Writer's Block

Inside Out then. Five emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear) reside in the head of 11 year old Riley, whose family have moved to San Francisco from Minnesota. Sadness causes a traumatic episode in Riley's class, creating a negative "core memory". Joy attempts to prevent the core memory but in the process, her and Sadness are transported out of "Headquarters". Ostensibly, the pair must return there before irreparable damage is caused to Riley's mental state. I wonder if my expectations were in retrospect too high. I've read reviews that put this on a par with Pixar's best work, but I feel it lacks the depth of the Toy Story trilogy, Finding Nemo, Up and Wall-E. There's nothing intrisically wrong with the film. The casting is strong (it's difficult to imagine anyone other than acerbic comedian Lewis Black as "Anger" and Amy Poehler gives a strong nuanced performance as "Joy") and it plays with some interesting co...

It was good to get back on stage as myself at "The Panda Rumble" last night, a gig held in the Rabbit Hole Theatre. It's essentially a murky basement under the Duke of Hamilton pub in Hampstead, but a good intimate space for stand-up. It will also be hosting shows during the upcoming Camden Fringe which takes place throughout August. I've listened back to my set twice (once last night, once today) and concluded that I had a better gig than I thought from the stage. I overran a smidge too much for a five minute set, a bad habit that's crept back in mainly because I don't drop material later in the set when I adlib. It's something that I'm going to need to work on. It was typically some adlibbed business that got the strongest reaction, but most of the material hit well. I'm still having some issues with my Winston Churchill and National Trust stuff. I'm a firm believer in the maxim "write what you know" but it's less relateable, ...

Yesterday was a long and peculiar day. It started with the single shortest interview I've ever attended, that sent me into a familiar cycle of self-loathing and fear that I'd done something wrong. Unusually, it abated quickly. It's a volunteer role and I won't lose any sleep if I don't get it. Then, Richard Gadd asked me if I would take part in his show at The Hawley Arms that evening. It transpired that I was filling in for Ed Aczel who is playing the role of a security guard who performs five minutes of stand up in "Waiting For Gaddot". As the title implies, the conceit is that Gadd is late to his own Edinburgh show and his long suffering tech man is required to proceed on his behalf. Without giving too much away, it's a racuous multimedia romp. It's going to be on at 11:30pm in Edinburgh at the Banshee Labrinth. Aczel is considered to be an anti-comedian in style and I tried to mimic that during my time on stage, mostly doing deadpan interpr...

The final session of the Chortle Conference 2015 featured Steve Bennett in conversation with Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. The pair began by discussing their early career in live performance, explaining how they would book shows on a monthly basis at the Canal Cafe Theatre to motivate themselves to write new material. They advised the audience to keep all of their material in case it becomes useful at a later point in time and to try and stick to disciplined office hours. They went on to win the Perrier at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1997, leading Pemberton's father to goad Eddie Izzard about his failure to win the gong. Their Edinburgh success was followed by a Radio 4 series. The show's concept of a town of peculiar characters was adopted subsequently in League of Gentleman. They suggested that radio proved a great help to define their characters across a number of audiences. For the LoG TV series, the pair initially wanted to record in front of a live audience rather t...

Panel: Chris Sussman (Executive Editor, BBC Comedy), Alison Vernon-Smith (Executive Producer, BBC Radio), Charlie Hanson (Tantrum Films), hosted by David Mulholland. Charlie says that he's drawn towards surprising new content and that he's currently working on three short films purely because he liked how they were pitched. He feels his model allows for more creative autonomy. He's hugely critical of the plans to move BBC3 online, questioning whether they can offer anything to creatives working online that they're incapable of procuring themselves. Neil describes his company as "a tiny indie outfit" where "passion is key". He's currently working with a new writer on a sitcom set in 1980s East Berlin and insists that a pitch should be "distinctive and different". Chris says the BBC are looking for 9 or 10 long form comedies each year and advises the audience to find an independent company and a producer who is passionate about the su...

Panel: John Finnemore, Laurence Rickard, Bennett Arron, hosted by Alex Rochford. The panellists begun by discussing their backgrounds. John talked about starting by writing sketches on spec to various radio and TV programmes (doing a great deal of research in the process) before his work was accepted by Smack The Pony. Bennett also discussed sending sketches on spec and got involved in stand-up to see first hand whether or not his material was funny before subsequently progressing to sitcoms. Laurence initially worked with a writing partner on what he described as "a high concept sketch show", before eventually getting a Comedy Lab pilot through Channel 4 with Tiger Aspect. Bennett initially wrote for Graham Norton and Genie In The House with Nickelodeon. Recalled the details of a BBC meeting where he was told the corporation wanted "something like Gavin and Stacey", by which they meant successful. John revealed that he still finds it difficult to write, that he...

Panel: Caroline Edwards (Sparkle Productions), Sue Terry (Sue Terry Voices), Keith Palmer (Comedy School), hosted by Alex Rochford. Caroline said that she predominantly looked for after dinner speakers and awards hosts for corporate events, suggesting that acts needed 3-5 years experience as a minimum. She looks for people who are good at crowd control with a decent back catalogue of material, with solid 20 minute club sets who are generally known to bookers in the comedy industry. Large industries generally look for acts with television credits. She contended that acts need to be aimed generally at a 40+ male demographic. Keith then discussed the work of Comedy School, where comedians go into workplaces to assist the employees of a particular company. For example, he might send a comedian to talk to a group of solicitors about how they might improve their presentation skills. Sue said that her voiceover artists generally need to have some sort of profile and that actors are genera...

Stray observations: 1. I regret having blitzed through the entire second season of BoJack Horseman on Netflix in four days. It has built well on the first season with strong character development alongside a lot of strong gags skewering the vacuous nature of Hollywood. It's also frequently hilariously bleak. The Henry Winkler (guesting as himself) line "There's no shame in dying for nothing. That's how most people die" is a case in point. It's annoying that I'll have to wait a year for more. But that's one of the problems raised by putting entire series up on Netflix at one time. I think to release episodes on a weekly basis would be unwise and flies in the face of how most people view television these days. A long running series on network television with 24 episodes released weekly leaves six months between series. Perhaps a decent compromise would be be split a season in two, with a later release date for the second half. 2. I stumbled onto th...

Following McLoughlin came Paul Sinha's preview "Postcards From The Z List", which was largely based upon Sinha's experiences in the past four years since his last Edinburgh show. In that time, he has become best known for appearing on daytime ITV quiz show "The Chase". Sinha also ended a 20 year relationship drought after dating one of the show's contestants and became an uncle for the first time. An underlying theme of the show is " L'esprit de l'escalier", or what Sinha should have said in various situations involving politicians and notable public figures in a trip to the Houses of Parliament. And Phil Tufnell. He flits expertly between these topics, gradually building up a profile of his new life on "the Z list" with top class gags to reinforce the narrative. I will be surprised if I hear anything at the Edinburgh Fringe next month that makes me laugh as much as one of Sinha's punchlines, which I can't do just...

Off to The Dogstar in Brixton last night for a pair of Edinburgh previews. First up, Sean McLoughlin whose show "Whatever It Takes" focuses upon 2015 being the worst year of his life having been made homeless due to flooding and moving back in with his parents who were undergoing a divorce. Sean is my age and I basically see him as doing the sort of thing I do on stage (a negative, self-loathing fretful persona), but considerably better. He's doing a ticketed show at the Pleasance this year after two years of free solo shows. I wonder if this changes the dynamic of what he does and his relationship with an audience. A handful of times during the hour, he projected the notion that he was floundering in front of an audience who were enjoying the show. Certainly he was doing far better than the nightmarish gig he described in front of stag parties and hen dos where one man described his act as "a hate crime". This was just one of McLoughlin's entertainingly...

The Ballad Of Me And My Friends is the last track from Frank Turner's debut record "Sleep Is For The Week". There is no studio recording of the song, as it's performed live at the Camden Barfly. I rather like this as it reflects the communal nature of the track. It's a terrific, succinct summation of what it is to be young and alive. "None of this is going anywhere. Pretty soon we'll all be old and no-one left alive will really care about the glory days when we sold our souls. But if you're all about the destination, then take a fucking flight. We're going nowhere slowly, but we're seeing all the sights. And we're definitely going to hell, but we'll have all the best stories to tell" It resonates with me because it reflects the life that I would like to lead, if only I had the courage. It's our experiences and our stories that make life worth living. What we'll hopefully have left when we're old and grey. At his gi...

Panel: Michael Day and Louise Granger (Equity), Mark Kelly and Ria Lina (Equity's Comedians' Network), hosted by Viv Groskop. Day and Granger confirmed that performers need to have earned £500 from performing to join Equity. I then spent about ten minutes trying to figure out if I had crossed that threshold or not, which tells you everything you need to know. The subscription fee is based on earnings, with a minimum of £120 at the lowest level and based on self-declaration. The main benefit of joining from a comedian's perspective seems to be public liability insurance. The Comedians Network has emerged recently to provide collective action for stand-ups in the hope of standardising the industry. Kelly and Lina argued that this collective action is key to securing the rights of performers. A separate guild was formed a year ago to address issues such as unscrupulous promoters. The two are distinct in their roles. Equity addresses legal and pay issues, while the guild ...

This has not so much been a "lazy Sunday" as a "comatose Sunday". I went to Club Indulge near Fenchurch Street (Fenchurch Street is a curious, pokey rail station) last night for their first ever speed dating event. It was also my first ever engagement with speed dating. I met some nice people and had some drunken chats, that was about it really. I went out of my comfort zone a bit, but probably not as much as I need to to make romantic progress (I'll return to that notion another time). But I can confirm that it was a positive experience and by all accounts a popular event among those in the BBW/BHM community, It's something I'd certainly consider doing again in the future. The rest of the evening was a cider/cocktail/sambuca/jagerbomb/prosecco haze. I vaguely remember getting into a cab that dropped me off in Deptford, wandering around for what felt like an age (but was probably 20 minutes) in search of a bus stop then two buses and a cab later, getti...

Panel: Riyad Barmania (Channel Flip), Stuart Laws (Turtle Canyon Comedy), Jay Pond-Jones (Colour TV), hosted by Stuart Goldsmith. Goldsmith feared (as did I) that the answer to this question would be quite brief. Barmania suggested that while it was possible to make money online, it was also exceedingly difficult. Advertising is certainly the main route, citing the success of YouTube sensation "PewDiePie" who has earned significant income through advertising to a potential audience of 3 million viewers. In recent years, YouTube have commissioned companies to make original content. Pond-Jones refers to the desire to "get in on the ground floor" and discusses the recent emergance of Periscope as a medium. Colour TV will be broadcasting Bobby Mair's show live from the Edinburgh Fringe this year using Periscope. Laws says his intention is to build co-productions in the future and that there is some investment currently in Turtle Canyon through a corporate compan...

A third consecutive blog titled with the date. I am really phoning it in. Anyway, another work shift today and the less said about that the better. Fortunately I procured a ticket for The Gaslight Anthem's one off London show at Shepherds Bush Empire between their appearances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals next month. That was made even better with the news that the fantastic Against Me! will be supporting them. It's a great lineup and I can't wait. AM!'s singer Laura Jane Grace recently appeared on WTF with Marc Maron to discuss her career and recent "coming out" as a transgender person that covered some interesting territory. I also eagerly snapped up a ticket for a show on the release day of Tellison's third record "Hope Fading Nightly" (so relatable). They're playing a semi-acoustic show on 18th September at St Pancras Old Church, which proved a beautiful setting for Kevin Devine's career retrospective shows earlier in the year....

Some more stray observations....  I don't really watch panel shows anymore but tuned in for Mock The Week tonight, mainly because of the debut of Ed Gamble who I like very much. It was actually a strong lineup of the country's best young comedy talent, with Romesh Ranganathan, Sara Pascoe and Rob Beckett joining Ed Byrne and Hugh Dennis. The result was a show that felt fresher, breathing some life into a tired format. It also featured a moment of genuine jeopardy as one of the studio lights exploded. Blended ice drink update: Today's EAT Mocha Chiller was an icey, slushie disappointment. Starbucks' new Lemon Vanilla frapuccino is a solid addition, once you get past the whole tax evasion thing. I am excited about BoJack Horseman Season 2, which is going to appear on Netflix tomorrow. The first one was a cult gem that improved as the season progressed, with a vast array of American comedy talent involved. I look forward to seeing more of Will Arnett's washed up ...

Very little to report today, other than that I appear to be exceedingly tired again. It appears to be a perfect storm of medication side effects and the impact of permanently being out of shape. I weighed myself yesterday for the first time in a while and I am now 1 stone 3 pounds heavier than I was at the start of the year. I frankly can't let this slump continue as I'm now staring down the barrel of very serious health problems in the years to come. I reflected earlier today that it's six years to the month since I graduated. 6 years later, I live in my parent's home in south east London and have never had a full time job. There are perhaps caveats. An ill-advised MA, depression, a dead end part time job, volunteering stints, a modicum of success doing stand-up. But it's difficult not to feel that the more years that go past, the less chance I have of turning things around. There are a few days where I find it difficult to live with myself and the fact I'm s...

I keep going back to Seth McFarlane in the vain hope he might return to his glory days as a witty, subversive comedy voice. That's my main justification for watching Ted 2 this afternoon. Ted (McFarlane) and Tammi-Lynn (Jessica Barth) plan to have a baby. When pursuing adoption, a background check sets off a chain of events that lead to the government declaring that the titular teddy bear is property and has no rights. With the help of Ted's old friend John (Mark Wahlberg) and trainee lawyer Samantha Jackson (Amanda Seyfried), they set out to prove that he should be recognised by law as a human. I enjoyed this more than I thought I was going to. The characters are poorly drawn and the movie's attempts to get us to care about them are always going to be futile. So Ted 2 stands solely on the quality of its jokes, continuing the scattershot approach of the first film. I pretty much hated the first half hour*, with peculiar cameos from Tom Brady and Jay Leno (the former inv...

St Albans' Trash Boat opened the show. They play pop-punk that's reminiscent of The Story So Far, singer Tobi Duncan frequently mimicking that band's shouty confrontational vocals. They had some promising riffs but too frequently their songs lacked nuance, mostly thrashing power chords as quickly as they could. Not terrible by any means but not a set that will linger long in the memory.  It struck me as I left the sweatbox by the sea that is Concorde 2 last night that it had only been four months since I'd last seen Less Than Jake, at Koko in London. A lot of the same schtick was still present and correct: getting an audience member up on stage to dance, toilet paper rollers, massive branded balloons and cringeworthy audience banter. Truthfully, they don't need the gimmicks because the songs themselves are so good. An energetic opening salvo of "Scott Farcas Takes It On The Chin" and "Happyman" is particularly inspired. Within about 6 songs I...

So many blogs to write, so little time to write them in. Some stray observations from the past couple of days: It transpired at work yesterday that people are troubled by the prospect of being attacked by a swarm of bees. I like American Dad a great deal but can only conclude the series has now "jumped the shark" following an appalling illogical meta mess of an episode called "American Fung". The stand-up comedian and Yorkshireman Ian Smith may have successfully convinced me to perform a show at next year's Edinburgh Fringe. Will I renege on that? Quite possibly. Off to work again soon and I have decided that it is still too hot. Fortunately on the other side of today's shift is a trip to Brighton's excellent Concorde 2 to watch Less Than Jake. Ska punk by the seaside. Yes please.

Panel: Ryan Taylor (Pleasance), Louise Gilbert (Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society), Steve Bennett (Chortle), Paul Sullivan (Publicist), Alex Petty (Laughing Horse), hosted by Viv Groskop. Viv asked the panel how performers are protected, particularly in light of the Cowgatehead fiasco which has left many performers without a venue. Louise says that the EFFS is set up to provide logistical advice but cannot get involved with specific contracts. Alex stresses the importance of researching as much as possible, while Ryan states that the Pleasance are upfront about their practices and provide all the required information. There's a general consensus that all of the information that performers require is out there, like the fact a company called "Out Of Hand" runs the outdoor poster scheme around the city. Ryan stresses the importance of word in mouth in promoting a show and Louise highlights the Fringe Media Office who possess a database of press contacts. Steve encourage...

I'm going to do a blog on each of the panels at the recent Chortle conference. This blog concerns the state of club comedy. Firstly the panelists spoke about their respective clubs. Barry Ferns attributed the success of Angel Comedy to word of mouth, which has filled the Camden Head for seven nights a week. He believes that the club is an attractive proposition to big acts who can stop by to perform new material in front of a neutral crowd. Mark from Glee argued that he was selling an experience on a Friday and Saturday night, believing that comedy should be considered a treat. Ali from The Boat Show stressed the importance of a varied bill and securing return custom, whilst agreeing that there are certain expectations of a comedy show on a Friday or Saturday night that need to be met. David Mulholland from the Picadilly Comedy Club runs three venues on three different nights and notes that his business is affected by the fact disposal income has dropped by half for British fam...

I attended the Chortle conference today at The Pleasance. It started with a keynote speech from Brendon Burns, who arrived late from the Soho Theatre (where the conference took place last year). He initially seemed very much in stand-up mode, regurgitating a few stories I had heard elsewhere and laying into Russell Howard and Stewart Lee ("He invented the pause") prior to establishing his credentials as "the least successful Edinburgh award winner ever". Gradually we settled into what was to me more interesting territory, but not before the observation that Steve Bennett "looks like Rik Mayall fucked a frog" and making an allegation against the Chortle head honcho that was undeniably libellous. Without any advertising or promotion, Burns performed at the Free Fringe last year and was reinvigorated by the experience, noting "If I make you laugh, you pay me. If I don't, you don't. It's the closest I've come to an honest day's work...

 I watched "A Song For Jenny" tonight, based on the story of Julie Nicolson, whose daughter Jenny was killed in the 7/7 bombings. It was exceedingly difficult viewing, but I felt it important to watch.The scene where Julie demands that her family liason officers permit her to see Jenny's body was particularly heart wrenching. Similarly affecting is her boyfriend James' realisation that problems on the London Underground that day forced Jenny to change her route and took her into the path of Mohammad Sidique Khan (we see one solitary glimpse of Khan and the rucksack) on the Circle Line near Edgware Road. "That's why Jenny died? A fault on the Piccadilly Line?". Emily Watson is outstanding as Julie, providing a nuanced performance that takes us through her grief and her anger as the matriach of a tight knit family torn apart. I am sure that the 80 minute running time barely scratches the surface of the burden that the Nicholson family will carry for the ...

Much like 11th September 2001, I vividly remember where I was and what I was doing on 7th July 2005. I was by that point a 6th Form student at Charles Darwin School and the news that there had been a series of explosions across the London Underground network in London filtered through the radio in the common room. The room continued to hum with the normal sorts of activity, but what I had just heard was all I could think about. A history lesson followed, during which our teacher permitted us to follow the updates on BBC1. I spent the rest of the day at home in front of the TV, transfixed. I was inadequately prepared for the news of terrorism coming to my doorstep. I was due to go and see Sum 41 at the Astoria that evening. Obviously I don't consider missing that gig to be any great hardship. Doubtless the majority of those reading this would agree. I flag this up mainly because it represents what London was to me at the time. I absolutely love going to gigs. I doubt I'm uni...

I've just got back from this. It was ruddy marvellous. Three hours of super storytelling, with warm, witty prose from Kitson and lovely songs from Osborn. The last hour under the lights of the beautiful Regents Park Open Air Theatre was particularly magical. Again, this is one of these blogs I will elaborate upon later.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I am writing today's blog on my phone en route to Regent's Park for Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn this weekend. It appears that, while I care about the vow to do a blog every day for a year, I am less troubled about content. This is essentially a placeholder for a blog about Bodeans that I'll return to at a later time.

I went to the Biggin Hill Festival today, taking place at the recreation ground. I've gone in the past couple of years ostensibly because I love a tombola and there are so few opportunties to get involved in them in day to day life. My haul included two bags of sweets, an alarm clock, a small book about cats, a bottle of Pino Grigio, a small ceramic Jane Asher dish, a bottle of moisurising body cleanser and a Curly Wurly, now consumed. Having bought a raffle ticket, there's also an outside chance of winning what was described as "a wheelbarrow full of booze". Last night, following Andy Barr's birthday celebrations at a pub in Wapping, Darren Maskell and I were caught in the mother of all lightning storms with little but the inanity of late night LBC on the radio for company. Darren: Bloody hell. I think this is the night we're going to die, Richard. But we survived. Now it's back off out into the heatwave.

Going out of my way to attend the first competitive fixture of the new season involving an English side suggests I have some addiction issues but we'll gloss over that for the time being. I was motivated by a desire to attend a match at Upton Park before West Ham's move to the Olympic Stadium for the 2016/17 season. It's still an old fashioned stadium in many respects, I've enjoyed my trips to Fulham and Charlton in the past more. Not least because when making my way around the ground I witnessed one West Ham fan land a punch on another. It took place outside the Bobby Moore Stand. What one of the game's true gentlemen would have thought of such a scene, I'm unsure. An inconsequential first half ended in two simple finishes for Diafra Sakho, a backpost header and a shot into the near corner from 8 yards out. West Ham grew in confidence second half, adding a third through James Tompkins with another header. Mauro Zarate was man of the match for me, setting up o...

I'm tired due to a combination of insomnia, the heat and staying up to watch England's women last night. Laura Bassett diverted an attempted clearance into her own net in injury time to condemn them to a heartbreaking defeat to Japan. They could have won. Should have won in fact. I'm tremendously proud of their efforts and their application and desire vastly outshone that of their male counterparts in recent years. I saw them play Germany at Wembley towards the back end of last year where they were outclassed. The two sides play each other in the third place playoff on Saturday. I expect a much closer outcome than the 3-0 result that day. Off to Upton Park for West Ham vs Lusitans later.

I watched "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" by Mike Birbiglia on Netflix for the second time. Bookending the show with a reference to a hit and run incident in which he was the victim, it's largely a story about Birbiglia and his relationship with his partner Jenny. In this, he develops a thoughtful and intelligent spin on the differences between men and women, not least in terms of the attitudes of nightclub bouncers towards them. Birbiglia was clearly an awkward young man, relieving his distain for kissing, evocatively describing it as "like watching a dog eating spaghetti", laying the ground for an excellent callback. Despite "incurring debt based on my appearance" with a girl at a high school dance, he finally makes it out of what he describes as "The Non-Make Out Club" to the sound of "Stairway To Heaven" in a memorable routine.. Elsewhere, his discussion of a fairground ride called "The Scrambler" results in some g...