See How They Run - Review

See How They Run was first performed in 1944, the year before World War 2 ended and has become one of the classic British farces.  Director Juliet Forster (Blue/Orange, Angels & Insects) has brought See How They Run to York for a new run; farce is undergoing something of a revival as a genre in the Theatre apparently.  The play is a tale of confusion, mistaken identity, vicars, soldiers, maids and more.  It is also a very cheeky comedy.

We opened with messages emblazoned across the curtain, flickering like those old newsreels you see in movies, setting the wartime scene nicely.  Once those curtains opened, we were in the Vicarage of small town Merton-cum-Middlewick, a massive set of some complexity.  In essence the set is a living room, but as we were to find out later, many doorways leading off it would come into play.

Retired actress and niece of a bishop Mrs Toop (Faye Winter) is now married to the local vicar, living with small town gossips, shocked by her lively personality, who receives a visit from an old actor friend, now a soldier, and decide to go for a night out.  To tell you much more would rob you of some of the highlights of the show but suffice to say, at one point there are four men dressed as vicars, a parish lady in a cupboard, a Bishop (Matthew Rixon) in his pyjamas and a whole lot of shenanigans.

A very game cast, give it their all in a very physical show, running in and out of doors, up and down stairs, changing outfits and pulling unconscious people around the set.  All this while maintaining composure with some very silly dialogue (in a good way).

My wife and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, and the biggest laughs were pulled out by Lucy Phelps as the cheeky maid Ida, and Philip Mansfield as replacement vicar Humphrey.  The whole cast got big laughs and this productions ensemble is excellent, balanced perfectly between the physicality of the slapstick and the clever wordplay of the script.  Precise timing is required to pull off gags like these, both verbally and physically and they nailed it. The commitment from the actors means this play deserves a big audience, I would happily bring anyone from 8-80 to see it, great fun.

Andy Parsons- Review

Andy Parsons is best known as “the bald guy from Mock The Week“.  He has been a stand up for a long time; I have memories of his duo Parsons & Naylor doing bad karaoke on Channel 5 in the Nineties.

Parsons has a very unique style of comedy. His voice is distinctive and I always think it feels quite condescending, and that is perhaps unfair to him. 
He clearly has fans, and the show was much fuller than I was expecting. To me Parsons has always been the seat filler on Mock The Week, content to chip in occasionally as his panel mates move onto bigger things (Russell Howard, Frankie Boyle). 
This I’ve Got A Shed tour is based around the principle that Parsons is a normal sort of bloke, who gets frustrated at the stupidity of life. Welcome to the club Andy…
Parsons does his own introduction, setting the scene nicely, introducing himself as “a man too cheap to have a support act” which means two sets from Parsons himself. This is fairly unusual in itself, a lot of comedians take a support on tour with them so only have to do one set. Although as someone who has to come up with new material weekly for TV I imagine he has a lot to choose from.
The first half was the stronger. Much of it was material I could have taken my mum to, and judging by the average age of the audience, she would have fitted in well.
Solid but unspectacular, amusing but not hysterical, Parsons’ best routine was a sequence about how annoying it is calling your bank. Earth shattering stuff.
Unfortunately, while it was all enjoyable enough, it felt more like a string of bits from Mock The Week than a properly put together show – although there were a few nice call-back gags to wrap things up.  Unchallenging but entertaining enough.

Fixated?

So, since I last wrote anything here I seem to have started an empire. In addition to recording the podcast with Howard, I seem to be doing another. So I'm now the brainchild behind 'Culturally Fixated'. This is a podcast about TV, movies, comics, music, pretty much anything pop culture based. I'm joined by a new host, DrNeevil who wishes to be known as DrNeevil (not her real name.) We have recorded 6 shows so far, picked up a decent, if small and loyal listenership and the show is a work in progress.
DrNeevil and I didn't know each other before the show, although we do have a mutual aquaintance, or good friend in DrNeevil's case. We were put in touch with each other by the wonderful world that is Twitter. We realised we had a lot of TV shows in common. The rest is pretty much history...

So far we have talked about our favourite American shows, the new season pilots, lots of Psych and whatever else crossed our minds. After a couple of shows we decided to focus the show slightly, in order to make it more accessible to those who don't download US TV. So far we have done two episodes based on children's TV shows from our youth, and one based on UK television shows. There seems to be an awful lot more mileage to be had in both of these subjects, but we will adapt along with what our audience wants to hear.

The Fixated empire has also taken a new twist, given that Howard is being a new dad, I have recorded with two new co-hosts on Aurally Fixated. First up was a listener, which I appreciate was a little odd, but Marc Foster (@dudefozz) came in at the last minute to stand in for Howard, for which we are incredibly grateful. I actually had a really good time recording with him, which could have gone badly wrong. We seemed to click pretty well, and the show was fun. Then I needed a stand in again, so this time DrNeevil stepped up. It was odd recording Aurally Fixated with her, given that the show is usually pretty blokey, and we talk about boobs and such like. I enjoyed that as well, different vibe to it, and I was really conscious that we didn't go off and talk about TV shows, much the same as I was careful not to stray too far into movies with Marc.

It seems we have chemistry all over the Fixated universe.
So, if you don't mind too much, why don't you go listen to our shows? You can get Aurally Fixated from itunes or aurallyfixated.podbean.com and Culturally Fixated from itunes or culturallyfixated.podbean.com.
In the meantime, why not follow any of us on twitter? @stevecult, @aurallyfixated, @CultNeeve, @dudefozz (www.towatchpile.co.uk)

Aurally FIxated till the cows come home...

So I guess it has been a while since I wrote anything here. Firstly, podcast news! Had a busy few weeks with the show (Aurally Fixated), what with having guests and holidays and stuff to do. So we got back from NY and straight into a networking event in Leeds with CultureVultures website. Normally I would have sent Howard or at least made him come with me, he is the one comfortable with public speaking after all. I am distinctly ill at ease in social situations, I just don't like people enough to be nice to them. Especially pretend nice! I met some nice people there though, so that was nice. Almost forgot, we got some business cards made up, which you can see below...


It was, shall we say, a bit wanky! Lots of people full of their own self importance because they write a little blog or write some poems. But then there were some really nice people who we will probably do something with in the future. Picked up a few extra followers which was the whole point of going. Also going to perform/present at an event organised by one of the people I met there, Richard from @bettakultcha. He does this thing where people get 5 minutes to talk about anything they are passionate about, accompanied by 12 slides which change every 15 seconds. We are meeting on Monday to write it, but I think we will be performing our origin story.
We have had 3 sets of guests recently, all of which went really well. Episode 17 featured Peter Marshall and The Lomos, or Spencer and Pete. They do comedy-pop songs and we got on really well with the show coming out very funny. We even sang along, badly I might add.
Last week we were joined by 'friend of the show' Richard Massara, a friend of Howard's from university days. He is a comedian/actor who played a storming set at AF-Live a couple months back. He and Howard get a bit carried away when they get together so while it was a very funny show, it got a bit much for me and there was a good 5 minutes where I didn't speak. Although they were talking about milking my testicles at the time!
This week we had another guest, or rather 3 guests. We were joined by 3/4 of local metal band Drowned In Flames. Both Howard and I know the bass player Arran pretty well from working together and I know the singer Craig a little. We thought it would be a nice change of pace for the show and went really well, we had a really good laugh and all 3 of the guys were chatty and funny. We will probably have them back for part 2 at some point.
Next week will be just Howard and I, we decided the sound quality is better when it is just the 2 of us, and we haven't done one just the two of us for over a month now!
I, personally have a long couple of weeks coming up, starting with going to see Ash on Sunday, very excited!! Then we have The Lomos gig at The Basement, City Screen on Friday, before we trek through to Leeds for BettaKultcha 3.

So, before I go, go buy tickets for The Lomos gig here: www.picturehouses.co.uk/cityscreenyork
And go check out Drowned in Flames here: www.myspace.com/drownedinflamesrock
Oh, and of course not forgetting to visit Rich Massara for details of his Edinburgh show here: www.facebook.com/RjrMassara

The Aftermath...

So yet again it has been ages since I wrote anything here. Sorry, should any of you care...
So, the show was last night, and it went really well! Got a decent crowd, and they laughed at everything, so that is always good! Some last minute additions to the sketches (me and Caroline) didn't slow it down, people laughed, everyone's stand up seemed to go down well. Thinking we can maybe make this a regular thing. Howard wants to make it a showcase for new comedy, headlined by our brand. I'm okay with that...world domination here we come. I realise none of the relevant people are going to read this but I'd like to express my thanks to everyone involved, as well as everyone who came down.
In other news...well, I'm getting itchy feet. Thinking I need me an investor for my T-shirt business. If anyone has £10k lying around and wants to invest it in a solid business then let me know!