I'm knackered, I am. I think that's a pretty standard start to most of my blog entries, not sure - I'm not updating this as much as I should at the moment. Anyway, I engrossed myself in the Cambridge Comedy Festival this weekend - saw 6 shows in 2 days, one of which was mine - but more than on that in a second. Firstly - the Cambridge Comedy Festival is a bloody great thing for the city. Being positioned in early July makes it perfect preview time for Edinburgh Fringe shows - hence why the the calibre of act is pretty high. Also, due to the fact that the shows are previews, the ticket prices are particularly low - yesterday for example you could get to 3 decent quality shows for a tenner. By show 3 yesterday it felt like I was back at the Fringe, only I was about 20 minutes from home. James Sherwood, the third comedy act we saw yesterday, was stupidly good - I saw him last year in Edinburgh and his piano/witty song thing is an appealing prospect, but yesterday his new material was even stronger and he's certainly a rising talent. Today, after our show, we dashed over to the Junction to catch the ever amazing Pappy's, whom, even when trying out their new show which is so new I was told later on it only took them 4 weeks to write, were still fantastic - it's messy, disorganised but performed with such enthusiasm and good nature that you can't not like them. We also saw the much raved about Penny Dreadfuls, whose artistically impressive form of comedy took a little getting used to because it's so damn clever, but now, a couple hours later, I actually think they are fantastic and almost feel guilty for not showing much appreciation at the time.
Anyway - our own show, The Hedgehog Collective. Lots of tension today. Mostly because the dress rehearsal on Wednesday didn't fill us totally with confidence, and because the venue today seemed reluctant to let us in early to rehearse because of a communication error. The first run-through behind closed doors was very concerning, but a second dress rehearsal followed by a spot of lunch seemed to do the trick. We had a lovely audience - loads of them, which was nice. The cast, despite having issues with lines earlier in the day, turned it on and didn't disappoint. On paper it's all good; the laugh-to-audience-member ratio was higher than last year I think, everyone seemed to go away happy. Looking at what Pam Jenner - our director, has to deal with, what with everyone going on holiday at various points of the rehearsal period, it's a miracle she made the show happen and let's be honest about this - everyone has played a part in this show, but Pamela Jenner made it happen. There's nothing to be down about really, although I just had a niggling feeling in my mind watching the show in it's entirety today for the first time that some of it wasn't actually that good. There was lots of lovely ideas and moments in there and enough to make it worthwhile for everyone, but the actual material itself was a bit hit and miss, in retrospect. I accused myself of being cynical, and then realised my co-writer, Alan Morgan, completely agreed with me.
Still, onwards and upwards, even if I wasn't too happy with some of it, this show can be considered a success, if one that I'm happy to put into a box for now. Next week we record the radio sitcom, 'The Modest Adventures Of Patrick And Cameron', which I've had written for months now and can't wait to finally start producing it. A week later I'd very much like to premiere some new material in Cambridge, but should probably get myself a cast or something first before booking a venue.
It's all good really. I've laughed a lot this weekend, as you'd expect/hope to at a comedy festival. They say that laughing is good for you and helps you live longer, I reckon I've gained at least a day somewhere along the line.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment