The Gigging Weekend

Two gigs this weekend. And to be honest another two that were somewhat less than inspiring. On Friday night Mags had asked me to compere one of her popular Acoustic Heaven gigs at the Ramshorn Theatre. It was apparent from early on that few people were really interested in listening to me doing stand up, so I worked mainly on building up the acts, telling the audience to shut up at the end of each break and making the odd announcement. The night itself was very good, with a lot of top quality acts on.

Saturday night I did a gig at Blackfriars. Poorly attended though it was, it went over okay. There were a couple of seemingly lairy girls down the front, but in actuality they were quite nice, though it did help that I started with "Straight off the bat, I'd like to make it clear that I'm quite frightened of you two. In particular you." From that point they decided to be nice to me.

Also on the bill were Kevin Bridges, Jack Burns, Matt and Farron and compere Scott Agnew. Kevin was pretty good, very confident, Matt and Farron were funny, if somewhat offensive at times and Scott did an excellent job of whipping ten folk up into a participative audience.

As for my part I really should spend more time turning some of the half thought out ideas, that litter my set, into proper routines. A bit more time spent writing and honing should make future gigs more enjoyable.

Just one word of warning before you click on the links. If you go to Scott's site, be careful it's very funny but it ain't for the faint hearted.

Have I Got Trumped Up Law Suits For You?

An amusing aside to the previous post. The gig was run by Mac Star and on the drive down he was telling me of his claims that Dara O'Brien performed one of his jokes on Have I Got News For You the previous Friday. He eagerly told us that he was in the process of suing him. Well, he wisnae kidding. Here is his claims in the Edinburgh Evening News and the response he has received.

In the comedy community nicking material is a favourite subject of debate. I guess sometimes it happens, but sometimes you just have to face up to the fact that your material isn't as original as you may like to think that it is. It hasn't happened to me as yet, so I've no idea how I'll feel about it. I think the way to deal with it is to just work harder at creating 10 more jokes better than that particular one. But we'll see how I feel if ever I reckon someone has pinched my stuff.

Back at the Fag End of the Entertainment Business

In this crazy business some people call show you don’t stay at the top for long, so grasp it while you can. After the excesses of Saturday the Tom Entertainment Express juddered somewhat with a gig at McCabe’s Ale House in Ayr.

Playing to 8 confused middle aged Yorkshiremen, the local gay guy, two couples and the barstaff is a gear shift from a 500 strong sell out crowd. And no offence to him but Kenny Ken doesn’t really cut it alongside John Byrne and Liz Lochhead. Anyways my spot went over okay considering the circumstances. The Yorkshiremen and one of the couples had left by the time Kenny took ‘the stage’ and by the time headliner Chris Broomfield got on, there was an audience of 3.

Still a free bar and I necked more than my fair share of Jack Daniel’s and Coke. Though it would probably have been easier, cheaper and more fun to buy myself a bottle and sit in the house.

Hooray!

This is great news for me and everyone else who loves Arrested Development.

Saturday Night

As you will have noticed from previous posts I was in a show in Saturday night. The Space You’re Not In @ Oran Mor in memory of my pal Gail. It was a really great night. I was part of The Bluebird Theatre Group and we performed 20 minutes worth of Gail’s poems. Well done to us all cos we all nailed our lines. I’m glad we didn’t just read off the page as we could have done cos it helped the poetry come alive that little bit more.

It was a great venue to be in, although some people up the back struggled to hear certain performers, I thought it looked great and the green room was much more like what I think I could get used to as a performer. A sell out 500 crowd enjoyed performers such as Janice Galloway, Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead, James Kelman and John Byrne.

It was quite odd sitting around backstage beside Liz Lochhead and Tom Leonard as they discussed various folk on the literature scene while Alasdair Gray and James Kelman chatted on the other side of me.

There was a live auction too, which was probably the highlight of the night for me. Anita Manning of Great Western Auctions was a tremendous auctioneer very entertaining. I was sitting next to John Byrne as his paintings were sold for just over 2 grand, however he seemed much more interested in his next rollie.

The night closed with music from Eddi Reader, Arab Strap, Eugene Kelly and Belle and Sebastian who played 4 songs from their new album. I came off somewhat of an ignoramus when talking to one of them afterwards cos I was oblivious as to whether they were new songs or not.

I downed plenty of free booze, smoked salmon vol-a-vonts and prawn sandwiches. I chatted to Lewis MacLeod voice of Sebulba in the Phantom Menace and star of a Super Noodles advert, which he didn’t seem to like me mentioning. And ended the night at a party at Eugene Kelly’s house. A nice guy who I only bored briefly by chatting to him about Teenage Fanclub and never mentioned Kurt Cobain to him once.

I took loads of photos which I will post as soon as I can get them in to be developed.

Here is a review of the show from the Sunday Herald and below from yesterday’s Scotsman. Plus a piece about Gail here.

TRIBUTE
THE SPACE YOU’RE NOT IN ****
ORAN MOR, GLASGOW

IN MEMORY of the life and work of Gail Wylie, this evening could scarcely fail to entertain with the wealth of talent participating. The unpublished poet and actress, who died of leukaemia in September, was a keen supporter of the arts, and this benefit for leukaemia research welcomed some of Scotland’s foremost artists, musicians and writers.

As master of ceremonies, comedian Sandy Nelson kept the night bounding along nicely, suitably humbled to introduce Alisdair Gray, Janice Galloway and James Kelman for a series of short readings, with Bluebird Theatre Group performing some of Wylie’s own poetry and Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat surprised to find the Anglo-Saxonisms of his own verse pre-empted by Kelman.

Tom Leonard, likewise, was keeping no lid on his expletitives, receiving a huge cheer from a lubricated crowd who lapped up the merciless characterisations of Liz Lochead and wry tales of sexual misadventure from Zoe Strachan. Playwright John Byrne poignantly related his relationship with Wylie, who became his biographer, and saw his artwork Alive sell for £2,600 in a tremendously fun auction.

To cap a marvellous evening, Eddi Reader sang a cappella, Moffat reappeared for a shambling Arab Strap set, and Belle and Sebastian rattled through some stonking new material.

JAY RICHARDSON

Davids' Blogs

Ever wished that Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David wrote his own blog? No? Well wish no longer. And have a look too at his wife's.

I'm Not Mental

Here's Dave Chappelle speaking from South Africa and not in a mental institution.

Later...Tonight

Just to let you know to watch or tape Later this evening. Cos the awesome Arcade Fire are on. As too are The Foo Fighters and Ronnie’s mate’s band Hard-Fi. Pure don’t miss.

The Man who Should Have Been Seinfeld

Here’s an article about the man who “was supposed to be the next Seinfeld.” Mitch Hedberg died 6 weeks ago. I’d heard of him but never any of his work. Since his death I’ve got a couple of his albums and he was very funny. A range of one liners from insightful observations to bizarre takes on household objects laugh out loud funnies to half thought out ideas funny only to him. Shame I only discovered him after his death and shame that he’s gone.

Dave Chappelle Hospitalised

One of Talking Pish and Heavy Sedation‘s favourite comics Dave Chappelle recently went missing while Comedy Central were awaiting completion of the third series of the consistently excellent Chappelle’s Show. He has now surfaced – in a mental health facility in South Africa.

Perhaps the responsibility of Comedy Central handing him $50,000,000 to do his latest series has tipped the balance against him. I’m not going to call that pressure, just see what the Glue machine could do with that cash. We at ‘Pish hope he gets well soon. Cos we need more classics like The Playa Haters, Tyrone Biggums, the History Channel's coverage of great inner city gang wars and the Wu-Tang Clan's new financial consulting firm.

Happy Birthday 'Pish

Talking Pish is One year old today. Instead of going through our greatest posts here is the very first link that was put on. An old interview with then Seinfeld supremo Larry David.

New Armando Iannuci

Here is a couple of interviews with Armando Iannuci about his next project with Steve Coogan and his new radio series with Steve Coogan.

Glue 2

It has to be said that it’s mainly down to a crackdown on shenanigans at work, but I haven’t posted for a long, long time. So what’s new?

Well some of you (is there anyone?) may have seen our show “You Owe Me Glue” at the 13th Note during the comedy festival.

That was a lot of fun, from the banging heads with the ultra hard-working Tommy, Graham and Ronnie to the performances themselves. Both shows as Tom has indicated in previous posts went down really well, and if I do have one regret it was that we didn’t capitalise on the success and get any reviews or work out of it.

That won’t be the case this time though.

That’s right no-one at all, You Owe Me Glue 2 is coming. Featuring the same cast and hopefully most of the backroom staff that did such a good job the last time, we are at it again, this time at Blackfriars in the Merchant City 16 and 17 July.

Just over 2 months to prepare, so it’s going to be tough, but we all seem pretty confident we can pull it off.

We’re also in the middle of finishing sketches for upcoming BBC Radio Scotland show “Sabotage”. That’s been an interesting process as well, if a little bewildering, as you’re never sure what people are going to like and I’ve never really tackled re-writing my own stuff to anyone’s specifications but my own up to now. Still, it looks like we’re getting some stuff on air, so that’s a great confidence boost.

I’m much the same apart from that, my daughter Jodie walks and talks now, and regularly beats me awake while shouting “Up! Up! Up!” at the top of her lungs. Being a Dad is great, but it’s tough to explain to an almost 2 year old that Daddy needs his coffee.

So yeah, we’re looking for someone to help generate some interest in Glue 2, get folk to come and review the show or even do a wee preview piece for us in the papers or on radio. Stuff like that. Interested?

Oh yeah, and Talking Pish is 1 year old tomorrow.

The Space You're Not In

This Saturday night I'm involved in a charity show at Oran Mor. The Space You're Not In has been organised in memory of my pal Gail who died last year.

The event features John Byrne, Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochead and Belle and Sebastian among many others. I'm performing three poems and only now beginning to worry cos at the moment I don't know them as well as I should.

There's more about the show on Glasgow West End Dot Com, Belle and Sebastian's website, Nexxus the West of Scotland bio Science website and the Sunday Herald. If you have yesterday's Scotland on Sunday lying around there is a great article about Gail on the front page of the Review section, but for some reason it doesn't appear on their website.

Anyway I'm sure you'll agree a fantastic line up and Linda and Yvonne have done a fantastic job at organising it.

Arcade Fire Live

Hey! A post after all this time. You know I must be excited. I saw Arcade Fire last night at Glasgow Uni’s Debating Chambers and thought it was worth a post.

There’s a lot of hyperbole about them flying around on the net and I’m reluctant to join in. However they were without doubt the best live band I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen Hue and Cry.

With a singer that looked like a young Christopher Walken and an insane Napoleon Dynamite lookalike percussionist practically every song took on an anthemic quality.

If I said that the percussionist was the most exciting member of the band you’d maybe think I they would be a dull group. But how wrong you’d be. I think he did something different for every song. Climbing the speakers to play on the balcony, cymbals, tambourines, a bass drum, the floor, a crash helmet on his head...

I’ve never seen a band before where I was just too blown away to even applaud at the end of a song.

They ended the show by jumping down from the stage and walking through the crowd, still playing their instruments out the main door.

An incredibly theatrical band they also seemed to have two live parrots in a cage in the bass drum.

When they play Glasgow again or Edinburgh for that matter go see them. You can’t fail to be disappointed.

On the downside of course I was stood next to Christendom’s biggest daftie. One of these rough Glaswegian stoaters who inexplicably love a band you’d never expect them to even have heard of.

Ben Folds in Paste

Another brief post, here's Ben Folds in Paste Magazine.

More Cross

Here's another interview with David Cross.

Comics

Here’s some links to articles on a couple of comedians. I’ll try to put some more up later. First of all Daily Show host Jon Stewart on his hottest year. I liked the bit about people thinking that joking about war is out of order but war itself isn’t.

Secondly here’s a guy I’ve been watching and listening to a lot recently, David Cross. I’ve just got through Arrested Development on DVD (which I should post about separately) and I’ve been playing both It’s Not Funny and Shut Up You Fucking Baby. Tommy will be pleased to hear that I’m about to make a proper go of Seasons 1 & 2 of Mr. Show.

Back Again

OK Very few posts on Pish lately from either of us, this is for various reasons, not least that we’ve been moved to less blog friendly offices. Here’s a couple of things for you if anyone is still checking.

The legendary Cookie Monster is now being taught that cookies are ‘a sometimes food’ and that vegetables are good for him.

And have a look who the Washington Post are touting as an outsider to be the new Pope.

I’ll try to come back later with some more.

One Big Laugh

Last night I did at spot at One Big Laugh. I imagine that you haven’t heard of it, so allow me to enlighten you. It was a benefit for Depression Alliance, a world record breaking attempt at a 36 hour gig.

I arrived at about 6.30pm when the gig had been running, non-stop for 18 and a half hours. I stormed it, helped by the fact that the guy on before me had died so helplessly on his arse. The best gig I've done for ages. One of the times when I actually enjoyed being onstage.

I don’t usually hang around with fellow comedians but I really enjoyed it last night. I met a guy I knew when I lived in Edinburgh who has since become a stand-up and I journeyed home with a carload of comics.

Out of the two dozen or so comics I saw the highlight for me had to be Southside Johnny. A guy who looked like a small time Mafioso who spoke calmly about how nervous he was for his first 2 minutes, “I feel like walking straight out that door. I am not kidding.” Did a Buddy Holly song for his next 3, while the room fell about, not knowing if we should be laughing or not. Every time Southside said “Why is everyone laughing? This is true.” the room fell about even more. I lost it when he attempted to explain the aliases he has used “Southside Johnny, East End Johnny…” he got no further, “Why are you all laughing? This is true.” He rounded off by singing a Julios Iglesias song then fell to his knees pleading for more stage time. Classic.

Although I really wasn't looking forward to doing it, it ended up being a great night.

The show finished at 12pm this afternoon, setting a new world record for a continuous comedy show.

It's now made the news.

And talking of comedy I’m currently listening to David Cross – It’s Not Funny. It so is. Some very good political stuff on it.