Category Archives: Blog

Comedy Venues

Posted by yetanotherdave on

My favourite Bristol comedy promoter is the Comedy Box. They put on shows at the Hen and Chicken and the Tobacco Factory. Neither of them are a dedicated comedy venue, one is a pub, the other is a general purpose theatre, but it’s great to have something that regularly has more alternative comedy on, unlike the “proper comedy club’Jongleurs on the other side of the city.

Paradoxically the ‘alternative’venue has more popular acts than the ‘mainstream’venue. A quick glance at the Comedy Box’s website shows Milton Jones, Robin Ince, Arthur Smith, Richard Herring, Russell Kane and Craig Campbell. Jongeleurs do 4 acts a night, two nights a week, (although both nights in a week are often the same acts both nights), and I have to go through to June to find one I recognise (Gary Delaney) then one more, Michael Legge in July, and that’s it until their calendar stops in September. Looking through I see a lot of faces repeated a lot of times.
Jesters, at The Metropolis has a similar operation going on. Several comedians a night, many repeats, a light sprinkling of names I recognise on the calendar.

So, which is best. Stack them high and get them drunk is the way Jongeleurs and Jesters seem to have gone. The model seems to be much more aimed at getting people in the door and hope they spend at the bar. Cheap entrance and 4 short sets. Yes, they put on a show, but everyone’s at a table and the bar is just there. It almost doesn’t matter who is on stage.
The Comedy box seems to go for the flip side. £10-£15 to go, but it’s all about the show. There is a bar, but it’s not a focus. In the Tobacco Factory the bar is in a separate room from the show, the Hen and Chicken there is a small bar, which gets shuttered while the show is on. And they shut off the lights, much like a theatre would.

One seems to be for people who want a specific act, the other is a night out, lets see some comedy, who cares whose performing. I might get to see more acts and more new acts at Jesters/Jongeleurs, but I feel these venues are treating the acts like they are not so important. The punters will come, your act isn’t so important. I’m in two minds, it gives these acts some exposure, and more importantly, employment, but is it how I want to go and see comedy? For me, no. The popularity of these two venues says I’m wrong, but I know I’ve only liked 1 of the 10 acts I’ve seen at one of those clubs, compared to all the acts I’ve seen at the Comedy Box.

To put it another way, “Do you want to come and see a band?” “Whose playing?” “Does it matter?”.

Andrew Lawrence – Too Ugly For Television gig

Posted by yetanotherdave on

Not this one. This one.

A bit of a last minute gig, I bought the ticket about a week before hand, but he almost filled the Hen and Chicken, my local alternative comedy venue, which gets much bigger names than Jongleurs ever gets. Good.

Andrew Lawrence is probably on the verge of big things. He recently had a short Radio 4 show (“What to do if you’re not like everyone else”), and was the only act worth seeing on the recent Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. He has a fast pace and a vicious edge, despite that there’s a like ability about him that comes from his more self deprecating material.

At the moment I think the only thing holding him back might be a lack of new material. Despite only having seen him do brief 5 minute sets before, I felt like I already knew most of the routine’s. He’s gigging heavily at the moment, I’m sure when he gets a break, he’ll come back with new fresh material.

He said he was recording the show I was at, and that he would make it available as a free download on his website. I have no idea of a timeframe for this, as the gig was last week. If it does indeed see the light of day, it’ll be available at andrewlawrencecomedy.co.uk.

Here’s a 5 minute comedy store set, enjoy.

Inca Temples

Posted by yetanotherdave on

Some people say you should write for your audience. Apparently my audience likes Inca Temples. I must be on the babillionth google page if you search for Inca Temples, so my audience must also be obsessive and a bit stalkery.
My search engine referrals stats can’t be lying though. Five times more people arrive at my blog searching for Inca Temples than anything else. 20 times more than searching for Stewart Lee, and I post about him much more than anything else, as this seems to be predominately a comedy blog and he is my favourite comedian.

I have never blogged about Inca Temples. I have once tagged a picture “Inca Temple” and posted it with a collection of tilt shift photography (tilt shift photography incidentally, is the second highest search term referrer, and five times more popular than Mr Lee).
The post you all seem to be after is here and the picture is here. It’s not even my picture! Just one I linked to on flickr!

National Geographic recently printed an article about Inca Temples, which I read and found interesting at the time, but can’t remember a word of. Instead, here is a collection of made up facts about Inca Temples. Some of them may be true, but only by chance.

1) Adjusting for inflation, and Inca Temple is worth the same as an Islington 3 bed semi detatched.
2) Tom Jones played his first international gig at an Inca Temple benefit.
3) Inca Temples were originally built to house the enormous collections of CCTV footage the Inca’s were collating of their people’s daily lives. Apparently the Mayans thought it would be funny to tell the Inca’s CCTV would be invented 4000 years early.
4) This prank by the Mayans lead to the collapse of the Inca civilisation, as it’s people took to twitter angrily, then revolted when they realised the internet hadn’t been invented yet either.
5) To this day, Inca Temples are still referred to as “Fail Whale’s” in certain parts of South America.
6) The design of Inca Temple’s was inspired by the scene in Rocky where he runs up the steps.
7) 0% of Inca Temple’s own a passport.
8) To the best of my knowledge Stewart Lee has never visited an Inca Temple.

The worst standup I have ever seen.

Posted by yetanotherdave on

The worst stand up I’ve ever seen was the support for one of the best gigs I’ve seen recently. Pete Cain was supporting Jim Jefferies in Bristol. The contrast between the two was incredible, and it’s a testament to Jim’s performance that Pete didn’t leave a sour taste on the whole night.

Before I go further, I’ve read around this, and thought about posting it a lot. From what I’ve read, Pete Cain’s performance that night was in no way representative of his usual act. I think it was a very bad night for him. But I think it stands out as a perfect “when not to do it” example, and a reminder that you can’t “just wing it” and that if people have bothered to go out to a show, you should do your best to make their evening the best you can.

I was not aware that there was going to be a support act until Pete Cain walked out on stage. There was no mention on the ticket, on the booking, or in anything I’d seen about it. But, out he walked, and I’m getting two shows for one.
He came out and opened with “You know those days when you really can’t be bothered going to work, well this is one of those days for me, so we’re all going to have to get through this together. How long was that? 2 minutes? No? Just one? Shit.”

The crowd reaction was one where no one was sure where he was going. Is this his bit? Is he going somewhere with this? Or is he, as he says, hung over and can’t be bothered.
Turns out, he’s hung over and can’t be bothered. After explaining this, he says he’s going to try and get through the next 28 minutes without doing any jokes. After a couple more minutes he asks for another time check.
For another next twenty two minutes, he constantly asks the crowd how long he’s got left to go, tells us he’s still not going to do any jokes, and at one point, gets his iPhone out, reads out some half formed ideas from the notepad app, and then phones his friend to tell him how badly it’s going. Some of the crowd is laughing. It’s that nervous tense, “is this really happening” type of laugh.

In the last five minutes he does a half hearted attempt at a routine. It’s got potential, but in no way can it make up for the previous twenty five minutes.

We’re all there to see Jim Jefferies. We’re there to see comedy. This act was neither. It was insulting, irritating, and a waste of everybody’s time. I suspect the only reason he was on stage was so he got paid. As a performer you have an obligation to your audience to deliver a performance. You have a set, probably memorised. Even a half hearted attempt at delivering it is better than a refusal to bother. It was no surprise to him that he was due on stage. And three hundred people haven’t paid to see you do this.

Again, for a sense of fairness, he’s supporting Jim Jerreries, who is known for performing at his best while drunk. With Jim, often the drunker the funnier. And if you’re out drinking with someone like that, it’s probably hard not to get carried away. But you know this, and it’s mid tour.

One of two things is happening. Either this IS his act, in which case, it’s going horribly, and is certainly not a 30 minute piece. OR it’s not his act, in which case, WTF is he playing at?

The lesson, it would seem, is sometimes it’s better to not bother, rather than annoy the crowd. Especially if they’re not even expecting you in the first place. We would never have known any difference is Jim had come out on stage and he’d stayed backstage with a sore head.

As I said, I don’t think that night was representative of him. Here’s a much better set at the Comedy Store. I hope to get a chance to see him again, to see the difference between an off day and an on day.

It’s the petty things

Posted by yetanotherdave on

I used to work in food service, a couple of takeaway’s and a cinema concession stand.
It’s where you go if you really want to learn to properly despise all of humanity. It makes you petty, it forces you to be petty, as you have petty thrust upon you daily. If you are lucky and have never been subjected to the daily humiliation and deprivation that is food service, a place where every tiny mistake is called out, every perceived slight or attitude is worthy of being called into the office. You have a different boss every minute and none of them have any regard for immediately before or after their interaction with you, but you must comply fully with them, however stupid they may be (and a lot of them are at the very least, wilfully ignorant), or face the wrath of the actual boss.
It’s not hard to see where the attitude comes from, where the pettiness originates. I thought it might be “chicken or egg”, “attitude or degrading job”, but, turns out, it’s the job. The stupid pointless job. It’s just popcorn, it’s not important, you are going to see a film, graze for a bit, get bored and throw it at the person sitting in front of you, then I have to go clean it up after you.
Ok, I’m not a people person. I’m so not a people person that on at least one occasion, a customer told me I wasn’t a people person, and asked me why I was working there. Seriously? Why does anyone work there? It’s not for self fulfilment, it’s for money, and not much of it.
And this, this is why I hate this man.
1
I warn you now, it’s petty. Really petty. I am clearly scarred from the job, but it’s been years since I worked in service, and over a year since this was on, and this man still makes me angry. This man, and the hundreds or so of him that you deal with daily, have the potential to really ruin your day.
As this advert was on TV over a year ago (I warned you, it lingers, in my heart and in my drafts folder) it’ll probably help to watch the advert again.

Stupid haircut aside, this man has that slightly passive agressive attitude that is instantly infuriating. The scene, he’s in a sandwich shop. He’s ordering a sandwich. It’s clearly the girls first day as she is cheery and helpful.
3
She then clearly offends him. She offers him jalepenos on his sandwich. Jalepenos, can you believe the gall of this?
This man clearly can’t. Because his reaction, is subtle, but instantly annoying. He crumples up his face, puts on a look of disgust, and yes, disappointment. “errrr, no”.

I told you it was petty.

But it’s the condescention in his voice, the fact that he can’t believe that she doesn’t know he doesn’t like jalepenos. How does she not know that as a child he once mistook a jalepeneo for a green bean and bit into it, in all his innocence and wide eyed youth. He bit into a jalepeneo and from that moment was scarred for life. “Mum mum” he cries “my mouth is on fire, it hurts!”. And his mum, who never paid proper attention in chemistry gave him some water, which, as we all know is pH 7, or neutral. If she had listened in chemistry when she was 14, instead of writing Bob Dylan lyrics on her copybook, she would have given the child some milk instead, which has a high pH and would have helped balance the low pH of the acidic jelepeneo pepper. So his mouth continued to burn and he continued to cry, and even his favourite teddy bear couldn’t make it better, and how could this young girl working in his favourite sandwich shop not know this most pertinent of facts about him. You do not offer him jalepenos.

It’s such a slap in the face to him, he can’t even hide his contempt. He can’t just say “no thanks” like a normal civilised human. He has to pull faces and be a dick about it. If someone came up to him and asked him how his sandwhich was he would say that “the experience was ruined by jalepeneo-gate” because he is the sort of bastard that appends “gate” onto any sort of incident

Look at his face, pure contempt.
4

I’m really glad he gets accosted by a green pepper.
2

The Chinese have got it right. You order by giving a list of numbers. End of story. No fuss, no misunderstanding. It’s a good system, maybe we should try it more.

This blog has not been bought to you by Subway, although they are rather tasty.
5

Comedy review of 2010

Posted by yetanotherdave on

This is not an exhaustive review of the year, just what I have personally seen, read or listened to. And it’s only stand-up comedians, and only things released in 2010.
Side note. Why are all the “mainstream” releases on DVD only? I get it for someone like Lee Evans, who doesn’t have jokes, just body motion propelled sweat, and is therefore mostly visual, but for most stand-ups, an audio CD is good, and for me, preferable. I’m just saying I’d like the choice.

CD’s

Myq Kaplan – Vegan Mindmeld.
Almost winner of some TV standup comedy talent show in America, Myq like words, and puns. This should irritate me, but he’s very clever with it, and instead of being annoying, he gets me everytime. When I say puns, don’t think Tim Vine or relentless one liners, like Jimmy Carr, but a well crafter set that inserts word play whenever possible. Check out his album on iTunes. or go to his website myqkaplan.com/

John F O Donnell – Live from outer space part 3.
John is a standup working in New York. He’s got a manic fast paced style, and his craziness always gets a laugh. He’s currently putting out this album for free. All you have to do is email him (details on his website intothewildcomedy.com/ ) and he’ll email you the mp3. Send him some cash and he’ll send you part 1 and 2. He’s definitely one to watch out for and for free, you can’t really go wrong.

Keith Malley – Can you imagine
One half of the excellent podcast, Keith and the Girl (katg.com) every year Keith put out a CD/DVD of new standup material. Performed once, recorded on the first performance, never repeated. As a result, the performance can be a little rough, bits that would change over time as comedians judge the crowds reaction and change things from show to show are there. But the result, is great. Each of the seven albums is loosely based around a theme and are full of thought provoking rants. Keith’s world view can be jarring, it’s hard to argue with his logic though. A great example is his “Don’t Vote” track.
Much as I like Keith’s standup, I’m not entirely sure it would hold its own if it wasn’t for “knowing” him through his podcast. Maybe he gets away with things that others couldn’t and makes assumptions about his audiences knowledge of him and his style. Maybe. Check out a free 15 minute sample here http://vimeo.com/8169551

Now, onto the more mainstream DVD releases

DVD’s

Simon Amstell – Do Nothing live
Simon’s first outing into standup comedy, and a successful one, as he turns his legendary attacking wit inwards on himself. If you like him in Buzzcocks this should be a no brainer. For some reason it was quickly discounted, and can be had for around £6.

Ricky Gervais – Science
Ricky Gervais at his, well, not his finest. I think he liked the idea of a science based theme, but didn’t have the material for it. And as someone who has followed his various podcasts, lifting a piece, verbatim, from Karl Pilkington and passing it as his own, is unforgivable. For me this ruined the set, which I don’t believe was as strong as his previous three DVD’s. Still good by most people’s standards, but the lack of focus on a clearly defined theme and lifting bits from Karl (even if Karl gave him permission, it’s so obvious so his podcast listeners that it doesn’t matter from an audience point of view if it’s done with permission) makes this not his best work.

Dave Gorman – Live
Dave Gorman is the king of powerpoint. This DVD is only available through his website, davegormanstore.com. Dave is a great story teller, and makes maths interesting and funny, all harnessing the incredible power of powerpoint. It has a similar feel to his googlewhack adventure DVD, and I think is better than it.

Richard Herring – Hitler Moustache
Richard Herring is a really hard worker. He just wants to be on the telly! I can’t think of a comedian who puts himself out there and gives away more free stuff than Richard Herring. But despite his Fist Of Fun days almost 15 years ago, has never really made it really big. It’s a shame, as his sets are always well thought out, full of good jokes, have a strong theme, a good concept and ambition. I think his delivery lets him down. I find that he’s not confident enough about his material to really own it, instead he’s asking the audience to join him, rather than telling them and assuming the authority. I think if he was a bit more assured with his delivery the audience would be right there with him. As it is, he’s a prolific comedian who just doesn’t have the extra edge.
Despite this, I really like his stuff and will be seeing him for the third time in as many years in March. As well as listening to his 6music show with Andrew Collins and the pairs independent podcast.
This years DVD offering is his Hitler Moustache project. He grew a toothbrush moustache to see if he could reclaim it for comedy and Charlie Chaplin from Hitler. The show explores the difficulties of living with this facial hair and explains through logic how the BNP are less racist than liberal Guardian reading types!

Stewart Lee – if you prefer a milder comedian please ask for one.
Stewart Lee if my all time favourite comedian. He absolutely gets how an audience works, comic timing, what is funny as well as why. Every show he does he makes deliberately hard for himself, and then delivers on it. In this DVD he explains his battle with Care Nero, how he would have liked Richard the Hamster (not a real hamster) Hammond to have been decapitated in that crash, and the importance of context within comedy. My personal DVD of the year.

Sean Lock – Lockepedia
Sean Lock is a happy curmudgeon. An odd combination. The DVD is funny, but nothing that will stay with you.

Dara O Briain – This is the Show (TITS)
I like Dara’s combination of crowd work and his set pieces are always clever and funny. His review of the film 2012 is definitely worth seeing. If you like him on mock the week, you’ll like this.

Kevin Bridges – The Story so far
I’m afraid Kevin Bridges is one of a group of comedians who are very forgettable, content wise. I know I’ve watched it, I know I laughed. Can’t remember any of what he said though.

American – The Bill Hicks Story
Not a standup DVD, but a biographical documentary. Superbly done, with the little footage and pictures they had, mixed with interviews with friends and families, this documentary will bring you closer to one of the greatest comics of all time than ever before.

Frankie Boyle – If I could reach out through the tv and strangle you I would
If you’ve read about or seen the fuss over Tramadol Nights, you will be very familiar with this. The standup parts are identical, and just as lacking in context, focus, or actual comedy. This is horrible. A real case of punching down. Frankie always used to complain that the BBC censored him, and didn’t allow him to do the hard hitting political stuff. Where is that hard hitting political stuff now? Is it hiding behind the Susan Boyle is ugly jokes? Or is it next to the jokes about Katie Price’s disabled child? Fuck you Frankie, you’ve put me on Katie Price’s side of an argument.

Bill Bailey – Dandelion Mind
Bill has lost it. What he had before was really memorable songs and stand out musical ditties. In theory it’s all still there, but it doesn’t have the edge of Bewilderness.

Lee Mack – Going out live
Lee Mack has a very solid set, and he gets a lot of jokes out. It’s a lot of wordplay, not quite puns, but not story telling jokes. Somewhere in-between. I’ve also been watching quite a bit of Not Going Out this year, which is very similar, as it should be as he wrote it!

Jim Jefferies – Alcoholocaust
The man is a drunken genius. But the DVD wasn’t as good as he was in person live. Maybe it’s because his set wasn’t the same, and he repeated a major routine as part of it. I think possibly he was told he couldn’t do the set as is for commercial DVD release so substituted one of his most famous bits in. Either way, one of my comedians of the year.

Gigs

Marc Maron
Marc is an American comic who most of the British readers wont have heard of. This is a shame as he’s one of the most intimate, open and honest comics I’ve seen in a long time. He manages to connect with the audience with tales of his life, insecurities, and thoughts. He’s an experienced comic and it shows in his ability to casually own the stage. He has a podcast (free) which is one of the best going. Each episode he interviews a different comic and as on stage, it gets way beyond most interviews, and you really feel like you’ve had a heart to heart with the interviewee. In the past he’s interviewed some of my favourites, Stewart Lee, Doug Stanhope, Jim Jefferies, some big names, like Robin Williams, some controversial, like Carlos Mencia, and a lot you may not have heard of, but will want to look up after his interview.

Stewart Lee.
I was If you want a milder comedian this year and it’s very close to being my favourite gig of the year. I think he possibly ties with Jim Jeffereies. The delivery was as flawless as his DVD’s, he doesn’t let up just because it’s a smaller venue. What really stood out was how grateful he seemed afterwards while signing DVD’s. His on stage arrogance was replaced by someone who is genuinely pleased that you’ve come and enjoyed his act. This is why he’s the best.
I had tickets to see his Vegetable Stew gig in Cardiff, but this was postponed to later this year for personal reasons. I”m really looking forward to it. He’s still touring the show, you should definitely see if you can get a ticket.

Richard Herring (Hitler moustache)
Again, not much different from the DVD, which shows a consistency in the material and delivery, this is a comic you should not miss live if you get the chance, and, as a good comic does, he is touring again. This time rebooting his Christ on a Bike tour.

Jim Jefferies
As I said above, this was a fantastic gig. Jim was on top form and the crowd really let him lead the way. He’s a very forthright comic. He doesn’t hold back at all, and his stories about the two girls at the Canadian comedy festival and the one about his porn star ex were face achingly funny. Also until you’ve seen a man attempt to sell a “Cunt” mug to an audience, well, you just haven’t lived

Tim Minchin
 I think I”m the only person in the world who doesn’t find Tim Minchin funny. Certainly the only person on twitter. Don’t get me wrong, he comes across as a really nice person, I just don’t get his act. I usually find that musical comedy is trying to mask the fact that the set is devoid of any actual jokes, and the audience is tricked into thinking its clever because it rhymes. It works for some people. I did like the Ginger song, and the pope song.
Anyway, I saw Tim Minchin at Camp Betival. I really tried to go with an open mind, and to be honest, he didn’t manage to change my mind. He got to the last song, the Ginger song, and he lost it, the words just went from his head, and his crowd work at this point was the first bit to raise a laugh from me, not because he was failing at the song, but because he was being funny.
Doodling along on the piano he tried to remember how the song went, and was obviously not going to get anywhere, when out of no where, a man in the audience starts playing along on his trumpet(!) that he just happened to have with him. Trumpet man played a phrase of the song, Tim Minchin played a phrase back. After a minute it became obvious the trumpet player could play, and Tim beckoned him on stage. What followed was about 5-10 minutes of improved piano vs trumpet battle. It was one of the most memorable and astonishing moments I’ve seen at a comedy gig, and that is why you should go to live gigs.  

Books

Keith Malley – The Great American novel
Keith writes how he talks. This is both a good and bad thing. A good thing, because when you hear him talk, there’s a tone to it that tells you where he’s coming from, and a bad thing, because it may mean you need to have heard his podcast or standup to get the book. However as the book is only available through Keith’s website at katg.com/store, it’s not likely you’ll read it without knowing who Keith is.

Sarah Silverman – The Bedwetter: stories of courage, redemption and pee
A brave an frank book. Bedwetting is one of the least embarrassing of the stories Sarah tells in this book, with one or two genuinely fist in mouth moments.

Dara O’Briain – Tickling the english
A tour diary, Dara’s banter comes across well in the book. You wont get more out of it than watching one of his DVD’s, but it’s a pleasant read.

Stewart Lee – How I avoided my certain fate
I’ve previously reviewed this here In short, read it, read it now, any comedy fans who haven’t read this are wasting their time.

Richard Herring – How not to grow up
Richard tells the story of his 40th year. This is where it becomes apparent that his comedy lacks delivery, because the hesitance doesn’t come across in the book, and it’s an entertaining read. I believe it’s loosely based on his “Oh fuck I’m 40″ tour, which I haven’t yet seen.

Coming up in 2011

Stewart Lee Comedy Vehicle and Vegetable Stew.
Stewart got a second series of his brilliant “Comedy Vehicle” which is due to start recording this month.Watch out for it on TV. A DVD of his latest tour is likely to follow shortly afterwards.

Marc Maron has just recorded a new CD, I don’t know when it’ll be out, hopefully this year. For now, “Final Engagement” and his podcasts are excellent listens. marcmaron.com

Jesse Joyce is another New York based comedian. His debut CD, Joyce to the world was a brilliant CD and I’m looking forward to his second. It’s due out on the 18th of Janurary and you can pre-order here.

Marcus Brigstocke – Godcollar book (gig review). The tour happened in 2009, and Marcus says there wont be a DVD, however he’s working on a book based on the act. The gig was amazing, and I have high expectations for the book. Macus’s twitter indicates he’s currently working on the book, so it may be 2012 before it’s released, depending on what stage he’s at!

So, that was my comedy 2010. How was yours? Any recomendations?
 

How do you want me?

Posted by yetanotherdave on

This program finished over 12 years ago, the DVD’s been out for 4 years, yes I’m late to this, yes, there will be spoilers,

I rented the two series from LoveFilm after searching Amazon for Dylan Moran. It’s written by Simon Nye (writer, Men Behaving Badly) and stars Dylan Moran (Black Books), I’ll give it a go.
The description I got, from reading the synopsis was “a man from the city moves to the country for his wife Lisa (Charlotte Coleman), and struggles to adapt to the rural lifestyle, while starting a new photography business, failing to win the approval of his in-laws, with hilarious consequences. What I got was much, much darker. Take the League of Gentlemen, mix it with The Wicker Man, and chuck in awkward silences, and you are left with the disturbing story of a man who gives up his lifestyle for the woman he loves, to find himself bullied, humiliated, attacked and beaten down to alcoholism and reckless abandon. He tries constantly to fit in and be liked, but no one finds him funny and they are all pre-disposed to hate him.

Look at the box, what clues are there here to the darkness within, even the font says “gentle mid 90’s whimsical comedy”.
How do you want me DVD cover

The shots are all English country side, it’s always overcast, the scenery, while it should be picturesque, adds a layer of bleakness to the situation, while the incidental harmonica music, always the same, is eerie and foreboding. The writers aren’t afraid to end an episode on a downer, in one, the camera pans away from Ian’s sister in law Helen, standing by her burnt out shop, financially ruined by the business decisions and carelessness of Ian.
Without giving too much away, Ian gets bribed to divorce his wife by Astley (his father in law), is locked in a turkey shed with thousands of angry turkeys, has naked photos of himself and his wife stolen and passed around the town, burns down his sister in laws shop, shoots his father in law, turns to alcohol, has his car put in a tree, gets hazed, almost murdered, and generally humiliated. One of the biggest thorns in his side is the imposing Peter Serafinowicz who plays Ian’s brother in law, Dean. He almost seems to like Ian, but at the same time, he’ll back his father completely and is loyal to his sister. This leads Dean to in private, beat, blackmail and threaten Ian, and uses this to force Ian to join in with him and his mates at the pub, or on the football pitch. It’s a Cable Guy like character, minus the wackiness.

So, did I like it? Well, despite what you may think from what I said above, yes. Yes I did like it. Dylan Moran plays a character that he seemingly based Bernard Black on. Bumbling, prone to drunkenness while being slightly abrasive and dismissive of other people. The script is good and the characters compelling. Despite everything, you can believe that Ian will put up with this for Lisa. The series ended, due to the passing of Charlotte Coleman, but honestly, I don’t think it could have continued anyway. Like the office, the story had run its course. I think the biggest failing of this series is the marketing. It’s sold wrong. Don’t think of it as a sitcom, think comedy drama. I also think it suffered from being ahead of its time. If it had been made 5 years ago instead of 12, it wouldn’t have been much different, but would have done a lot better.

You can buy it here. At the moment it’s under a fiver. Bargain.

Stewart Lee – How I escaped my certain fate

Posted by yetanotherdave on

If you’ve never seen Stewart Lee perform standup, what are you doing reading this? He is quite simply the greatest comedian working today. Come back when you’ve spent hallf the day following the link below and the subsequent links it will give you.

Part of what makes Stewart Lee such a good comedian is his ability to take a point and thread it through 90 minutes of material, a lot of it needs to be viewed in context of the whole piece. This makes it hard to show clips of him and is possibly the reason that he is not more successful, in our current culture of talking heads, panelists and “duck house” jokes. This is partially solved by his BBC show, Comedy Vehicle, 6 half hour sets, which is not only the smartest comedy the BBC has commissioned in a long time, but has also been commissioned for a second series.

Amazon.co.uk – Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle

A quick look at what’s available could lead you to think that Stewart has only been around for 10 years or so. Even looking at his home page you see his DVD’s from 2001 onwards. The truth is he has been around for about 25 years, doing Edinburgh shows, small tours, and most famously, working with Richard Herring (also excellent, and also touring/putting out DVD’s) on TV shows including Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard not Judy. Stewart helpfully provides download for these otherwise unavailable shows on his site here.

To the book:

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I pre-ordered this book. I guessed it was an autobiography from the title, and I was half right. What I got was not what I expected, but as is so often the case, infinitely better than what I was expecting. What Stewart has done is take the story of his life while he was being sued for blasphemy after “Jerry Springer: The Opera”, and how this bought him back to comedy and how he came to perform the three (to date) DVD’s he has and dissect them, until they are laid bare before you. These bits sit between full transcripts of the three DVD’s.

Now, Stewart Lee is known for not being afraid to throw a joke and then laboriously dissect what was wrong with the joke and why it isn’t funny. This is where he gets his laughs and it is brilliant to see.
When I started the book and realised what he was doing, the thought of someone dissecting and explaining his dissection and explanation of jokes was a bit off putting. I needn’t have worried. What we have here, is not only a story of how a failing career re-started itself and came to what it is today, but a deep insight to the thought processes and reasons for what he has done. The transcripts of the DVD’s (as well as the narrative parts of the book) are heavily annotated (I think there are more footnotes than actual transcript) and this is where the real insight is. He will tell you where he gets an idea from, why he’s phrased something very precisely, when and why he has lied or exaggerated, and loads of backstories and anecdotes.

For someone like me, the book is like a handbook, how to do comedy. From what I have seen on twitter and elsewhere on the internet, it would seem that most comedians in the country are poring over this book and loving it. It’s also very funny, adding another layer of funny over three already brilliantly funny DVD’s. It’s a bit like a directors commentary on the DVD, but as it’s written there is space to really deeply get into the subject.

You can buy the book here.

Stewart is currently touring, info and dates here.

Pre-order Stewart’s new DVD – find out the real story about the Richard Hammond controversy

StewartLee.co.uk

Listen to an interview with Stewart, by one of my favourite American comedians, Marc Maron

GoFasterStripe.com – buy Stewart Lee’s and Richard Herring’s (and others) DVD’s

A Perfect Fool Stewart Lee’s first novel, if you liked American Gods by Neil Gaiman, you’ll probably like this.

No sex and no city.

Posted by yetanotherdave on

There will be spoilers. If you can call giving away Sex and the City 2, “spoiling” it.

Downfall was an extraordinary piece of film, a gripping acting performance portraying a man on the brink of insanity. A man who despite his situation couldn’t accept it, so ate cake and directed imaginary squadrons of troops against attacking armies to the west and east. Part of the films hook is the way we are watching in horror as this monster of a man lives out the final days of his dictatorship and life as those around him watched in horror, seemingly unable or unwilling to intervene.

In many ways, Kim Cattrall’s Samantha in Sex and the City 2 has a similar descent into lunacy, culminating in a vivid scene which is burnt onto my retina, as she stands, legs astride, pumping her fists against the air holding a strip of condoms and half growling, half shrieking “I HAVE SEX” to a crowd of onlooking horrified Muslims. Unfortunately, and I may be wrong here, not being a fan of the series, but I think the audience is supposed to like her. It’s clear her agent doesn’t.

In many ways SATC2 is a truly remarkable film. Remarkable in that there was not one single redeeming character or plot device. The editor should have been shot (2 and a half hours???) and the script writers are similarly culpable for trying to glue together two weak story lines together to make one badly thought out film. What was probably intended as overzealous empowering “the world can’t change me” attitude, fell utterly flat when you take the characters outside of their comfort zone. When the country that your film is set in refuses to allow you to film there on the grounds that it would be offensive to their culture, maybe you should have a good long hard look at the script again. Maybe they would have noticed that relocating the girls only serves to show them up as ignorant facile and self indulgent. When faced with being evicted from the country after narrowly avoiding facing public indecency charges, the girls reaction is to go “ooh, shoes”.

In many ways you can’t blame them this. They all live in a world without consequence, or reality. Their concession to the recession was, apparently, that Carrie couldn’t sell her flat. I can’t sell my flat at the moment. Guess what I’m doing? I’ll give you a clue, the answer isn’t to buy a much more extravagant one in the heart of the city. The rest of the film was dripping in excess, from the swans at the gay wedding, to the suggestion from big that they buy a third apartment for “personal space”.

So many of the characters come close to having redeeming moments, so close but then they blow it.

Big receives a phone call from Carrie, who tells him she kissed her ex. His response was to flatly tell her he’s busy and have to go, leaving her to stew in the guilt she tried to offload onto him. However his follow up to this display of backbone is to buy her a diamond ring. Again, you sometimes feel like you can’t blame her for her lack of sense of consequence.

Miranda is complaining about her boss treating her like shit. And it looked for a moment like she was going to stand her ground, but instead she jacks her job in. Apparently an income isn’t an issue for any of these girls, as she heads off to join her stay at home husband as a new stay at home wife, with a housekeeper. While they may well have savings and be able to do this, the fact that the film was written with showing the effects of the recession in mind, only shows it up as totally lacking in any sense of real life and responsibilities.

Carrie, who has spend 6 series and a film searching for a partner, someone to settle down with spends most of the film trying to destroy this. She finally has her husband who just wants to spend time with her, and all she wants to do is drag him out and then get annoyed when he has a good time. She then decides to see her ex, kisses him, and then tells Big about this, but only so alleviate her guilt. Actually she doesn’t have a redeeming moment does she, a bit like Samantha.

I’m starting to wonder why the others haven’t staged an intervention on Samantha. Her self destructive, abusive and dependant relationship with sex shows all the symptoms of addiction. She doesn’t HAVE SEX, sex rules her. She’s so blinkered to her surroundings and the affects of her actions on others that she gets herself ejected from the hotel and almost set upon by an offended group of Muslims. The reality of her situation is that she is staying in a very religious part of the world which doesn’t tolerate, and even has laws against public displays of affection. This disregard for her surroundings and safety and the safety of the others around her is all the doctors would need to lock her away.

Still, if it wasn’t for her antics, we wouldn’t have been treated to the spectacle of the crew donning niqāb’s and re-enacting Nuns on the run. The world would be a lonelier place if it weren’t for that scene. Maybe.

PS. Yes I know there’s a fourth one. She’s irritating and inconsequential, you may not trust your husband, but poor nanny, all you do is sing her praises, but assume she would be unable to resist an advance from your husband.

PPS. I was asked which film was worse, SATC2 or Moulin Rouge. I am still pondering the answer to this. I am leaning towards SATC2 as at least one person I know likes Moulin Rouge, this is one more than SATC2.

PPPS. I know this film is not for me, I didn’t ask to watch it, and was cajoled into reviewing it. That’s my excuse for the sloppy Godwin right at the start.