It's been a while
It's been a while
Just circling back to remind you about some exciting gigs at the end of October
Sorry I haven’t emailed for a while. I was tired. And lazy.
I did a workshop with Scott Capurro last weekend, which was great. His advice to me was that I should lean into the weird sex stuff because that’s unique to me, and drop all the pandering relatable stuff about IT and supermarkets.
When I first started, I was trying to talk about weird sex stuff from the first minute, and that often didn’t go over well. I realised I should start out with less edgy topics to win the audience’s trust. But then, after Edinburgh, I got a try-out spot at a real club, and did all my most relatable stuff, and the audience was bored.
So back to square one, I guess? I think I need to throw away all my material and develop five minutes that is personal and edgy, yet won’t make audiences hate me.
When people said it takes 5 years to get good at stand-up, in the back of my mind I used to think “that’s for the average chump, but I can write a joke, this will take me a year or two tops”. But I was wrong. I don’t know how to do stand-up properly yet.
While I was writing this newsletter, I saw this article: The brain undergoes a great “rewiring” after age 40 - it explains that my brain is rewiring itself to conserve resources as my disgusting old body starts to die, becoming less specialised and more generalised, reducing my ability to reason, form new concepts or do abstract thinking. On the plus side, rote tasks like accessing vocabulary and general knowledge can improve, which is all you really need to do hack crowdwork or improv formats. And inhibitions are lowered. So look forward to me getting even more unfiltered as I get older.
Important dates
Before I list the open mic gigs I have coming up, here are details of some proper shows that have foolishly booked me and which I would really like you to come to:
Tuesday October 25th Trigger Warning, BIRMINGHAM
This is a gameshow format where the acts take suggestions from the audience. It’s a bit like Hate N Live, which I was mediocre at, but I did a test show of this format in September and it went great.
This is in a hundred seater venue and they need to sell tickets for the show to continue. If you’re unfortunate enough to be in Birmingham or have relatives in Birmingham, please come to this. Tell your Brummy relatives how funny I am. God knows they need an evening of levity to distract them from their terrible circumstances.
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trigger-warning-the-stand-up-comedy-gameshow-tickets-425688835767
Actress & Bishop, 36 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham B3 1EH (not London)
Friday October 28th One Man And His Dog, Faversham Fringe, Kent
I’m doing a split bill with Ed Mulvey. I will be dressed as a dog and doing stand-up from the point of view of a dog. I don’t really know why this is happening but it is, so it’s best just to accept it, buy a ticket and move on. Tell your Kent relatives how funny I am, God knows they need etc. We have 50 tickets to sell, and so far we have sold 0.
Tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/ticketshop/iframe/event.php?eventhash=e-yadjjg&target=
The Guildhall, Faversham, Kent, ME13 7AG (not London)
Bonus video
Here’s a video of me doing a bit of stand-up and a bit of improv at the wonderful Sunday Shtick night in Kentish Town, back in August. I do callbacks to some stuff that happened before my set which you won’t understand. Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.
Other gigs
UPDATED VENUE: Tuesday October 4th 7:30pm - Rats Open Mic Comedy
A night dedicated to curating the dregs of the open mic circuit and putting them off doing comedy for good. Recommended. Note that I got the venue wrong in the last email - it is at a sex dungeon in Kings Cross now.
https://link.dice.fm/CPTNw648Otb
Central Station, 37 Wharfdale Rd, Kings Cross N1 9SD
Wednesday October 5th 9pm - Cafe Mode/Covent Garden Comedy Cellar/Comedians Comedy Club, Covent Garden
10 minutes in this venue that has featured comedians like Jack Whitehall. Once. I can’t get you in to this for free, you need to buy a ticket. Why not try the deal where you get a meal and a glass of prosecco as well as the comedy? Contact me privately for the details of why not.
https://coventgardencomedycellar.co.uk/
Downstairs At Cafe Mode, 59 Endell Street, London WC2H 9AJ
Monday October 10th 7:15pm - Tooting Comedy
This is a bringer gig so let me know if you want to come with me, otherwise it won’t happen.
The Selkirk, 60 Selkirk Rd, London SW17 0ES
Monday October 17th 7pm - Lewis Schaffer’s Open Mic
Always an amazing evening, for various reasons. If you are interested in trying stand-up, start here IMO.
The Kings Arms, 65 Newcomen Street, London, SE1 1YT
Tuesday October 18th 7:30pm - We Are Funny Project
Farrs, 17 - 19 Dalston Lane, Dalston, London E8 3DF
Sunday October 30th 6:45pm - Sunday Shtick
This is a ‘dark’ night so I’ll probably be saying some slurs. Apologies in advance. I need a bringer for this too, so come and see me end my ‘career’.
Rose & Crown, 71-73 Torriano Ave, London NW5 2SG
Monday October 31st - Double Bubble Halloween Special
I’ll either be dressed as a Dracula or a dog.
The Victoria, Dalston, 451 Queensbridge Rd, London E8 3AS
Sunday November 27th to Wednesday 30th - ON TOUR OUTSIDE LONDON
Sunday: Hot Water Comedy Club, Liverpool
Monday: The Stand, Edinburgh (10 minutes)
Tuesday: The Stand, Glasgow (10 minutes)
Wednesday: The Stand, Newcastle (10 minutes)
Recommended things
I heard about the cartoon show Smiling Friends because Mike from Red Letter Media did a voice for it, and one of the animators made this incredible Bushworld Adventures Rick and Morty thing. But somehow I failed to watch the actual series, which is great and is available on All 4.
Here is an interesting article about advanced usage of an AI artist where you can get it to draw pretty much exactly what you want. Concept artists and fantasy illustrators are going to be out of work once people realise how good the technology is already. It’s sad, but as someone who’s been waiting months for character portraits for my D&D group from a human artist, I see the upside here.
Am I Being Unreasonable? is a dark, funny sitcom and I have enjoyed the first couple of episodes. Also Inside Number 9 is back and still good.
The videogame Deathloop is excellent and is now on Xbox Game Pass as well as PS5/PC. It’s worth checking out the trailer even if you’re not into videogames. Exciting fact for nerds: Deathloop is secretly set in the same world as the Dishonored series (don’t read that until you’ve finished Deathloop), just 70 years or so further on.
I’m seeing Louis CK live tonight but you won’t be able to get tickets now. I’m just boasting because I’m excited.