Category: Blog Post
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Things to remember when performing!
I’ve been feeling quite nervous about my upcoming gigs so I thought I’d write down some tips I’d been given and some things I’ve learnt. Confidence Matters – People inherently trust and follow confident people. If you look nervous onstage then the audience will be nervous and won’t follow you. It takes time – It…
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Crash and burn
I guess it was bound to happen eventually, that moment of quite spectacular failure, and yes, tonight was the night I had it in full force. I was in Preston for the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club’s Beat The Frog show, where you get 5 mins to avoid 3 cards being held up which end…
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Headaches and Heckles
I’ve just had gig #3 (this time at the lovely Hot Water Comedy Club). It was the first gig I’ve really enjoyed I think while performing but also one where I think I might have learnt a lot about myself as a performer, myself as a crazy knobhead, but also, crucially, my material. So what…
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The problem with 5 minutes
What can you achieve in 5 minutes? I ask this question because, after a drought of gigs in the past month I find myself with four coming up all of which are 5 min slots (Preston, Manchester, London and Liverpool in case you’re interested). The problem is that my “act”, as it is, is 17…
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Back of the net…
I have a couple of friends I used to play a huge amount of Pro Evo Soccer with on the Xbox at Uni. They’d always start as good natured games, games filled with enjoyment, laughs, maybe a beer on the side. However before long they’d descend to a dark competitive place of gloating, thrown controllers,…
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Anyone but him
Everyone has a friend who is a bit of a knob. You know the type: They’ll arrive at dinner parties with 8 cans of Carling, drink the lot before flirting outrageously with anyone with a low enough top and slow enough reflexes, slurring their way through cheese and biscuits before insisting that everyone should decamp…
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Cheese (part 1)
If you’ve not seen me recently you’ll not know that I’m eating a lot more cheese… Anyway, here’s my latest cheese ranking… Yep, cheese rankings. You’ve opened this page to read rankings of cheese…. On a serious note, I bet some of you buy the cheeses… Belton Farm – Red Fox A dark orange…
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Seating Arrangements
I was on the tube on Friday travelling to Finsbury Park from Waterloo, normally a pain-free and relatively hassle-free experience. I was sat, after a short break, with my suitcase wedged between my legs and my back on my lap. The carriage was empty, commuters long gone for the day and the party revellers not…
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Things I know… (I wish I didn’t)
It’s Tuesday, which of course means that it is time for the brilliant Fresh Meat! It got me thinking about university, what I learnt, but also the things I kind of wish I’d not learnt.. Here’s a few from me, please add your own in the comments. Milk can be sieved Sieving milk does not…
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The Fame Game
I was thinking about whether I’d like to be famous or not today. Not that I’d get much choice in the matter, it’s the one thing that’s difficult to create for yourself (opposed to infamy), people either choose to admire you or not, there’s not much middle ground. I imagine that lots of people would like…