mostly david ephgrave

Yesterday's preview at the Portland Arms in Cambridge was a real joy, just like the year before it. As with last year’s gig, I shared a bill with Norman Lovett, who’s such an easygoing person to be around; while I’m less likely to overthink it at Mostly Comedy, I’m a lot more choosy about who I book when it’s just the two of us and I’m doing a preview; I don’t want to be with anyone who intimidates me or the whole “I’m not really a comedian” inner-monologue will surface. While the wealth of Norman's experience is never far from my mind when I see him, he’s such easy company I can quickly overcome it, plus he's appeared at Mostly Comedy so frequently and even took part in a rehearsed reading of a script I wrote with Glyn a few years back; all of which helps me feel comfortable when I’m about to launch into a new show. The journey to Cambridge was as sweaty and stressful as you might expect in the current heatwave, involving a missed (and presumed early) bus, a taxi no-s...

Like a lot of people in the UK right now, I’m bored of being so hot. The last few days I’ve hidden away at home as much as possible, as each time I’ve gone out, I’ve quickly regretted it. I always prefer cold weather to warm, as at least you can do more to combat it; when it’s hot, there’s no escape. Unfortunately, I had to go into town today, primary to buy clothes to wear in the artwork for my Edinburgh show, which we’re hopefully taking the photo for tomorrow evening; I didn’t want to leave getting something until tomorrow daytime, in case I struggled to find anything and got unnecessarily stressed in the process. This left a tighter window of opportunity as shops obviously close earlier on Sunday; I had intended to go out as late in the afternoon as possible in the hope it would be cooler then, but the BBC weather app told me it was actually likely to be a better temperature around midday, so I decided to take a risk. One thing I hate a...

Today is not the day to be lugging equipment into London, and yet here I am, lugging equipment into London.  Thankfully, I've not got as much gear as I've been carrying on my last couple of trips, as the place I'm playing tonight has a proper technical set-up. Despite this, I've still probably got more on me than is strictly necessary, just in case something doesn't work along the line To add to today's sweatbox situation, I'm currently on a train that's being held at Hitchin, due to a fire at King's Cross signal box, with no chance of us leaving until the signal box is restaffed. Thankfully, there's just the amount of aircon to save us from being cooked in our juices; frankly a relief, as we've already been here for twenty minutes.  I did a quick run of my show this afternoon to aid tonight's performance, though I did it at a friend's flat for a change of scenery, as I'm cat-sitting for them this week. The cat gave nothing aw...