Comedy Stuff...

I don't normally do requests but 'Liv asked me to blog about this (I think she is sick of reading about my various plans for people I don't like :p)

As part of my phase 2 'Acknowledging the Existence of London' initiative I have been to a couple of comedy gigs of late. The first went to was Richard Herring's excellently delivered mental breakdown in his Menage a Un standup tour. A lot of the stuff won't be to everyone's taste, he is far from mainstream but he delivers his material so well it is hilarious. Whathe does particularly well in a lot of his stuff is to make a moutnain out of a molehill and vice versa. He thinks nothing of extoling the virtues of marrying Maxine Carr but stretches his displeasure at the French word for potatoe meaning 'Apple of the Earth' to about 20 minutes. I can't do his show justice here because i am not a professional reviewy person, you write things like 'Extoling the virtues of marrying Maxine Carr' and that doesn't sound at all funny, but it is in the context of the show. Just trust me it is very funny.

I also went to the Lyric at Hammersmith last night, barely making the the last train home at the end! the line up was pretty good but i was mainly there to see Richard Herring (compere), Robin Ince, Mitch Benn and Stewart Lee. Even though I had heard a lot of the stuff in his show, RH did a really good job as compere, a family kindly providing material by bringing their 12 year old son to the show and sitting him in the front row. 'You're going to learn some interesting new words today my boy'. Giving the 12 year old a bottle of beer before the interval and saying 'drink this, I'll be funnier in the 2nd half then'.

Robin Ince was pretty good though he was trying some new material I think, and it wasn't suited to a 10 minute slot. I am off to see him in Southampton on Wednesday which i am looking forward to, I'm not at all worried because I have heard some of his stuff on the radio before and he is a very witty man. Mitch Benn was his usual brilliant and loud self, I don't usually like musical comedians but he is without doubt the king of comedy songs. A strong opening with 'I may have to murder James Blunt' and a song about the life cycle of a Boy Band, he was an excellent choice to finish the first half with. Stewart Lee opened the Second half, which I thought was a shame, I think he should have come a bit later. He basically spent 10 minutes breaking down and analysing a comment passed by his mother about a Tom O'Connor joke. It's a lot funnier than it sounds. He was one of my favourite parts of the evening as I've not seen much of his stuff since This Morning with Richard Not Judy (when still partnered with Rich Herring).

There were other comedians there, some less funny than others. I really like A Murray when he isn't doing his Pub Landlord bit but he only doesn't do that when on panel games and the like, his stage show entirely consists of it and I'm finding it a bit tired. It's a shame because he is clearly talented and clever (the Landlord basically parodying the people who are probably his biggest fans) but he's kind of trapped doing this act at the moment. I hope breaks out of it and does some other stuff soon.

Russell Howard was fanatstic, seen him on panel shows etc. but never seen his standup stuff - well worth it, he fit a lot into 10 minutes and the whole house laughed throughout.



So that is my brief synopsis! For the one American who occasionally reads this - I apologise you won't know any of these people but don't worry as I doubt any Brits do either, these aren't really mainstream big name comics.

All in all it was an excellent benefit gig, bumped into someone I met at Richard Herring's gig on Good Friday who helps run the Comedy Bar in Hampshire, it's worth checking out the site and web-stalking her or her partner in crime to your heart's content (the gig on Wednesday is run by comedy bar). Sadly for me, and happily for her I couldn't stay for a drink at the end as I had to go get a train. I've left a lot of stuff out here but the important bits are in as far as I am concerned!

There - you've had a 'What I did' post, back to the unfounded, opinionated ranting.....

Shameless Plug...

Richard Herring's one-off comedy drama 'You Can Choose Your Friends' is on tonight and I think you should both watch it (I may be exaggerating my readership there...). I have no idea if it'll be awesome or not, what I do know is that Richard Herring is an incredibly funny and talented comedian who is long overdue being back on the telly-box. To be honest, Richard Herring could just stand there doing nothing on screen for an hour and half and it would be better than most things on ITV.

I'd like to say I am a massive fan of his, and it is strictly speaking true though I am reluctant to do so in case comedy is like football where you get accused of not being a real fan because you haven't stalked the object of your fandom throughout your entire life. I do have all of his DVDs that are currently on release and read his blog daily, but I only sort of 'rediscovered' him at the end of last year when I was watching some episodes of Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy on my PC. I'd heard him on the radio quite a bit, and found myself google stalking him, which is always good fun.

Anyway I marked the resumption of my 'acknowledging London exists' initiative and also a reunion with an old house mate (who is, despite his protestations to the contrary, a Rich herring stunt double) by going to the current Menage a Un stand up tour at the Arts Theatre.

Basically, I'm very pleased that one of the country's best comic talents is finally regaining recognition in his own right, a difficult thing to accomplish when you have historically and inevitably been compared to an equally talented stand-up who used to be your double-act partner. Maybe, one day in the future, scientists will create a critic who isn't a lazy waste of blood and organs, who'll actually notice that if you are part of a double act for the best part of 15 years not only is there a possibility that some small elements of you material may reflect some of your erstwhile partner's but some of his will reflect yours. maybe they'll even notice that despite this, it is delivered in completely different styles making comparisons stupid. I think it's very difficult for the barely simian hacks that write reviews to break away from the Gary Barlow view of life - there must be a Good one and a Bad one - for 2 elements of an act to be successful and talented is a concept their tiny conceited little hardwired brains can't cope with.

Awesome, there wasn't meant to be a rant here but my brain has cleverly sneaked one in, I'm so proud. I am going to stop now as I am writing this in Firefox for the first time in ages and it keeps trying to tell me to change my spellings to the incorrect and silly American ones. It also insists that my made up words aren't real. Stupid thing.

Watch the thing later, if you don't like it go then watch his show, if you still don't like him then clearly you are wrong. There is no other explanation so don't look for one.

One, some or all of the above?....

I have been lame I know, but I been so busy! And not busy too...

Anyway, I've been fairly active and stuff has happened, however I don't want to write a big long essay right away so what i have decided to do is list the things I've been up to of late and you can decide which you want to hear about and in what order! I am a genius - do you see what I did there? I will also be providing you with an up to date post too though so don't worry, I will still ramble a little ;)

OK so when did I loast post?......Oh Ok. Errr OK.

Right so I left you with my so far non-existant website. The week after that was mental busy at work, and basically that is all I did until the weekend:-

Friday 30th -> Monday 2nd April - One of my best friends from home Mike came to visit - He had to leave his Harris Hawk alone for a few days, which was risky cos last time he did that it decided that Slug was it's new primary food source and made himself quite poorly.

Easter Weekend - thursday met up with Rich Brewood, one of my old housemates who I hadn't seen in nearly 2 years - me, him and his sister ate at an excellent thai restaurant on Good Friday then went to watch Richard Herring do stand up at the Arts Theatre in London - it was awesome.

Last Weekend - Got a lift home to Wales, saw lots of family and friends, watched Mike's band play, got a riode in Jonny Shaw's new Lotus Elise - which was amazing because Jon is one of these people who women throw themselves at so it was good he fit me into his 'making women's clothes fall off' schedule. It was good to see him and Pedr again.



OK so if you're interested in any, all or none of that vote now and I will elaborate over the coming days! Otherwise we'll move on lol!