mostly david ephgrave

Tonight I had a moment of solidarity when I looked up on the tube to see Stewart Lee sat opposite me, looking through his notes on his way to do a show in the same venue, but in the other space. It’s times like that when you briefly put into perspective what you’re doing and the privileged position you’re in. There were only three people performing at Leicester Square Theatre tonight: Stewart Lee, Jason Byrne and me - and while I’m under no illusions about my position is in the comedy food chain, it’s nice to be a part of that scene and to acknowledge the achievement, however small it may be. I obviously knew he was going to be at the venue tonight and that I might bump into him, but there was something pleasingly coincidental about winding up in the same tube carriage to both be looking through our notes. I’m more than aware of how much of a grafter he is - much like his former comedy partner Richard Herring - but it was still lovely to see him me...

Tonight’s show at Leicester Square Theatre was fun, if a little rough around the edges. Setting up, pre-show. It’s always nice to return to the venue, as it’s one I’m very familiar with, having done various shows there with Glyn and on my own in the past. Over the years they’ve made various little improvements to the space - I’m in the Lounge and not the main house, obviously - so it’s now a better room to play, but I’ve always liked it, really. It also has a projector rigged, which is half the battle won for me. One thing I’d like to dispense with, if I’m honest, is going straight from overseeing setting up to actually doing the show, with very little time in-between. This isn’t really something you can avoid when you’re only doing a couple of dates here and there, but I long for the day when I have the luxury of turning up solely thinking about the show itself, and not whether the gear will work. Thankfully, I had the splendid Stephen Morgan tech...

Sometimes, good news comes in small, yet no less valid packages; so it was for me today, when I received a breakdown of my Edinburgh settlement. Now, don’t get me wrong: the amount quoted won’t act in lieu of a pension (Ha!:“Pension”), but I'm pleased to say not only will the remaining half of my venue hire fee be covered by my ticket sales, I’ll also get nearly two hundred quid back. ‘What’s this, David?” I hear you ask. “They're paying you ?” “Yes, that’s right,” I reply to no-one in particular, “£191.07, to be precise.” Let’s not get too excited; if you tally up the cost of PR, digs, flyerers, technicians, printing, travelling and living, I’m nowhere near being in profit - but I am up on last year, which suggests if I'd had a later performance time, I may have fared even better. There’s definitely a small sense progression when I compare things to 2016; particularly now I’ve had a few months’ distance. The outlay ...

I hadn’t realised how exhausted I feel post-Edinburgh until it hit me today. Thankfully I haven’t got much on for the rest of the week, but I’m still in a strange halfway house between deciding what to do next and needing a break. So much of the past year has been dictated by preparing for Edinburgh, and now I’m beyond it, it’s hard to know what’s the best move to take, though I think I’m entitled to a few days to recover as I currently look and feel like a poor imitation of myself. I haven’t completely rested on my laurels, and have already booked a couple of dates at Leicester Square Theatre in October to try to capitalise on my show while it’s still firmly in my head. I’m sure it will be the usual battle to get punters and industry in, but I intend to do my best, particularly as I’d like new representation that reflects me properly. Outside of confirming October’s London dates, I’ve been keeping a low profile today. I popped to my friend...

Tonight’s Leicester Square Theatre show was pleasingly busy compared to the last date, yet somehow, it didn’t quite settle into the rhythm I wanted. It’s funny how different a room and a gig can be, dependent on how comfortable the audience is with the situation they’re faced with. You can have approximately the same number of people in from one day to the next, and yet that same amount can feel either exposed or relaxed, as according to how 'busy' they perceive the room to be. Tonight, it seemed they thought they were in a small audience - in little pockets here and there around the room - and didn’t feel relaxed enough to laugh, yet last time, a room of less people seemed more at ease. On the whole though, it wasn’t bad; I’m being hugely self-critical. There were a few people in tonight who hadn’t seen me do solo stand-up before that I wanted to see me in the best possible light. As it was, it sort of wavered in and out; it never quite hi...

One thing I’ve been busying myself with today is registering the three work-in-progress dates I’ll be doing at the Brighton Fringe next year. …and so begin my thoughts on how to follow this year’s show. I haven’t put the current one to bed quite yet - I’m back at Leicester Square Theatre next week , and will be doing it as part of the Leicester Comedy Festival in February - but I’m trying to gently set the wheels in motion for what I write next. At the moment, I’m mostly concerned with the admin - booking the dates etc - but I’ve also been loosely thinking about what the content of a new show might be. At the moment it’s all very vague. Sadly, you can’t do anything like this on a whim; venues need to be found and applied for and blurbs and pictures need to be submitted before you get down to the nitty-gritty. It’s quite intimidating to think I have to start again with a solo show for the third time around. On the whole, I’m proud of what I pulled...

Tonight’s Leicester Square Theatre gig was just what I needed to give me the boost to get myself back on the case with my solo stand-up. For one, it was nice to be in a proper venue with the appropriate tech set-up, rather than having to take everything with me; I’ve grown tired of spending the majority of my journeys into town resembling a comedic pit-pony, carrying more equipment than any one man should ever be lumbered with, with my wife roped into the deal, lugging a load of gear as well. Not only does this make you sweaty and stressed, it zaps half of the energy you need for the show, making it all the more likely you take any of the problems you had in getting to the venue (and setting up the space) into your performance; it’s a shitter of the highest level, and one I’d sooner avoid from now on if I can. I was fortunate to have the assistance of Mostly Comedy’s technical wizard Paul Willianms tonight, which made things easier; it was good to ...

I just did a some close-to-the-wire ordering of posters and flyers for the dates I’m doing at Leicester SquareTheatre next month , to make the most of a 25% discount; I’m a sucker for a bargain. I took a bit of a calculated risk by forgoing waiting for authorization of a proof from the venue before sending it to be printed, so I wouldn’t miss out on the weekend-only deal and have to pay full price. Hopefully, this shouldn’t be a problem, as I used the right logos, kept within the specifications, and didn’t use the c-word on the artwork once; I’ll keep my fingers crossed this doesn’t lead to a massive controversy resulting me being banned from performing in London / “waitressing in Torquay” again; if it does, I’ll have to revert to my back-up job of trundle wheel adjudicator; no-one recognises a metre circumference quicker than me. Once again, I was lucky to enlist the services of my artwork designing genius double-act-partner Glyn, who made the few...

At last night’s Mostly Comedy, Phil Kay complimented us on our material. He also briefly referenced it in his set. That's something I'll store in my head for a rainy day. Having him on the bill still excites me. The first time I watched him (in 2008, during our first Edinburgh run), he blew my mind. It was painfully funny. Literally. I laughed so hard and uncontrollably that my whole body ached, and I felt like my soul might escape through my mouth. It was the cleverest, most intelligent, most perfectly-constructed-while-being-off-the-cuff set I’d seen in my life.   His Hitchin Mostly Comedy debut was a turning point. He was the only big, established act we’d approached up to then who we didn’t know personally. Just the thought of him arriving was intimidating. Thankfully he's lovely. He performed to one of our first sold out crowds for well over an hour and left them wanting more. He’s been back many times since. We’ve also interviewed him for our pod...

We've spent the last few days dotting the Is and cross the Ts for our forthcoming Leicester Square Theatre Mostly Comedy line-ups. It’s a tricky business. You spend ages juggling names about, trying to put together interesting bills that will sell. It’s particularly difficult with the London shows, which have more competition and less budget. We have a great pool of acts to choose from, but it’s still hard to get it right. It’s a problem we’re getting to grips with. Our London dates earlier this year were all split-bills between us and a high-profile headliner, both doing an hour each. This didn’t really work, as the gig was possibly a little too expensive for a two-act bill where one of the acts was us. We know our place on the comedy food chain. We’re now trying to strike a balance by presenting four acts including us, each doing shorter sets, all for a slightly reduced ticket price. Offering more acts for less money may sound like 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...

I’ve gone a little cross-eyed from sending too many emails. Today, I’m on the Doggett & Ephgrave promotional warpath. I’ve spent the past two or three hours sending out press releases for our two-night run at Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival next month, as well as our two nights of the London version of Mostly Comedy at the Leicester Square Theatre. Both events involve the word Leicester, though one of them is actually in London. The potential for confusion is alarmingly high. I’m doing it in an attempt to push the two of us into more people’s line of sight. The one thing that myself and Glyn do the least is promote ourselves; we get so caught up in organising events, that we spend little or no time on either our profile or our act. We never set out to just run a comedy club; increasingly, we spend so much time concerned with the admin that’s involved, that we lose sight of why we're doing it in the first place. We’re attem...

Myself and Glyn are currently sitting on the train from King's Cross to Hitchin; on our way home from the comedy night that never was. Tonight was supposed to be this year’s final Leicester Square Theatre installment of Mostly Comedy (we still have two more Hitchin dates to go). We had a cracking line-up booked, including Red Dwarf’s Norman Lovett, Foster’s Best Newcomer Nominee Sam Fletcher, Time Out’s “rising star” Nish Kumar and us (no prefix). It was a great gig on paper – but sadly no-one wanted to come and see it. That’s not strictly true. There probably were plenty of people who wanted to come and see it, but only two people booked - and when the performers outweigh the audience 5/2 it’s less of a comedy night and more of a hostage situation. We’d probably have to rebill the gig as Mostly Comedians. I think the problem is we haven’t quite got our marketing right. The London gig is obviously up against a lot of competition ...