About a week ago, I went to watch American: The Bill Hicks Story, at the Phoenix. I am an enormous Bill Hicks fan. Obsessively so. I think I have all the bootlegged concerts on my computer, and a DVD of rariety camcorder shows as well as enough official CDs and DVDs that I have basically all his material available in one form or another (there's a lot of recorded stuff from 1990-91 which is repeated on several shows, which I ususally refer to as his Drugs and Drink and Cigarettes and Porn set). I also have about three books - two biographies and a book of transcripts and scripts and other writings. So that's the background I took into this documentary.

First of all, it's a beautiful film to look at. There's the usual audio history going on in the background, but what the directors have done is taken still photographs and created pseudo-animated sequences to support the narrative. It's odd at first, but very quickly you stop even noticing that the still faces aren't moving in their animated environment. Very clever.

Secondly, where has all this new footage come from? There are several camcorder recordings which must go back as far as the early 1980s that I have never seen before. If a DVD comes out, the producers had better put the whole sets on as extras. There's some bits (about his father) which I'd never heard before which were used to accompany the section on his early shows. I don't think they are quite as old as that (he looks a bit older than 16) but it's not far off. Some of these early clips also show later material in an earlier form - like the fantasy about the grotesque death of woman that broke his heart seeing him on the Tonight Show as she breathed her last.

The best thing about the film, however, is they way everything is brought back to the comedy. With enough reading, you'd already know about the drug stories and the depths of his alcohol abuse and his tragic early death from pancreatic cancer. While all of these are important parts of the story, no-one dwells on the more sensational details, but instead uses them in partnership with recordings to show how they motivated what he was doing on stage. There's clips to show him drinking excessively on stage, clips about his growing dislike of governments (including from Hicks and Kevin Booth's trip to Waco in 1993), clips contrasting his raptorous reception in the UK (the huge rock and roll entrance of the Revelations show at the Dominion theatre) adjacent to the small audiences ("staring blankly back at me like a dog that had been shown a card trick) of a backwater comedy club in the US South. I like this because it feels like the best use of the documentary medium, and gives fresh insight into a topic I (and many other fans) already know well. I mean, I can read and re-read an autobiography of his life but only in a film can I really see the effect on his work. Very much recommended, for disciples and neophytes alike.

Home from Edinburgh, having had a great week in Edinburgh.

Aside from performing in a few Imps shows whilst there (more on that later) we got to see around fifteen shows. Some were exceptional. Tim Key (this years main award winner) thoroughly deserved his accolades with his show, The Slutcracker, and his friend Tom Basden's show, Now That's What I Call Music-Based Comedy, was also great. They both have a similar style, delivering what could be described (simplistically) as intentionally bad poetry (Key) or songs (Basden) ("it's not intentional", says Key, "when I sit down to write a poem, I think 'Let's make this a good one'"). Basden is an excellent guitarist, I should also note. Their material is coupled with extensive use of multimedia and some props, making the show seem so much more than just stand-up. Key ends his show attempting to cross the room, aided by the audience, without touching the floor, paying off an earlier bit. Basden litters his shows with slides on his inventions (new boys names, girls names, maths) cartoons, and other ideas (a wordsearch comprising 100 letter Y's and the word 'Patio') set to music. I liked Key's show more, because of the quality of his performance, his delivery, his interactions with Fletch the techie, but Basden has perhaps been underated this year.

I also really like Laura Solon's first show in Edinburgh since winning the Perrier in 2005. She tells a story through a number of charachter (both male and female) which she voices. The story is both good in of itself and serves to allow a number of excellent standalone sketches (the French radio interview where the presenter and the French author debate whose culture is better, England or France is a highlight, as is her Welsh call-centre lady). The performance was energetic, her delivery impeccable and she seemed just, for want of a better word, lovely.

Rounding off my picks (bearing in mind I'm waiting to see Daniel Kitson and Stewart Lee on their post Fringe tours) was Simon Munnery's 2009 AGM. For our ticket, we got an hour and a quarter in the venue, and a further hour in the pub after as he finished going through all the submitted motions, improvising responses leading into more established routines. It's incredible how much matertial he has to draw on, and style-wise, there's no-one like him ("I went swimming in the river: widths, mainly").

I saw a lot of sketch shows - the Bristol Revunions and Delete the BanJaX were really fun, especially the latter. They seemed liked good friends whose palable delight at performing together was infectious, and where bits fell apart due to exhaustion and lost voices at the end of the run, their good natured mocking of each other was pitched exactly right. One of the guys, Dan, was particularly difficult to stop watching, and his enormous personality was obvious in all his characters (both human and horse). I want to do shows with them.

The Durham Revue were disappointing - I've often enjoyed them more than their Oxford or Cambridge counterparts. Cath and I left feeling quite bored by the end, as the show ran out of ideas about halfway through. I enjoyed the Penny Dreadfuls and Pappy's Fun Club, although given the disputes over the latter between Imps, I've had quite enough of discussing its merits and shortcomings. Rich Hall was quite a letdown - it was a bit meandering, and while he's great at dealing with the unplanned bits with the audience, little of his material was as stellar as I've seen in the past.

There's more, but instead, let's talk about the Imps. I did three shows, and to be brutally honest, I didn't enjoy myself a huge amount. Part of this was being a little out-of-practice, and the problems with joining a group of people who have their own momentum. I also didn't particularly like the set lists - I find improvised musicals tedious and I don't have much more love for Shakespeare scenes either. I find them restrictive with their conventions and often too long and convoluted. I'm also not convinced the audience don't share my assessment, for all our own bluster. Quite frankly, I like short form with all its silliness and energy and gimmicks and short scenes which allow quick ideas and short bursts of insanity, and I like long form for the ability to develop ideas and characters slowly and build up layers of humour and bring back themes. Where the group currently is sits between these two, but without the positives of either.

Booom.

Barney Frank murked that shit.

Update: Colbert adds joy to already joyous event.

Loading up the BBC News website is always more entertaining when the side bar tells you that science proves zombies could annihilate humans.

In such an event, says science, "only frequent counter-attacks with increasing force would eradicate the fictional creatures." (I think it's the word 'fictional' in the last sentence that makes it comedic art). Because, science reminds us, "it's imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else... we are all in a great deal of trouble." (I would personally have added the word 'fictional' prior to the word 'trouble', but then I am known for overkill)

Of course, science may not have quite got the model correct - it failed to recognise that the alternative assumption about "zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it's dead forever." So stop your (fictional) panicing right now.

Man, I love it when other people are funny for me.

There's important life changes going on related to employment next year, but until I have it all sorted, I'm not writing about it. Check back in two weeks, when I should know. It will either be great, or I will need to sell my organs to you.

It occured to me recently that I don't know what to do when people tell me a joke, where by joke I mean the kind with in the traditional elaborate setup and punchline format. Whenever this happens, my brain can't stop worrying that this joke had better make me laugh, so as not to offend or embarrass the joke-teller. Humour generally occurs when there is a gap between the expected and the unexpected, leading to laughter as an expression of surprise or possibly relief. It is very hard to be really surprised and spontaneously laugh at something when all of your mental energies are now directed towards spotting the end of the joke and producing a socially appropriate level of laughter.

The net result is generally a short burst of what must sound like a very forced chuckle, and a lot of nodding, as I try to convey that while I didn't react like that was a funny joke, I nevertheless want the joke-teller to know that, "Yes, I can see why that might be considered humourous - well done".

But here's a truth. Children laugh ten times as often as adults. And we should all laugh more. Scientists have shown that there are many health benefits from laughing - it releases endorphins into our bodies, much like a good work-out, strengthens the heart and lungs and generally improves our prospects of surviving until a good age. And if you think about it, it makes sense. After all, children do tend to live longer than adults.

(This is where you force a chuckle and nod excessively)

Colbert on Berlusconi, a couple of weeks ago: "Still, Berlusconi maitains a solid 56% approval rating among his people, mainly because they're worried if his rating drops into the teens, he'll try and fuck it."

The whole thing is here.

My friend Rachel forwarded this to me.

For some amusement this Friday afternoon, why not have a little vote on today's Daily Mail poll 'Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue?'. It's much more fun if you vote 'yes'. Then tell some other people about it. Currently, 91% of people have done the same. Publish that tomorrow morning, Dacre.

People power 1, mindless hatemongering 0.

I could blog about my wedding and honeymoon and I will, in the fullness of time. But for now, I need to blog about Keyboard Cat.

God, I love Stewart Lee. I will refuse to accept that there is a better comedian on the planet today. There may be funnier comedians, measured by a crude laughs-elicited-per-half-hour metric, but no-one crafts jokes like Lee. No-one has the same gift for language, for hypnotic delivery, and no-one is as relentless as he is in picking a target and demolishing it. His new show is on iPlayer now, and on Mondays at 10pm on BBC2 for the next four weeks.

On another note, the BBC had a piece today about why RPI inflation had fallen to zero, but CPI inflation had surprisingly risen. Both measure the cost of living and the change in prices for a "basket" of goods. However, the composition of the RPI basket includes housing cost, including mortgage repayments, which have obviously shrunk in recent months as interest rates have plummeted. The thing that amused me was the top three reasons for rising prices in the CPI:

1. Falling exchange rates making imported food and other products more expensive.

2. Shops reverting back prices prior to VAT rate decrease last December.

3. Poor harvest in Spain leading to increase in cucumber and courgette prices.

Wait, did we shift to a salad vegetable based economy whilst I wasn't looking? Are there people struggling with energy bills this month because their courgette expenses have rocketed? Maybe I'll just have a zucchini instead. But wait - it's the SAME THING! There's no way out!

Away for a few days from tomorrow, as we (me and Cath and Cath's mum and Cath's dad) are heading to Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp. Will be nice.

Interesting stuff on homophobia on TV and its increasing (or perhaps continual) acceptibility, after two sketches on Al Murray's and Horne and Corden's new shows. I watched the latter - it's not good, but the panning it received this morning was a bit much. It's no worse than most tepid TV comedy, and James Corden did do a pretty decent Ricky Gervais/David Brent impression in Karate Kid 14.

In the aftermath of Sunday's performance of Correctness, I've been thinking (and Andy and I have been discussing) what happens next. I like sketch, and it is pretty much my ideal medium, so it's interesting to see what opportunities there would be. Sketch nights in London and festivals - though sadly not Edinburgh, this year - are on the radar.

In that vein, two articles, published independently but about the same topic, appeared in the Guardian and the Independent today. Interesting, the former seems to believe sketch shows no longer have any appeal, while the latter seems really excited about the blossoming live sketch scene in London. Let's assume the latter is true.

Anyway, I started having a look at some of the sketches and sketch groups who are on Youtube, and while there are a great many that I liked, here's my favourite: Women, by Idiots of Ants.

Painfully funny, from the Daily Show last week.

Eddie Izzard is touring in the winter, which I think is the first time he's doing so since around 2003. I know it's not 1997 anymore, but I figure it's still got to be a good night out.

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.

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.

I was all poised to right a DAMN YOU post when I found out that Comedy Central no longer shows Colbert Report clips outside of the US. But then I found this. Apparently Comedy Central haven't found a way to stop embedded version of their clips playing as well. So that completely ruined my post, and now I have nothing to complain about.

Damn you, still-available Colbert videos. DAMN YOU.

This is a really nice bit of satire, in response to some of the people who've been speaking out at McCain rallies. I love you, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

In case you haven't had chance to see it, the SNL Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric sketch, is almost tragic in how similar it was to the real thing. You see, here is a woman who can never be in power. That must happen: NEVER.

I've had not much to talk about for a week - mainly because I'm not about to rant work related things here. In penance, I give you this clip to feel better about yourselves (and also to see ridiculous homophobes get told to fuck off).

I woke up at half six this morning with the most excruciating cramp in my calf muscle. For a second, I was convinced that my left leg was attempting to break my left leg. It still hurts now - I think the contraction was severe enough to actually damage the muscle. Plus, when I got out of bed this morning, it completely buckled under the weight. Not the best thing for my ego.

According to Wikipedia, cramps are caused by one of six things, and none of them fit. Possibly low temperature - I woke up on top of the covers - but I don't really think even that would be extreme enough to causing cramping. Also, says the Wiki entry, cramp is sometimes referred to as a 'charley horse', which has an interesting (if speculative) etymology, though sadly not one that will stop me hobbling around the office today.

Things for you to do today: 1) read this (me) . 2) watch this (Colbert). 3) leave comments (below)