Sam Freeman

Storytelling | Theatre | Arts Marketing

Author: Sam Freeman

  • Gig #13 – The Abbey Inn, Oldham

    Two gigs in a week is really unusual for me – it’s not that I don’t try and find gigs, it’s just I feel uncomfortable trying to sell myself – I don’t like saying I’ve done X, Y or Z gigs unless telling other people how good the gig was… Anyway, this is besides the…

  • Gig #12 – Hot Water Comedy Club, Liverpool

    I was thrilled (if very surprised) to be asked by Binty to perform at Hot Water’s 6 of the best competition night – I’d only just done 10 gigs so felt like a bit of an imposter next to guys and gals who’ve done many more. The section is 8 mins long but penalised if…

  • Gig #11 – The Millstone, Bolton.

    I’d never been to Bolton before so when Nigel Needham asked me to play his gig I was excited for two reasons. Firstly I had no gigs lined up and it would be great to get some practice in before Hot Water Comedy Club, and secondly I’d never been to Bolton and wondered what it…

  • Fear Of Flying – 3

    Simon had never been a big fan of change. He liked the safety of knowing what was happening when, consistency and a  timetabling of his life that bordered on obsessive. He wouldn’t feel terrible if change occurred, it’s just he tended to shy away from it, someone who’d never throw away a sock with holes…

  • Fear Of Flying – 2

    The old police officer’s morning had been, he could safely say, pretty poor. He’d not slept well the previous night and had awoken in a cold house with ice on the insides of the window to see his frosty breath in front of him. The previous day had been stressful, the temperature plunging as snow…

  • Fear Of Flying – 1

    This story starts, as all good stories must, on a Tuesday. At a railway station, waiting for the working week to begin with a torturous journey to the city centre, the morning passengers are assembling in the same way they had for the preceding days, weeks, months, years and in one case decades. In their heavy winter…

  • Surviving a seeming arts apocalypse… (part 1)

    It seems not a day passes without further signs in the decline of British Theatre in the regions, from the liquidation of the Byre Theatre in St Andrews to Taunton’s Brewhouse moving into administration it seems clear (in the media at least) that the arts are enduring a torrid time of uncertainty, fear and closure.…

  • Gig #10 – Rawhide RAW

    I really didn’t want to do this gig if I’m honest, I think I’d had a rough week at Beat The Frog where I got my bi-monthly assassination and was losing the love for stand-up a little. I’ve never been particularly good at dealing with disappointment and tend to beat myself up when something’s not…

  • Gig #8 – Beat The Frog, Preston

    It’d been nearly two weeks since my last gig and I was feeling kind of nervous about my next outing. Firstly gig #7 had gone so well I was wondering whether to give up on a high and also my previous encounter with Beat The Frog in Preston had been pretty hideous. So it was…

  • Prestogigaphobia – The fear of gigging in Preston

    Guess what this blog post is about… Yes, you’ve guessed it, I’m heading back to Preston to see how I get on at Beat The Frog. Me and Preston have not had a good relationship since we first met nearly a year ago. Well actually it started long ago when I decided not to go…

  • What I learnt this week…#1

    I think it’s important to blog regularly, and to be honest for the last few weeks I have been quite neglectful as of late. Partly it’s because I’ve been really busy, I’m not making excuses, I’m just saying, loads on, once I’ve finished with work, other work, play stuff, stand-up, curing cancer and stand-up blogs…

  • Film Review: Lincoln

    Film Review: Lincoln

    Sometimes films inspire you, compel  you to write about them. You exit the cinema, heart filled with joy, soul crying out for fulfillment and you know, you know from the deepest darkest place inside you, that you must tell as many people as possible about what you have just seen. Run to the top of…

  • Gig #7 – Hot Water Comedy Club

    So here I am again, writing up a gig, and my good performance average has gone up from 16% to 28%.  Yes, nearly one third of the time I don’t die onstage in a long and lingering silence. Gig #7 was at my comedy home (or the place I did my first gig), Hot Water…

  • Gig #6 – The Beech Inn, Chorlton

    I’ve been inspired to write up some gig notes by Ste Price (click here for his excellent site) to evaluate the work I’ve been doing, how I’ve felt after gigs and where I need to develop. Gig #6 was at The Beech Inn in Chorlton and was a really fun gig. I was slightly apprehensive…

  • My thoughts on Lord Of The Rings

    Someone asked me this morning what I thought of The Hobbit and instantly regretted it. It all started all so innocuously, “Yeah, it’s okay” I said offering very little insight or artistic critique of what I’d seen. Then I felt it inside me, an eruption of anger, largely aimed at Peter Jackson and J.R.R Tolkien (who…

  • Resolutions 2013

    Every year I have a habit of, like many other people, making new year resolutions. Originally when I first tried doing them they were unrelenting failures, mostly because they a) had no sense of reality, b) required willpower or c) I made them on New Years Eve and had forgotten them on New Year’s Day…

  • Perspective and Paper

    It’s been a while since I wrote a semi-philosophical self-indulgent blog so I thought that now (12.43am – I can’t sleep at the moment) would be as good a time as any to write some stuff down. There’s an inherent problem with blogs I think, they’re so very attention seeking and ego stroking (very similar…

  • The (almost) rise of the Phoenix…

    After last week’s horrendous gig in Preston morale was pretty low approaching the Manchester Beat The Frog event. I’d had a week fixating on Preston Disaster Stats: 2.5 hours travel for each minute performed 5 hours of travel for each beer consumed 5 hours of travel per laugh achieved 70 Preston folk willing me to…