Category: Blog Post
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Who would like to see me in the summer…
Hi. This is an odd blog post. Essentially I have a week, 16th – 23rd August where I have a week off and no plans (Louise is away on holiday with her parents). SO I had a couple of options. The first was go travelling for a week, but that seemed like it might be…
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Mediocre
I’ve had this thought in my head for a while now so I thought I’d share, not least because I’ve just finished The Bridge and there’s nothing left to watch, ever again, seriously, it’s that good. Those who know me will know I have a few crazy mental problems (non-serious). My obsession with sticking to the…
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Gig Report – Liverpool Lantern Theatre
So today was the big day, the first work-in-progress performance of the show I’ve been working on for the last 4 months at the lovely Lantern Theatre. I was feeling pretty nervous about it in the preceding week. Firstly the show was only really finished on Friday and I was aware that the ending and…
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Distractions, youtube that I like and cheese
So, a late night update as I can’t sleep as it’s so hot (“OMFG it’s so WTF crazy hot, ROFL” as the kids would say, or text). Been working on my show for three hours tonight, first half is okay but too long and the second half is ropy to say the least, it now…
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The “oh shit” moment
I think with every artform, but perhaps particularly performance, there comes a moment, a second where the idea of being on stage, in front of people, doing a thing, moves from being a concept, a vague thing in a misty future to something increasingly concrete and real. It’s that moment where you think, “oh shit,…
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The Art Of Being Liked
****BEWARE: this blog is (vaguely) about arts marketing **** Two things happened today which both pushed me to think about popularity. Firstly I was sat with some members of an unnamed theatre marketing team (not mine) talking about our philosophies on consultancy, arts marketing and running a theatre. Secondly I received an e-mail from our…
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Gig Report: Warrington Albion
I’ve not written about any gigs for a while so I thought it’d be probably worthwhile writing something up, not least to force me to adequately assess my comedy life / life and decide what to do. Also because i genuinely think your lives are probably empty enough to want to read this. Only kidding.…
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Election 2015: All hope is not lost.
It’s been a truly interesting few days – an election where the vote swung from too close to call to a Conservative majority, gained entirely unexpectedly, sending swathes of the country into mourning and others into victorious crowing. We’ve lost giants of UK politics – regardless of where you stand on their political leanings – some will…
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Review: Avengers Age Of Ultron
Oh Joss what have you done. It all started so well this super hero lark, there were films where things happened other than piles upon piles of CGI’d fight scenes, where characters would develop, grow up, learn, adapt and blossom. Do you remember the days, the rose-tinted days of old, when men were men, when…
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10 Things: To Watch On Netflix
I’ve been gradually working my way through Netflix to find the best programmes available. It’s an eclectic mix of comedy, drama and whimsy which I hope you enjoy. Safety Not Guaranteed We live in an inherently cynical world. Magic, fairies, time travel, crazy ideas and perhaps even surprised wonder seem increasingly suppressed. This beautiful film…
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A Scratch Night
I’ve always had a bit of a weird relationship with theatre I think. When I was first getting into it I wanted, like many, to be an actor, to claim the limelight and let it wrap around me smothering my insecurities. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work like that, turned out that I couldn’t learn lines…
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Wanted: Jolt (must be life changing)
I’ve been feeling for a while like I need a change in my life. This isn’t particularly out of the blue, but I think in the last year I’ve changed substantially enough to need a jolt. I read a few interesting things about achievement and tasks recently, the first being that achievement is not limited…
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Writing an Edinburgh Show (Part 3 – Grinding to a halt)
It was bound to happen I suppose, that nice free feeling of making something becoming replaced with a deep black hole of nothingness. So yeah, I’ve hit a wall. It’s weirdly though not the Edinburgh show writing that’s the problem (the stopping of writing is a side effect), rather, life outside that little collapsing bubble.…
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Writing an Edinburgh Show (Part 2)
So I’ve started writing my Edinburgh show and it’s slow progress so far. Essentially the idea is that i’m going to tell two stories, one about a fictional couple who exist only in the written book world and another which is mine. They start quite separate and then start to cross over, become interdependent until,…
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Writing an Edinburgh Show (Part 1)
I’ve been noticeably unproductive over the past 7 months, I think since I finished working on Gaffer and the uncertainty about my directing career and what to do next, so at Christmas I realised that I needed to jump back on the metaphorical horse. There’s a few play’s I’d love to direct but finances and finding…
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Gossip Girl: A Completely Objective Review
I’ve come under a bit of criticism in our household recently for my alleged addiction to “that game”. The game in question is, of course, Football Manager 15, which, arguably is less a game and more a life calling or perhaps religion. I have to admit I was getting quite irritated by the previous version…
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Democracy: Vote Sam Freeman
I recently started writing a play about party politics – it was loosely based around a man going from idealized outsider to the leader who compromises his morals – a little like A Small Family Business but with more multi-roles, smaller cast and a darker more sinister ending. Starting the writing (and that’s as far as I…
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Resolutions 2015
I could never quite make my mind up if resolutions are a brilliant idea or a terrible idea. On the one hand they can motivate behaviour, change and achievement, but then at the same time they can also be monumentally depressing when, at 2am on Jan 1st you find you’ve already broken four of your…