Friday, January 30, 2009

This is post number 400, apparently, and I tend to use such landmarks for reflection. Why should this be any different?

It's a particularly interesting time for such consideration, as I'm coming towards the end of my years as a full-time student, with various options being contemplated. By September, I'll need to find some alternative to the grant that has supported me for the last four years. My doctoral thesis won't yet be finished, though I hope to have made huge in-roads into that by then. I'm looking at economics jobs to be working at while I finish. This is broadly labelled the Safe Path.

As I write this, I'm also coming to the end of putting on my first show. I am immensely proud of it (particularly tonight, which was our best performance so far, and which also featured my parents in the audience - the first time they've seen me do any live comedy) and I feel like it might be the start of something good. I am enjoying collaborating with Andy, and feel we work well together. I also think I could be OK at this, and it is certainly more exciting that consultancy. However, it's performance art, and as such carries with it the prospects of poverty and failure. I think it would be fair to label this the Risky Path.

My plans depend greatly on my current circumstances - I'm going to be married in May, and I want a family. If I had been in a different situation, I'd give the Risky Path a proper go without hesitation - when you don't have more than yourself to think about, it is much easier to put up with a low income in the pursuit of a goal. But I'm not, and I don't regret that at all. Cath brings more more happiness than any career ever could.

But I don't want to squander any opportunities I have. I'm fortunate to have a number of useful talents, one of which could be comedy writing, another of which is a reasonably functioning and intellectually curious brain (which, happily enough, may be valued by a company with a good pay schedule). I do hope I can find a compromise - secure work to provide the sort of life I'd hope for my family (and which I was lucky to enjoy myself growing up) but continual efforts towards writing in between. You never know what might happen.
Thought I'd share a little something with you. Nothing Nice to Say is my favourite online comic, because I am so punk, and this is one of my favourite strips. They have a book, which collects together a load of NN2S stuff, which I am very fond of.

Show going well. Three down, two to go. Expect a full evaluation of the run on Sunday or Monday.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

First night done, and I'm feeling pretty pleased. We have a bunch of notes for a better, tighter show tonight. Here's a review.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Cherwell review is a glowing and fawning three stars. They should be an online version later, so I'll post a link when it's available. It's OK. I leave it to you all to read it, come to the show, then decide if it's right.

The important thing is that you come along, you see. I don't want to say that it's as important as lasting peace in Gaza. I don't want to say that.

But I will, if that's what it takes.
The OxStu have said a number of very nice things about our show. If I can scan a copy and save it somewhere, I will. They said our writing "rings with confidence as it strays into the complex or ridiculous", and that ours was a show where "each joke comes from round a corner, unexpected and entertainly so".

They also discussed our show's no-sex-and-swearing-and-controversy ethos in positive terms. That's good: I did half expect some reviewer to mistake that for unnecessary prudishness, when nothing could be further from the truth. After all, a recent Cherwell review of the Revue criticised them for not having much satirical or topical material at a time when there are plenty of newsworthy events, as if it's valid for reviewers to criticise what is not in a show regardless of the quality of what is. In fact, the idea of doing as we have in our sketches is described as "noble", and the reviewer also suggests that it is one which "all our comics should put their hand, to prevent stagnation".

I am simultaneously 25, and delighted. Cherwell review tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Happy Obama Day!

Today at work, because it is my birthday on Thursday, I was given the choice of food treats to be supplied to the entire team. Obviously, I chose Krispy Kreme donuts, because I am not an idiot.

I have had one. There is another sat on my desk as we speak - the time is 10.26am. I will keep you updated about its status.

First update, 11.13am:
The donut is still sat on my desk. It is taunting me with its eyes. Its eyes-ing. Its icing.

Second update, 11.33am:
Donut untouched. It is no longer clear why I am doing this. It is no longer clear that I am spelling 'donut' correctly.

Third update, 11.40am:
I have had a bite of Donut. I have turned it around so it appears in tact to anyone walking by my desk to check. That sort of thing happens here.

Forth update, 11.50am:
I have had a bite of Donut. I have turned it around so it appears in tact to anyone walking by my desk to check.

Fifth update, 11.51am:
I have discovered that I have already take a bite from the other side (a quick check of my records reveals this happened at 11.40am), meaning it is now not possible to disguise the bite. I have a lump in my throat.

Sixth update, 11.54am:
Lump turns out to be some Donut, which I ate inadvertently whilst panicking about the first two bites, some minutes ago.

Seventh update, 11.57am:
One and a half hours after it was placed on my desk, I eat the remainder of Donut, and wash it down with a cup of my shame.

No, wait, a cup of tea.

Eighth update, 12.05pm:
I miss Donut.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

We had our press preview for the show today. I think it went well - a certain amount of laughter was forthcoming from our reviewers, which was encouraging at least. I will put up a link to any reviews, good or bad, when they are available. Hopefully we picked four sketches that gave a good overview of what the show is about, without giving away the bits we are most proud of.

The Cherwell did mention us briefly in their preview of the term. I don't want to make too big a deal of our aim to write a show without sex, swearing or "edgy", controversial material (although the author of this piece thought it were worth noting) because it isn't the reason to come, or a particular gimmick of the show; it's just our style (possibly mine more so than Andy's, though he has of course been willing). I think that makes our show a bit different, but I wouldn't want it to be a major talking point - it would be a rather tragic reflection on all comedy if it were.

My goal is to always be original. For a 75 minute show, that is impossible - we never copy a line, but some jokes or set-ups will always have elements of similarity to other material. Some formulas are classic, and they work, and any good comedian should know how to use them. It's what you do with the rest of the time that is the difference between being solid and exceptional. We may not entirely make it on the first go, but I have no doubt we will in time.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Hey, sign a petition to encourage the BBC to put Vic and Bob's Shooting Stars on DVD. I loved those shows. I want all of those shows.

Petition is here.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Happy new year, everyone.

Inspiration is an odd thing. I spent a large part of the weekend trying to come up with a decent idea to write a sketch about, and nothing was happening. I went through websites and new sites just to see if someone would click, and I came up blank.

Then, whilst washing up on Sunday night, I remember something that I had seen over the summer. Although it had given me something to talk about at the time as an amusing observation, it certainly wasn't something I could write a sketch about. Standing at the sink, however, I suddenly thought a few short words, a throwaway line, which made the whole thing into a much more interesting and viable situation for comedy writing. From that, I thought of a whole host of ideas about where the scene could go, and what the characters could say. I woke up Monday morning, and wrote it, in thirty minutes. It's no more than four minutes of comedy, but I hope it will works well for the impending show (details below).

First observation: Washing up is zen. Like long motorway driving, you enter a strange state of conciousness. In Chuck Palahniuk's latest book, Rant, (which I recently finished recommend) it is is explained that the theta level of brain activity, is the frequency that "mystics report that vision and inspiration are most likely to occur. In those relaxed moment, while bathing, driving or falling asleep, as you lapse into theta brain waves, you typically retrieve deep, distant memories. You make connections and achieve revelations."

Second observation: if that is a tedious way of thinking about it, then the Discworld idea that inspiration literally rains through the universe, occassionally striking a receptive mind and giving birth to an idea, is more interesting. Plus, it just feels right.

As promised: Correctness Gone Mad - a comedy sketch show written by Andy Murray and Craig Holmes, is on at the Burton Taylor Theatre from the 27th to the 31st of January, at 7.30pm. Do come.