything by myself. This always seems to be my approach when I panic about what to do next: I book in other dates and plan new things to do. It’s not a bad by-product of my uncertainty, as it keeps the ball rolling, but the downside is I sometimes end up putting too much in the diary. I just want a few more people in the business see what I think is a good show - in a good room - before I put it to bed. The other thing I’m on the...

While the downside of tonight was having to cancel my preview at The Etcetera Theatre, at least I had a go on King's Cross' massively oversized swing.      Who cares that the 'show that wasn't' cost £200 at a conservative estimate. It doesn't matter that each preview that doesn't happen makes me marginally less prepared for my Edinburgh Fringe run. Tonight, I got to do my best impression of a human pendulum in front of scores of frustrated commuters, held back by severe delays; for a moment I was King of the World. It took every ounce of self control to resist the urge to leap from it mid-swing, holding out my arms like an Olympic gymnast. I've half a mind to find more enormous playground rides and have a go on them.   Setting up for tonight. In reality, cancelling tonight was hugely frustrating; not least because I had to book and pay for an emergency technician to step in to run my show, as I didn't think my wife would ...

What I could really do with at this stage of putting my Edinburgh show together is an editor. I have so many little bits and pieces and ideas flying around that I can scarcely keep track of them, let alone decide what’s best 'in' and what’s best 'out'. This is partly thanks to my blog, which has been a fantastic source to call on, as I wouldn’t remember half of the things that crossed my mind over the past few years if it weren’t for it, but it can also be an overwhelming record to get to grips with; it can be luck of the draw as to whether I’ve picked the right entries, or whether there are some far better ideas that have been lost, under the weight of it. Yesterday was a case in point: before I started a run, I noted down a couple of rough ‘new’ ideas – i.e. old blogs that I hadn’t yet looked at in a stand-up context that had popped into my mind – to have a quick look. In doing so, I stumbled across a piece I’d half-worked up for ...

Tonight’s Camden show was a lot of fun.  I went into it a lot more relaxed than I’d been the previous night. It helped that I’d read a favourable review from View From the Gods moments before I went into the space. It’s worth bearing in mind that I’ve had very little outside input when putting the show together, so it can get to a point where you can’t see the wood for the trees, and know if you’re getting anything right. The sentiment behind the VFTG review was encouraging, helping me to feel I’m at least some of the way there; reading it before the show briefly freed me from my internal monologue and made the whole thing a lot more enjoyable. Tonight’s crowd was small, but reasonably responsive. There were some nice moments. I would have much preferred to have press in tonight over last night (I may very well have had some, of course), but that’s the way these things go. I felt far slicker than I had the night before. It made me wish I was going straight in...

Five words, uttered nonchalantly by the Etcetera Theatre’s Duty Manager after tonight’s show that put the fear of God in me: “You had three press in” . What made her comment more alarming was there were only nine people in the audience. The ‘crowd’ watching my show this evening was one-third reviewers. There was a journalist for every pair of standard punters. I think I’ve made my point. Me, with sign, tonight. It will be interesting to hear what they think, particularly now the show starts with a brief dissection of my unfavourable Chortle review. Will this win friends or gain enemies? I’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully they came from different sources, for variety. I'm delighted to have such a great journalistic turnout (the best I’ve ever had), daunting though it may be. The show was okay for a first night. I was a little flustered by the get-in and took a little while to relax. The audience were quiet in places, which makes more s...

Today, I've been working methodically through everything I needed to do to get ‘…and Ephgrave’ back on its feet for tomorrow. I feel like I’ve been pretty productive.  It’s hard to motivate yourself when you’re working on your own as your brain will throw as many avoidance strategies into the ring as possible. To combat this, I’ve been writing a daily checklist. It helps me keep an eye on the endgame and to prioritise on the essentials; in reality, my checklist reads ‘BE FUNNY’, twenty-three times. (“No TV and no beer makes Homer something, something.”) I would have liked an outside eye on a run or two this week, for constructive criticism. It’s nice to have a few last-minute pointers to focus on. At least I’ve done the show before, so it’s not alien territory. It's still work-in-progress. Either way, I’m ending today far happier with where the show’s at. I just need to get it back in front of an audience - which is good, as I’ll be doing that tomorrow. (…prov...

I had my technical rehearsal today for the weekend’s Etcetera Theatre shows, frustratingly in the midst of the twenty-four-hour tube strike. Tube strikes tend to follow Doggett & Ephgrave about. Tube strikes and major sporting events. I’ve lost count of the amount of shows we’ve put on in London on the same day as one or the other, or both; we’re the Mystic Megs of Gig Inconvenience, so don’t ask us for tips on scheduling. Today’s strike really didn’t hold me up, to be fair. I only needed to get from King’s Cross to Camden and back, which is barely any distance. The buses were as plentiful as they were boiling and packed; I arrived at the venue on time, but sweaty. It was strange teching at the Etcetera without Glyn, having done so much there together in the past. It’s our most-used venue outside of Leicester Square and Soho Theatre, and a lovely space with a good set-up. I had the technical manager on hand to assist me, which was great, but it led to a false sense o...

Today, in lieu of a proper blog post, I thought I'd share an interview I did for The New Current about my forthcoming stand-up show '...and Ephgrave' . ‎ I thought it would make for more interesting reading than hearing me whitter on about my day, which was mostly spent cropping and photoshopping promotional images, and submitting blurbs and press releases for my Camden Fringe run in August. While these things were all of practical importance, they don't bear recounting outside of the previous sentence. So, here it is. Click the link for a tale of mystery and intrigue - and for a lovely picture of a suited-and-bearded me. New Current Interview   

I found this flyer while sorting through my bedroom cupboard. Of all our shows’ taglines, this one had the worst. We must have been possessed by the spirit of ITV. Reading it made me sick in my mouth.  It’s the sort of sentence you’d see in a brochure for a Butlin’s Holiday Camp. Not that I’ve ever looked in one, of course. Not that I’ve ever looked. What were we thinking? ‘Four characters, two situations, one night of comedy’ is less a tagline, more an equation. Perhaps we'd stumbled across the secret formula to funny. It only needs an exclamation mark to seal the deal. Two’s Company wasn’t our finest hour. As shows go, it was a pretty cut-and-shut. We glued together two sitcom pilots with a couple of sketches. One of the sitcoms, 'Chipped, Battered and Burgered', was set in a chip shop in the early 1980s . The plot was basically a reworking of Fawlty Towers’ 'Basil the Rat'. Thank God Cleese and Booth’s lawyers never...