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Next Level Sketch with special guests Kate Cheka, John-Luke Roberts and BeHeMoth: how it went
Due to having been in far too many shows recently I am a bit behind with writing up things. So here, a full eleven days after it happened, is my review of Next Level Sketch’s February special, a show that – according my own, already hazy recollection – went very well indeed, everyone had a… Read more
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The Brunswick Open Mic in Brighton is a Very Good Open Mic
i start on a salty note: this open mic isn’t an open mic in the most important of ways. I don’t mean “anyone who turns up on the night gets a slot” – I understand why even open mics would like to operate some form of quality control – it’s also a good way of… Read more
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We’ll need a bigger boat this time
You know you’re in trouble on an English train when they start handing out tiny bottles of water. Such was the case on a rainy Sunday afternoon at York Central. My train home was on time until, two minutes before it was due, it wasn’t. An announcement: “for the attention of passengers on platform 3:… Read more
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Guesting with The Krayzies at Hoopla Improv Mixer Night
I write from a smoky Thameslink train stuck at East Croydon. We are non-moving for one of two reasons: either the ongoing signal failures, or the guy in the back carriage with the massive reefer has set off the internal fire alarms. Or possibly both? [1] I just had a really fun evening at Hoopla… Read more
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The New Muppet Show is Just Okay
The thing with puppets is you can’t kill them. When their human operators shuffle off this mortal coil, the puppet remains – gathering dust for a few years, perhaps, but waiting patiently for another unholy union with a fresh human soul. [1] Kermit the Frog is on his third human handler, and he doesn’t sound… Read more
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Relationships Relationships Relationships (or: people fear he’s writing about improv again)
Saturday was the last of my performances as part of Hoopla’s rolling House Team programme, in which they stick together a bunch of promising improvisers (and, on this occasion, me), try out some new formats, and see what comes of it all. I wasn’t able to make all the sessions, which consisted a couple of… Read more
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Who has the power: architecture, politics, and social hierarchy in 1980s He-Man
Due to insomnia I’ve been rewatching Filmation’s original 1983 He-Man, a cartoon designed (successfully!) to sell the child version of me toys of body-building blue skeletons and ripped, blonde, quasi-barbarian heroes. In terms of plot, dialogue, character development, and animation, He-Man is largely dogshit, with one exception: Skeletor’s relentless commitment to evil is pleasing and… Read more
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Comedy Competitions Were A Mistake
Comedy competitions are silly things to take seriously, but sometimes you see an injustice so egregious it makes you wonder if David Cameron’s meritocracy was a scam after all. Someone more cynical than me would decry the Brighton New Comedy Award as a thinly-veiled marketing campaign for the Jill Edwards stand-up comedy course. At the… Read more
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