Some Funny Things in the News

There's been a lack of posts on 'Pish of late, since we're both so busy with the chatty whirlwind of Twitter, but I thought I'd try to get a few more updates on here.

Anyway this is for anyone who missed these cracking video clips this past week. The first one is the astonishingly mental video Richard Madeley put together for The Daily Politics. In it he mounts a defence of Tony Blair, making himself out to be a prize fud.

The second one is Labour MP Jim Devine's hilariously out-of-his-depth defence of his expenses claims on the Channel 4 News on Friday night. You have to think that any defence where you used the word 'Whatdoyoucallit?' more than once hasn't gone well.

After that you've got 'Pish favourite Doug Stanhope's slot from last week's Newswipe.

The whole things runs to about 16 minutes, with Devine's blabberings taking up 11 minutes.

(If you're reading this on Facebook and can't see the videos the blog post is here.)

Emergency Pizza Delivery

This is Doug Stanhope involved in a Game for a Laugh style prank from Spy TV. Stanhope plays one of two rogue doctors operating on a patient when the pizza delivery guy arrives. It's worth watching for the last 15 seconds.

Doug Stanhope - Word of Mouth

You know this ain't safe for work. This is all 84 minutes of Doug Stanhope's 2002 DVD Word of Mouth.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hello Tom,

So, you've made it another year, huh? Impressive. Well, impressive if you consider your festering stagnant life clicking over another year an accomplishment. I bet you woke up today feeling a little bit excited still, huh? Despite all your misanthropic bullshit, a little part of you - that little part that dime-store psychologists like to refer to as the "inner child" - perked up a bit. "Hey, today is my birthday!" you thought.

Well no one fucking cares. That's why this email is automated. It's completely impersonal just like every other relationship in your terrible, worthless, and now one-more-year past-it's-prime life.

So go ahead, eat your cake, play with your new iPod knockoff, try on your new fucking sweater while you add another notch on the social odometer of age that we use to validate your existence. You gonna go out and drink tonight? Shouldn't you put some of that money in savings? Fuck, you don't have many working years left, pal. The whole "Live Fast, Die Young" mentality doesn't fit into the picture so much anymore when you've got man-tits and you're putting Dr. Scholl's in your Crocs; your time to quit while you were ahead is over.

Anyhow, Happy Birthday.

Love,
Jesus Loves Doug Stanhope

End of the Festival

With the Edinburgh Festival having come to a close I thought I'd briefly riound up the shows I've been to see in the last couple of weeks.

Angry Puppy was a solid all-female sketch show. The cast and sketches were all of a high quality.

Limmy's Show didn't have the atmosphere of his Oran Mor shows in March, but it was still top drawer stuff. Any show featuring me trying to climb a fence must be funny.

Scott Cappuro had a lot of 5 star reviews and according to each one a lot of walk outs. On the night I saw him no one walked out, but that's not to say he toned it down that night. The vast number of comedians who think that they're edgy really ought to go see Cappuro to see how it's really done. This was boundary-pushing stand-up at its best. He even managed to squeeze in some mild masturbation during the hour.

Easily the worst show I saw at the festival was Paul Foot's. Quite how this guy has a career is a mystery to me. He stretched about 6 minutes of material into an hour. When one of your audience says "You're actually humping me now," your show's taking a wrong turning somewhere.

The sketch show Two Episodes of MASH had some mixed reviews over the three weeks. I enjoyed it for the most part. There were some good, quirky ideas, like the super-hero who had given it all up to teach road safety (Road Safety - It's Not Just For Arseholes) and the human cannonball who had overshot, meaning he couldn't get his timesheets signed. There was a good running gag about their sponsorship deal with a scaffolding firm. The whole thing though was only 45 minutes long.

Wisecrackin' Mindsqueezin' Behemoth was another sketch show written and performed by JL Roberts and Nadia Kamil. They had done a show called Staggered Spaces that I saw a couple of years ago. They are both likable and engaging performers. The show was a bit shambolic but all the more fun for it.

Global Warming is Gay featured Glue's very own Dazza. Despite a few really awful lines it wasn't a bad show. However for my mind you may as well have written a show replacing global warming with collecting football programmes, such as I didn't really buy that these folk were spending £30,000 to combat global warming.

Edinburgh was rounded off this year for me with Doug Stanhope last night. Shambling through the crowd in the small bar he looked as ridiculous as I've ever seen him. A skip cap perched on his mulleted head, his jacket looked like something he'd stolen off a drunken sailor and his baggy shorts looked like he'd slept in them the last couple of nights. Oh aye that's right, he had.

He began by riffing with the crowd, by the time he'd had his third beer he was really on form. He did have to deal with idiotic attention seeking hecklers, but all in all he delivered a first class show.

Here's an interview with him about Edinburgh from last week's Metro.

So that's it for Edinburgh for me as a punter this year. Saw some decent shows and ate some good pies out of Piemaker. Spent too much money that's for sure.

Stanhope in Edinburgh

Who wants to go see Doug Stanhope at the Edinburgh Festival in August? Only one catch...well two catches. You have to go on your own and you have to pay £7,349. Oh aye, and hang about with him for 16 hours.