Saturday, July 11, 2009

Karaoke Circus at The 100 Club

There are some crappy things about living in London, but we're also often very, very spoiled. I went to the latest Karaoke Circus on Wednesday, which has made a quite significant leap from a tiny room downstairs at the Albany to the legendary 100 Club. After last time's joyous, magical affair, I have to say I was slightly concerned that it couldn't be matched and not only that, but that the show would lose something by moving to a bigger room. But in fact, it was just the same. The atmosphere was just as wonderful, the audience once again more than happy to join in, and performances equally special.

But this time, the band was expanded to a full orchestra, allowing for some pretty ambitious song-choices. Being the Macca fan I am, it was a joy to hear Live and Let Die performed with strings and horns, and Waen Shepherd fronted an astonishing version on Rock and Roll Suicides. The award for bravery, however, simply has to go to an audience member for choosing to go for MacArthur Park ("someone left the cake out in the rain") - though no-one could argue with the judge's decision in terms of the winner. That rare accolade went to Angel who performed Beastie Boys' Sabotage with what can only be described as true chutzpah.

The other celebs and comedians on the bill included (big breath) Bridget Christie channelling Kate Bush with worrying accuracy, the Penny Dreadfuls tearing up Under Pressure (take that as you will), the legend that is Kevin Eldon mashing up One Day Like This and Hey Jude (identical chord progression, it would appear), poet John Hegley displaying one hell of a voice with Sunny Side Of The Street, the wonderful Andrew Collins dropping an octave to perform Tom Waits's Way Down In The Hole, Peep Show's Isy Suttie smiling her way through Piano Man and Miles Jupp bringing it all to a singalong end with Come On Eileen.

Oddest, and simultaneously most brilliant of all, however, was the appearance of Gary Richardson. Gary Richardson! The BBC Sport guy! Singing, of all things, Daydream Believer! Read Mr Collins's great blog post about it if you think I dreamt it. I didn't. It happened. (In fact, read the blog anyway - there are photos too.)

This did feel more like a 'proper gig' than the previous Karaoke Circus, so huge kudos to Martin and Danielle for retaining that wonderful atmosphere - I didn't actually think it possible. If anyone's going to Latitude, the circus will be rolling into town on the Sunday, and then there'll be more comedy karaoke at the Edinburgh Fringe. Neither of which I can make. Dammit...

Friday, July 10, 2009

Torchwood - spoilerific of course!

My proper review is up over on TVScoop, but with my SQUEEILUVNOOWHOOO hat on, the thing I'm most interested in is how Captain Jack as a character can recover from what he's done. I *know* he had to do it to save millions of children but.... you know. Still a bit much, sacrificing your grandson in front of his mother, isn't it?

Where does that leave Jack - the Jack who throws up a "whatever" sign and comes onto anything with a pulse? I *liked* that Jack. Is that Jack gone forever?

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Avenue Q, Gielgud Theatre

I really should have gone to see Avenue Q before now - it was clearly my kinds thing. Thanks to MusicOMH then for getting me tickets to the opening night at the show's new home where as well as the musical, I also saw Eddie Izzard, Julian Rhind-Tutt AKA WHY ISN'T HE THE DOCTOR? and Kimberley from Girls Aloud. All in all a good night...

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Of all the consequences of George Bush leaving office, the fact that the writers of a Broadway puppet-based musical would have to tweak a lyric was probably one of the least earth-shattering.

But that was in fact the case - Avenue Q’s closing ode to ambivalence, compromise and mild optimism For Now contained the line "George Bush is only for now", and replacements including "recession", "your mother-in-law" and even "this show" were all considered.

In the end, though, they opted simply to swap "is" for "was", and why not - it's probably best not to play around too much with a show that is already rather wonderful.

Opening in its new home, the Gielgud Theatre then, very little has changed about Avenue Q. It might seem strange to say of a show where puppets are the stars that it doesn’t have many gimmicks, but in terms of the staging, that is entirely the case, and as such Avenue Q could make most theatres its home.

The look of the puppets instantly brings to mind Sesame Street, but in fact the relationship between the stage show and the TV show goes a lot deeper than that. Sesame Street attempts to help children learn how to grow up emotionally as well as educate and entertain, and that’s just what this musical is about – only transposed twenty years later in a person’s life.

It charts the confusion, fears, and struggle for identity and purpose that young people fresh out of college or university very often feel, and little cartoon films that punctuate it try to help the characters along, just as similar cartoons are created in the TV show to help young children.

It’s not all twenty-something angst, of course, though. This is essentially a fun, funny show that wants you to leave the auditorium as happy as possible, without suggesting that things are going to be happily ever after (but maybe happily "for now".) Irreverent but ultimately rather good-natured songs such as Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist and Schadenfreude go down a storm, and the central love story between Princeton and Kate Monster - both puppets - is genuinely aww-enducing if a little sickly at times.

The real joy of having the puppets operated by people in full view of the audience is that there are always two performances to joy for every character on stage. It really isn’t long before you start watching the puppets rather than their counterparts, but it’s good to sometimes switch your focus back to the men and women in all-black clothing to see how they interpret the movements and emotions of their characters.

In the case of Julie Atherton, that focus is often pulled anyway, as she is such an engaging performer, and imbues Kate and the Lucy The Slut with such wonderful comic timing. She is more than ably supported by the rest of the cast, though – notably Daniel Boys and Mark Goldthorpe, who has a Cookie Monster-style voice down to such a tee that the Jim Henson Workshop would surely be happy to have him on staff.

It might be easy to say that Avenue Q is simply a smutty Sesame Street, and there are certainly elements of that. But in reality, the stage show retains much of the heart of the iconic programme, and is as much a paean to it as a parody. Warm, very sweet and anxious that we all just accept who we are and try to get along, its ideals are not so far removed from those of its main inspiration as it tries to make out.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Junior Ministers, 6 Day Riot and assorted others

There's not a whole lot going on in the mainstream music scene that particularly excites me at the moment, and as a result my non-comedy-gig-attendance has dropped dramatically of late.

It took a Minchin-connection to get me down to Stockwell for a Junior Ministers gig (he is old friends with one half of the duo, H Anthony) but I'm very glad I made the trip south of the river. H and t'other half t'duo - Jim - do Talking Head's-esque tunes that one clever journo described as "arty stuff with squelchy beats and dark oddball narrative." Spot on!

Also on the bill, and a real find, were 6 Day A Riot, a lovely six-piece with a double bass, trumpet, violin, guitar, along with the more usual guitar, drummer and vocalist... with a ukulele. A bit Guillemots, a bit Arcade Fire, and quite a lot Spinto Band, they're a lot of fun, and have a *very* talented lead singer in Tamara Schlesinger.

Canadian comic Pat Burtscher did a great ten minute set too, and Mr Minchin performed 'Perineum Millenium' - a dirty twist on TS Eliot, most of the references in which I'm not well-read enough to get - a long, long list of one-lines, 'Nothing Can Stop Us Now' (the love song with a sting in the tail), and the Notting Hill Billies' gorgeous 'Feel Like Going Home'. Not your usual set, so a delight to see.

Very good night.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Twitter Comedy - the review

Written for MusicOMH.com

While Facebook is great for sharing photos, Myspace now generally based around promoting music and YouTube the go-to website for videos, Twitter is all about words.

It should perhaps come as no surprise, then, that it has become the social network of choice for comedians, and the fact that users have just 140 characters to play with appears more an attraction than a restriction – comics, it seems, are only too happy to prove that brevity is the soul of wit.

On Monday 8 June, as a sort of celebration of this new outlet for their talents, nine of the UK’s most prolific comic Twitterers undertook a little experiment: a comedy gig held on Twitter, which was hosted by Tiernan Douieb and headlined by Mark Watson.

And while it was a certainly chaotic and, at three hours, probably too long, (though when you’re watching the gig in your pyjamas, it matters rather less than usual) I think that Twitter’s inaugural comedy night can be considered a huge success.

The main positive was the line-up. The easy option would have been to stick with comics who specialise in one-liners, a style of comedy tailor made for Twitter, but thankfully the organisers were a lot more adventurous. So, along with acts who could shoot off puns at ten or more a minute (the brilliant Gary Delaney tweeted too often in an hour and had to start up an emergency account to continue his set), we also treated to acts that would, on the face of it, seem completely incongruous: the sketch troupe Pappy’s Fun Club and musical comedian Mitch Benn.

Perhaps the fact that they were forced to be more inventive was a blessing, however, as these two acts were definite highlights. Pappy’s Fun Club get the award for most preparation thanks to their inclusion of photos and additional accounts, but the night, I think, belonged to Mitch Benn.

Benn is an enthusiastic Twitter champion, and so he was even prepared to break his own rule of never setting new lyrics to an existing tune for the good of the cause. We had to guess the song, but if I copy and paste the wonderful lines “I see a little grainy twitpic of a man/SCARAMOUCHE SCARAMOUCHE WILL YOU START A NEW HASHTAG” you will quickly get the idea. And it was a delight. Funny, inventive, and an in-joke aimed at just the right audience, Benn deservedly got many a *cheer* and *standing ovation* from those following the gig.

In the end, the only problems were logistical rather than inherent. Having all the acts tweet from one account rather than their own would make following the gig much simpler, and trying to tell the rebellious Twitter masses not to use the hashtag reserved for the comedians was simply never going to work. But these are issues that can be easily sorted out, and when they are, there will be no reason why Twitter Comedy should not become a regular, and very successful, event.

The line up in full:
Mark Watson - @watsoncomedian
Pappy's Fun Club - @PappysFunClub
Mitch Benn - @MitchBenn
Matt Kirshen - @mattkirshen
Rob Heeney - @robheeney
Carl Donnelly - @carldonnelly
Terry Saunders - @terrysaunders
Gary Delaney - @garydelaney
Host: Tiernan Douieb - @TiernanDouieb

Monday, June 08, 2009

More Comedy Blogging (and Twittering,,,)

1) The BBC have got Adam and Joe blogging, which is something of a joy. Early days, but you can take a look here.

2) There's a comedy gig happening on Twitter at 8pm tonight, hosted by Tiernan Douieb, with the likes of Mark Watson, Mitch Benn and Pappy's Fun Club on board. Ten minutes each, one-liners or stories welcome. Might be just a tad unwieldy (Stephen Fry mentioned it, meaning thousands will be following) but should be a lot of fun nonetheless.

Sister Act

First posted over at MusicOMH.com

Thanks to its feel-good themes, big-hearted lead character, classic Motown soundtrack – and, you suspect rather importantly, a large and enthusiastic existing fanbase - putting the early ‘90s big screen hit Sister Act onto the stage is actually quite a natural progression.

There were, however, always a couple of major issues for the producers to deal with: the role of Deloris Van Cartier is inextricably linked with the Whoopi Goldberg, for one, and with Motown putting together its own musical, using the songs which form the heart of the film was strictly off-limits.

Based on the criteria of overcoming these inherent problems, though, the creators of this new powerhouse musical have done an excellent job. Stepping into the beloved Whoopi’s shoes must be daunting, but Patina Miller - at the age of just 24 - does it admirably.

This is more than a just a case of holding her own; Miller has a wonderfully big, rich voice and imbues her character with just the right mix of sassiness and warmth. You can see why the nuns of the circumlocutorily-named Holy Order of the Little Sisters of Our Mother of Perpetual Faith follow her lead, even against the will of their austere Mother Superior (Sheila Hancock).

And in the case of the soundtrack, who better to entrust with this vital new aspect of the show than Alan Menken. His work with Disney, which includes most of the successes from their rejuvenated period in the 1990s (Beauty and The Beast, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin among others), shows that he can do family-friendly with that added bit of class, and Little Shop of Horrors demonstrates his edgier, darkly comic side. A perfect combination for Sister Act, then, and so it proves.

But only eventually. We are made to wait for Menken’s genius to shine, as the show suffers from a pretty uninspiring first half hour. The musical only lurches into fourth gear, quite suddenly, when lounge-singer Deloris, witness to a murder by her partner, is put into a protection programme in the last place anyone would think to look for her: a convent.

After that shaky start, the pace and the enjoyment quickly pick up – although it has to be said that all of the subsequent fun is provided by the performances, and Menken’s tunes and Glenn Slater’s quick, clever lyrics: the script, despite coming from Cheers writers Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, adds little.

But that matters less and less as time goes on, as Menken and Slater are given more chance to indulge their obvious gift for ironic parody. Moving the action to the 1970s means that we get witty musical allusions to Earth Wind and Fire, Shaft (for the police chases, of course), Gloria Gaynor, Barry White, and – in a bizarre but wonderful nun-rapping moment - Grandmaster Flash.

In fact, aside from the brilliant, anthemic Raise Your Voice, which brings to mind Menken’s exceptional gospel soundtrack to Disney’s Hercules, it is the peripheral tracks that do nothing to move the story forward which are actually the most enjoyable, and which give the show a bit of much-needed edge. Ironically for a musical all about sisterhood, it is the men who tend to get the most interesting songs.

Overall, this musical more than makes up for its dubious opening. The big ensemble numbers do plenty to lift the spirits, and are augmented by some very funny choreography. And while the sentimentality can be a bit much at times - and one would certainly expect more from the book - there is always a welcome touch of sourness and ingenuity added by the songwriters to even things out.

The 'what would your band name be' discussion...

...normally throws up only depressingly awful suggestions (follow journalist/musician Rhodri Marsden's advice and search 'would be a good band name' on Twitter Search for evidence).

But my bro Mr Paul Fuzz has come up with a good'un...

Friday, May 29, 2009

Toy Story 3 Teaser Trailer

*hyperventilates*

Comedy blogging

Just a quick post to bring to your attention three new blogs from comedy types that might be of interest to you...

Lloyd Woolf Says - A daily blog from Coward Lloyd Woolf
TomBasden.com - Lots of videos from fellow Coward and Freeze! er, member Tom Basden
Back Of The Net News - A very funny spoof footy blog from Paul Watson (creator or the Back Of The Net wiki) and his brother non-Coward comedian Mark.

Enjoy.

The Invisible Dot - now with added ltd.

You know that Invisible Dot I've been going on about? Well now it's a limited company. Not, you might think, the most exciting news in the world, but that's not the case in Invisible Dot-land. Here it warrants a delightful, free party at the office - in the sweltering heat - and, of course, a mini-documentary presented by Simon Bird... (this is *brilliant*, by the way)



There was a lovely cake.


Simon Amstell topped the bill.


Tim Key hosted, and said the words "It's so hot, this isn't my hairstyle."


Tom Basden provided some awesome tunes.


And I am in this photo. YAY.


Thanks (and congrats) to Mr Invisible Dot, Simon Pearce. Beautiful piccies by Luke Ngakane.