Writer's Block

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011 starts today. Because I am still traumatised by the two week run of the Royal Holloway Comedy Society's "There's A Donkey In My Van" in 2007, I am yet to take the plunge and do a whole month of shows there. Instead I will be showing up for the last week of the festival, mainly because I'm in the final of the Chortle Student Comedy Awards ( Assembly George Square, 28th August, 4pm ). In the meantime, I thought I'd recommend some shows to see if you're going up there. Go and check out: Andrew Lawrence: The Best Kept Secret in Comedy Tour (Pleasance Courtyard, 8pm) Andy Zaltzmann: Armchair Revolutionary (The Stand, 4:25pm) The Axis of Awesome (Gilded Balloon Teviot, 9:30pm) Alistair Greaves: Mixed Grill (Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 7:15pm) B en Van Der Velde and Matt Richardson: Attention Deficit Let's Go Ride Bikes! (Laughing Horse at Espionage, 1:15pm) Rob Beckett and Ian Smith (Whistlebinkies, 1:30pm) Isy Sut...

This past Tuesday saw the ninth Ministry of Whimsy show at the Camden Head in Camden (slightly confusingly there is another Camden Head in Islington that hosts comedy nights). The Ministry of Whimsy is a new material night run by myself and James McPhun in the hope of providing a nice atmosphere to try out new stuff as well as put on our favourite acts or newcomers we feel have potential. It's nearly been a year since we set the night up after speculating about how to do it for a long time. James investigated the possibility of doing it at the Tom Foolery in Bromley but concluded it was an inappropriate venue. Having done a pretty shoddy gig at the pub (as I previously mentioned on the blog), I think he made the right decision. Since we've both been doing this for a little while, we're aware of which types of rooms are suitable for comedy. The Camden Head became available last summer and fit the bill brilliantly. It's a great venue and the staff there have always bee...

I keep meaning to do a round-up of my recent gigs, but keep getting distracted. That and a fortnight ago, I sprained my ankle while has left me pretty immobile until the past few days. Still isn't completely right, but getting there. On 8 th July, I headed to Barley Mow on Horseferry Road for a comedy night as part of SouthWestFest , a community festival taking place in South Westminster. It's a pleasure to perform at a show where thought has gone into the proceedings, a good room with an attentive crowd. Expenses were paid which was a kind gesture. I felt I had a solid above-average gig, although there were parts of the room I didn't quite connect with. I find sometimes that 10% of the crowd will really get behind what I'm doing while the rest of the audience can be a little more reluctant. It was one of those sorts of occasions although I was generally pleased with it and a decent percentage of my punchlines hit the mark. The routine I had pondered jettisoning at th...

One of the reasons I wanted to bring this blog back was so I could start documenting my gigs. I have not got the foggiest idea how many gigs I've done. I was asked the question tonight by the compere and in my uncertainty I blurted out "200". This is a gross miscalculation. I started stand up properly in 2008 after a limited number of gigs under various Royal Holloway, University of London banners in 2007. 200 seems like the number I should have done by now. Having thought about it, somewhere between 100-125 is more realistic. I neglected to discuss the Ministry of Whimsy last week, the monthly comedy night I run at the Camden Head with James McPhun . Hopefully I'll get around to it. Anyway, tonight I was at the Retro Pub near Ladbroke Grove, one of a number of gigs I have booked in with Comedy Bin this month. The stage area was by the entrance to the pub with a handful of seats in close proximity, with most of the punters watching from the other side of the bar. A c...

I got back on the stand up comedy horse last night with a gig at Funny Bones Comedy at the Tom Foolery in Bromley . Although I applaud all efforts to promote live comedy, I've performed recently in a number of venues that are inappropriate spaces for stand up. The Tom Foolery, although well named, comes under this particular category. Performing near the entrance of the venue when you have to compete against punters coming and going is not ideal. Neither is setting up a gig at the same time as a Literary Death Match event taking place elsewhere in the pub. Based on their website, Literary Death Match seems to be a lot more fun than me rattling off some self-depreciating jokes for the umpteenth time. It generally feels like a comedy night has invaded a pub rather than being a separate entity. The people who are in the audience are not comedy patrons but pub customers who happen to be present while some comedians are speaking. None of this is particularly helpful. It wasn't quite...

I've been inspired to revisit this blog after a ridiculously long absence. I was asked to do a gig at a performance arts evening at my old comprehensive, Charles Darwin School, in honour of the retiring headmaster Rob Higgins. I didn't always have the best time at school but I enjoyed going back and had a great show along with my comedy colleague and occasional friend James McPhun . Prior to the gig when trying to think of stories to retell, it struck me that there wasn't much I could actually remember from my school days. My dad told me that he had a similar problem with his memory in his youth and had taken to writing a diary. The upshot of this is that I'm going to try and write more. I want to have some sort of account of my life to refer to and look back on the future. Hopefully I'll have enough to say to write a couple of blogs a week. On Wednesday night, I went to see Jimmy Eat World at The Forum, playing their albums "Clarity" and "Bleed Ameri...

There may be some spoilers in this post, blah blah who really cares. I went to see Kick-Ass last night. I didn't know an awful lot about the film other than that it was a comic book adaptation centering around a geeky teenager, Dave Lizewski, who attempts (in the true Batman/Iron Man spirit) to become a superhero, the eponymous Kick-Ass. It's very good fun, but incredibly dark in places. For example, an Armenian lunatic kills himself by jumping off a skyscraper dressed as a superhero and Lizewski's mother dies of a brain aneurism, both in the early minutes of the film. It's also far more violent than I had anticipated, probably worse than the Dark Knight and movies of that ilk in terms of blood and gore. Lizewski's first attempt at dispensing justice on the streets of New York City ends with him being stabbed by muggers and hit by a car. This sets the tone for the film, with Lizewski by and large dealing with the brutal realities of attempting to tackle the violent ...