mostly david ephgrave

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...

So, today was the day we booked Harry Hill for Mostly Comedy. I’m well aware I just started a sentence with the word ‘so’, which is one of my personal bugbears, but I feel it’s appropriate in this context, on account of the fact it’s really quite impressive. I’ve been hoping to book him at Mostly for years, and it was in the last few months that it looked more likely it might happen eventually, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon; it’s certainly a lovely way to see us into our Summer break (when I’ll be in Edinburgh, so it’s less of a break for me). Glyn and I met him once briefly, back in 2007, when I was doing the adult panto The Emperor’s Newd Clothes (which was a very clever joke) at Wycombe Town Hall on the same night he was on in the main house. We shared a quick exchange on walking past him backstage, tucking into his complimentary sandwiches; I can’t remember what was said now, as it was all so quick. My favourite moment of the evening was...

Today I went on the hunt for two local postcards, as they’re part of Phill Jupitus’ requirements for Friday’s show. I knew they’d definitely sell some in the Hitchin Initiative office, yet I still made it my last port of call, mostly because I like to keep a low profile and felt buying them would raise too many questions; ‘why would a guy who’s lived in Hitchin for years suddenly feel the need to buy souvenir postcards of the town?’ for one. In the end, I needn’t have worried, as I generally managed to avoid their scrutiny. Apparently my actions weren’t as conspicuous as they felt. I then went back to our office to do a bit of writing and admin (as ever). It just so happened I received word from Phill’s production company saying they didn’t require eight of the ten company comps we’d held for them, so we put those eight tickets back on sale this evening to watch them get snapped up in just a matter of minutes to our mailing list. This was great as ...

Today, I nipped to Letchworth to meet with illustrator (and one-time - two-time - comedy poet) Mushybees, to discuss an event Mostly Comedy will act as surrogate parents to as part of Letchworth’s Arts Takeover in a couple of weeks. Months ago he got into contact to see if we’d be up for co-organising a comedy stage as part of Letchworth’s weekend of arts-based attractions in July; something I’d provisionally said yes to, before things got hectic in the lead-up to Edinburgh and we didn’t take it any further. Despite not getting down to the nitty-gritty straight away, we managed to pull a line-up together in a back-and-forth of emails yesterday, leading to me getting Glyn’s blessing and us deciding we’d officially go ahead with it (whatever ‘officially’ means in this context). In reality, it’s not complicated: from 12pm until 6pm-ish on the 22 nd July, Glyn, Mushybees and I will host four Edinburgh previews from four acts (including me), before Nor...

One of the many things I did today - there really were many ; the amount of deadlines for Edinburgh that are suddenly looming have sent my brain into meltdown - was write to a press release this month's extra Mostly Comedy. The rush to do this made it a little cut-and-shut, but it still does the job. See below for the document in all its copy-and-paste glory; I'd book tickets on the strength of its beauty alone. Press Release – 04.07.16 mostly comedy a monthly comedy and music club, at the sun hotel in hitchin July sees two installments of Doggett & Ephgrave’s popular monthly Hitchin comedy club Mostly Comedy at The Sun Hotel in so many days. While 21st July’s show with Peep Show’s ISY SUTTIE , QI’s AISLING BEA and TOM GOODLIFFE is officially sold out, there’s a chance to snap up return tickets on the night. However, tickets are still available for the 20th July’s gig, featuring Edinburgh Previews from NISH KUMAR and ALISON THEA-SKOT . NISH has c...

I’m a little torn over what material to do at tomorrow’s gig, and at other shows in the coming weeks. Today, I reminded myself of a few storie s I'd workshopped last year; some of which made it into last year's show. I have a habit of forging ahead without thinking of the things I’ve written previously, that still have legs (which is a confusing image). This comes from having no guide except myself; sometimes, I don't remember what came before or whether it was good. The problem is deciding where my attention is best served in the context of my rapidly depleting Edinburgh Fringe deadline. I’ve got stuff that worked well in Bath and Brighton this year, and stuff that worked well last year in Brighton and Camden. There are also blogs I’ve earmarked as having stand-up potential, but haven’t tried live yet. What should I look at first and what should take precedence? I’d like to try a mix of old and half-finished new stuff at tomorrow’s New Material ...

Tonight’s Mostly Comedy was one to be proud of. First off, with Hattie Hayridge and Henning Wehn on the bill, we had an exceptional line-up. You’re off to a good start when you play host to familiar faces; more-often-than-not, an audience feels most comfortable when the people they're watching have form and a television presence; such is the nature of promoting comedy – but the atmosphere can go through the roof when those acts are on top form, like they were tonight. It was probably the one date in Mostly Comedy’s 2016 diary that made us most tense, what with the difficult task of moving a sold-out audience en mass from Henning’s originally scheduled appearance last month. Ticket holders had four weeks to decide whether they’d like to stay with the April date or switch to the new one, before the event went on public sale. Thirty people did nothing before the deadline, which made us paranoid they hadn’t seen the message (well: the numerous mes...

Today, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to make the Mac-based slideshow software Keynote do something that PowerPoint does very easily.  (If the above sentence doesn't pique your interest, nothing will.) I switched to Keynote a few years back when I bought my MacBook; Glyn and I have been using it to run our slideshows ever since. For the most part, it's user-friendly, but - like with all computer technology - there's always some little bug or other that gets on your wick. I've lost count of the times a simple task took hours to complete, because some link in the chain wasn't working as it should; if I ever meet the person who devised Apple's infamous colour wheel, I'll punch them square in mush.  All I wanted was for an MP3 to trigger on one slide and then continue under the following slides as I flick through them. Then, when I realised you can only do this on Keynote if the audio file starts at the beginning of the presentation, I tried to ...

is it a cop-out to share the press release I wrote for this month's Mostly Comedy today in lieu of a proper blog post? Yes, it probably is...but when you're tired and preparing to nip off to Bath for a few days to perform at their comedy festival, you're allowed to give yourself a little break. It's only so much of a cheat anyway as I still wrote it - even if it wound up being a cut-and-shut of various other press releases in the past. I was pleased to see the resulting article is already displayed on the  Hertfordshire Mercury, plus we've also managed to shift a few more tickets today, which is presumably as a result of this, so that's good. See below for the press release that inspired it, and then visit www.mostlycomedy.co.uk to book. ---- Press Release – 04.04.16 mostly comedy a monthly comedy and music club, at the sun hotel in hitchin 21st April’s instalment of Doggett & Ephgrave’s Mostly Comedy sees a variety of familiar faces return to the cl...

Today felt pretty productive. Aside from the odd bit of personal admin, such a dropping off prescriptions and buying bin bags, I spent much of the day running material and starting to piece a set together for this weekend’s show. I felt quite energised and enthused by the results, which was an exciting place to be this early in the week. My only sticking point at this stage is whether to be bold and make my setlist predominantly new, untested (and relatively untested) stuff, or whether to pad it out generously with things I've tried before, such as material from last year’s show. I'd initially intended on doing the latter, but working through my notepads today, I reminded myself of various bits and pieces I'd vaguely worked up, or blogs I thought would be appropriate for stand-up, that I could probably learn sufficiently over the next week. I remembered the reason I'd booked the Bath dates in the first place: as a chance to openly try new ideas out. I don't expect...

Worryingly, the biggest laugh I got at tonight’s Mostly Comedy was entirely by accident – when I fell over on stage in full view of the audience. To be fair, the fall was pretty spectacular. It happened at the beginning of the second half. I introduced myself from the off-stage mic, bounded on energetically – and, thanks to the distinct lack of grip on the soles of my shoes, skidded and collapsed in a heap on the floor. My limbs splayed in every direction; I wasn't aware of my own flexibility. What made it particularly special was the off-stage introduction. I made absolutely certain that everyone was looking in my direction; I might a well have dived through a hoop into a pool full of water. I’d like to think I made the most of a potentially embarrassing situation: I stood up afterwards with my arms outstretched, like a gymnast completing a tricky dismount – and bowed to the audience. All it needed was Glyn to hold up a scorecard for th...