Comedy recommendation of the day: Showcase Comedy at The Backyard Bar
If there’s a chap in London to listen to about comedy, it’s Dave Ward and when you hear he’s starting his own night, that’s a night worth making a mental note to pop along to one night.
Even better though is that it’s a new material night. Now some of you might think,
“Yeah we’ve done those - 20 comics doing 5’s to silence”, well not this time. Dave is a picky man and the preliminary line-ups are already looking very tasty (as well as un-namable special guests).
Plus entry is only £5, £3 NHS/Fireman/Police and £1 for students (with NUS card). Bargain.
So yeah, get involved!
Comedy recommendation of the day: Ian Smith - Anything.
I’ve plugged Ian a couple of times on here. Why you may ask? His cheeky-meta stylings? The intriguing fluctuation of his beard length? Straight up South-East London solidarity (he does live down the road)?
Well, this is all true. However, I do just think that he’s considerably better at stand-up than the vast majority of his contemporaries.
Go see him preview his Edinburgh show here, I’m gonna.
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Comedy You’ve Never Seen: John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman in ‘Mice Laugh Softly Charlotte’ (apologis for low quality).
The Fitzroy: Indie, sci-fi, black-comedy that needs YOU!
So a while back I got an message from a compadre of mine called Liam Garvo (whose production company, Dresden Pictures, just acquired the rights to a live action adaptation of Grave of the Fireflies interestingly enough). He asked me to come along and do a table read of a feature that he’s working on. Naturally I agreed and I’m glad I did as the script - entitled ‘The Fitzroy’ - was absolutely lovely.
It’s a winning combination of elements; alternative history meets black farce. Think Fawlty Towers by way of Fallout - with a dollop of Terry Gilliam. Anyway, as you have no doubt guessed by now it’s crowd-source project.
(What? a film with an off beat and inventive premise that DOESN’T have studio backing?)
Sooooo, I’ve just checked in on their Kickstarter campaigne and they’re just over a sixth of the way there. That’s not bad going as they’ve got a month to go yet before they hit their production deadline. However, they need the money by then or IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AT ALL.
I’m not asking for your money - just to take a look at their profile on Kickstarter and their pitch video…where they will ask for your money.
Go on, be a producer.
Later days.
Being Tommy Tiernan: A night of endorsed plagiarism
So recently I got to do a night with a difference. The very nice Jonathan Hearn runs a gig near Chancery Lane at the Plum Tree called Jester Jesters and they’ve recently gotten into the habit of doing more themed comedy nights (for details of their proposed 12 hour open mic marathon click here).
Anyway - they were running a plagiarism night where you were given carte blanche to do material that belongs to your heroes. It’s funny how some people interpret this I think, as some people simply got up - said who they were doing - and just sort of did it. However, I think that if you’re going to do a tribute act - you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the same essential beats down, even if you want to play it your way rather than theirs.
I can remember seeing Spamalot a few years ago and having similar thoughts. It occurred to me the performers in that show were between a rock and a hard place. They ether do their lines EXACTLY the way they were done in the film and just get accused of regurgitation or they do it their own way…and therefore do it wrong. Intonation and timing are such delicate things - there is, for example, a very particular way in which you have to say “Are you suggesting coconuts migrate!?” (1:02) in order to make it funny.
So I decided the only way to do my chosen piece was to simply do it as close to the original performance as I could - meaning doing a slightly ropey accent. This, I suppose, makes it more of an acting exercise than it is a stand-up one but then neither discipline is mutually exclusive.
Anyway - here it is:
(Please note - I got a couple of bits wrong, left out a bit that I wasn’t convinced I could ‘sell’ correctly and tacked on an ending which is from later on in the same set)
…and, if you’re interested, here’s the original.
Part 1:
Part 2:
The Drunk Show: Hand Jester Comedy
The premise is simple you go onstage, you come off, you get sloshed on the house and then you go back on. Here’s me getting messy (and doing quite old stuff as a result!).
Also, I’ve realised that - in this video - I’m a bit guilty of some of the bad habits I had a go at in this previous post so now feel a bit of a Pecksniff.
What if Episode 1 was good? We’ve all got a version of it in our heads but this guy is SO killing me softly with his song.
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Happy 75th birthday to Raymond Scott’s POWERHOUSE!
(Reblogged from the good humans at BoingBoing)
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