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...