HeadSpill

My first preview show went well, still needs a lot of work, but to be honest I more impressed myself driving slap bang through through the centre of London. Stopping at some lights I looked to my left to see big ben and the eye and let out an odd maniacal laugh.

I did cockup on a couple things in the show, as well as forgetting to turn my dictaphone on to record it (fail.) and the ‘aftershow report’ video I recorded for 4laughs was far to dark to be or any use. Generally though, I’m quite happy with the shape of it, just need to tighted a lot of the material up without strangling the funny.

I got the chance guest on the new Alfie Joey afternoon show on BBC radio Newcastle on friday, so I took it. We talked about the Edinburgh show, and it’s the first time I’ve tried to succinctly leap the verbal hurdles of ‘yes, it’s a comedy show about eczema’ and ‘eczema’s not funny’ its more about the experience of living with it and growing pains.

Before all that however, I remember I went to school with one of the presenter’s at the station, and on Alfies’ questioning, called Gilly Hope ‘posh’, which was probably not entirely true. I think I meant to say ’smart’, as she always had pig tails in, but then I had a big basin cut. Anyway, after the interview I called in on my mum, who as well as being a teacher at the school we both went to way back, was all to happy to dug out some embarassing old photos at my request.

If you’re reading this Gilly, it’s just a bit of fun.
Here you are behind and to the left of me. twice.

BEFORE.

AFTER.

oh yeah, my mum thinks Aflie is one of the ‘more sensible’ DJ’s on the radio.

Brainstorming/Mind mapping/Spider diagram, it’s all the same thing.

I have a new gig to mc. hurray!

I can’t complain even though I’m already too busy with Edinburgh stuff, but I had been eyeing up the Carlton Club, a gig venue just down the road, since I moved late last year.  I’d been put off as it said on the sign outside ‘member’s only’, but then when I passed the other there was a big banner out front advertising the ‘Celebrate Whalley Range Festival and the ‘members’ bit was covered up. It was all but over by the time I went for a nosey, but a few enquiries later, and I was having a meeting discussing a comedy night, which they were after. There’s work to be done promoting it, and time will tell if it works out, but first impressions, and seeing that they’ve got a newsletter and roster of events, suggest that this very established venue is having a bit of  a renaissance. Today is a good day.

I’ve had some interest from the Channel 4 comedy report, who have asked me to come up with a series of short video clips for their website about my ‘Road to Edinburgh’. I’ve also had interest from the Eczema Society, who I got in touch a while back explaining who I am and what I was planning to do.

Meanwhile, back the writing of the show itself, I’ve been re-reading the leaflets the Eczema society provide to deal with and manage eczema, and some of it brought back quite painful memories. Ouch. The toughest part of coming up with material is knowing what to leave in, take out, and above all keep it funny. It’s a tricky line to walk, eczema itself isn’t funny, and the show shouldn’t be piece of public therapy. It should also be accesable to everyone, without shying away from the subject matter. tough remit, but certainly doable. The Next stage really is to get as many previews as I can, to test what works and what doesn’t.

The flyers are done now, they look very classy.

On Sunday I was a guest on the new Andy Crane Radio show. He’s a lovely bloke, and I felt a warm glow of security sitting in his presence thinking back to watching childrens telly, and singing along at home to the opening credits of ‘Around the World with Will Fog’. I was 14. My nice bubble of security was quickly punctured when he then asked me about home life, my lovely girlfriend and if I was going to get married or not.
It’s not a touchy subject or anything, but I had a proper flap, and the whole thing became a bit surreal in my head for several moments.

I missed my mum’s birthday this weekend. I feel bad about that.

Writing my first Edinburgh show has got my head in knots. I’m swinging between getting too close to the subject matter and being too loose about what I want too say. It’s  like having a table half of ingredients and no recipie to bind them together. I do have a plan as to what it’s all about, but am trying not to fall foul of over marketing it in my head, deciding what it’s all about before it’s written.
There’s a danger in the kind of personal subject that this is, that if I outline too clearly what it’s about I’ll restrict my options to broaden the topics to tackle, but conversely to not have an outline is too wayward and provides no focus for what I’m writing about.

I’ve got 2 beginnings, several middles and no end at the moment, I suppose that’s the problem. 10 years back when I wrote little indie comics I didn’t have this bother, stories went all over the place and were about anything, but this is different, it has to have the ring of truth or indeed be true itself. Most of it is, about 80% of it is, but I have embellished some of it for laughs.

The problem with over analysing any subject is you can very easily kill any of the things that made it interesting in the first place, but then the hope is by doing that you’ll find that one area of common experience that is unspoken by everyone, but everyone knows, and finding that speck of common experience is comedy gold dust.

After a run of particularly unsatisfactory gigs over the last month my mojo was well and truly restored last week when the headliner failed to turn up and I ended up mc’ing and closing the gig in Skipton town hall. Big room, and lovely crowd.

The yang this lovely slice on yin came the next morning when a tooth that had cracked eariler in the week drove me nuts with pain and I shot off down the road to the dentist to have an emergency extraction on a decay ridden right molar.

The show comes along slowly, still needs work.

I’m writing my new show. I’ve been promising myself for years I’d go to Edinburgh and now have the venue, and more importantly the cash to do it. Even though I’m doing a free fringe show, after accomodation, advertising and expenses I’m probably looking at a couple of grand for the month of August. At the minute I only have about five to ten minutes, and two preview dates, but even now at the back end of Febuary I’m little excited. I don’t have any rose tinted visions, it will be work, and I intend to keep my mind clear of expectation…

My history of doing a show is as follows:
Manchester fest 2005 - no one came.
Leicester fest preview 2006 - technical problems halfway into show.
Manchester fest 2006 preview  @ Comedy Balloon - large Success
Manchester fest 2006 show @ Zumeba - A week before the festival the venue is sold and turned into a trendy wine bar.
Frog & Bucket Edinburgh Preview 2007 - Too much teching, not enough stand up. An attempt to do something different, but a bit of a failure. Plug pulled.

The new show is very personal. I was thinking about doing it a year or so ago, but felt it was biting off more than I could chew which in hindsight is ironic considering I went on to put together a show that was all interactive multimedia. What I probably meant was I was too afraid of looking at the history of my eczema condition for the pain it might cause, and then not be funny.

There’s lots of work to be done writing and research, but in the few gigs I’ve done, openly talking about eczema, it’s been quite a soul feeding excercise. So far so good.

Sometime last year I think I fell out of love with comedy. There were no signs, I didn’t see it coming. Everything in my personal life was great. better than great. Comedy was work, good work, but work all the same. I moved in with my girlfriend, and that was, and still is utterly splendid on many levels. In hindsight it’s a simple trap I suppose, sex vs the adrenaline rush of comedy. Why go to a gig for that fleeting but massive adulation of a job well done, or on occasion feint praise and a three hour drive, when there’s a steady flow of love at home, like having a lounge bar in the front room. I got sloppy, was making notes, but not really writing and over the relatively short space of 6 months my set became unpolished and flabby.

When I was single I was singularly motivated, I went to gigs and worked, and when I wasn’t gigging I went to gigs anyway as it was better than sitting at home.
Living with someone else changes that. It sounds obvious, but you don’t quite know how and what shape you’re life will take until you’re in that position yourself. You can’t just do stuff when you want like before, you just get in each others way, or don’t each other at all.

I read that back and it sound’s terrible, but it’s not. When you live with someone in ‘togetherness’ your stuff and her stuff start off sitting next to each other on bookcases, but eventually overlap, and when there’s no room left, you have to assert that that space on the shelf is for your Beat Takashi films, and not her Monkee’s DVD’s.

In the five months since moving in there’s a facet of me that wasn’t there before, well rounded isn’t the word, a difficult birth of compromise and assertion, tolerance and aggression.

There’s a difference between what you want and what you need.

When I was single I had a point to prove, a good point, but a point nontheless, comedy was my passion, and performing my outlet.

Finding your bestest partner, and someone who loves you regardless, I forgot the point I was trying to prove, and the dawning horror that I might not have actually had a point to prove at all, I just liked making the funny on stage.

I never planned to get hooked up and settled, it just kind of happened. I once said quite loftily ‘a successful relationship is by it’s nature compromise’ and still think that rings true. However a good relationship is also life experience and experience is good.

I’ve started writing loads again, I’ve started writing a about something very close to me, which might be quite painful in places, but it isn’t born out of proving a point, just wanting to live life better and more than I currently do. Not that anything was bad before, by my actions and experience I’m just a little more defined.