I seem to have missed a day. Let’s have a combination blog then to make up for it.
Tuesday started with Just A Minute at 12:15pm and despite us getting there at 11:15am we were still pretty far back in the queue but this was made up by us getting USB flash memory wristband type thing loaded with comedy video clips. Regardless of our queue position though, we still only ended up a few rows back with a decent view of everything.
It was certainly an interesting experience. Essentially it was just like watching the radio, which is what it was I spose. I shan’t say too much about it other than it was exceedingly funny; you can hear for yourself on the 18th. To remind myself as much as anyone, the guests were Rhod Gilbert, Mike McShane and veterans Paul Merton and Clement Freud. Tune in cos you can never be disappointed by Just A Minute.
We found Rhod in the Courtyard afterward and talked to him about it and he told us how difficult it is. At one point in the recording he was running through one of his routines about Llanbobble and obviously he had to make changes because of the no repetition rule but his brain wasn’t quick enough and he fell over his words. He’s a lovely guy though.
Later on Kirsty and Sorrel went to see Frank Woodley, who was apparently brilliant but physical comedy is far from my favourite type. With me it ranks somewhere close to character comedy but hey, that’s only my opinion.
The next show I went to go and see was Andrew Maxwell. Now I’ve seen him before and know him to spin a good yarn with his comedy, which he did that night but there was just something about it that didn’t do it for me and I don’t know what it was. I wanted to really like it but I found it average at best. It also left me thinking why he didn’t dip into past material when he was compering as opposed to telling the funniest parts from his current show.
We then all headed to the Gilded Balloon, where we met Emma and Yvette and we went and saw Axis of Awesome (supported by 3Sum) perform to a handful of people who weren’t us; I think we made up a third of the audience.
They were certainly interesting. I can imagine a lot of comparisons between them and Tripod seeing how they’re both Australian musical comedy trios but somehow they’re different. Axis of Awesome do a lot more parodies but that’s not to say that’s all they did as they had a few original songs too and were very self parodying too.
I guess I’m missing out the fact that I really enjoyed them from this. So much so that I bought the CD after the show, which was taken from me by Benny, the keyboard player, to get signed by the other members. So yes, highly recommended by me, partially cos they need to get their numbers up and partially cos they’re dead good.
An interesting episode of We Need Answers was next, surprisingly. The line-up was meant to be Jim Jefferies and Alun Cochrane but Jefferies had “disappeared” and was replaced by the special guest star, Glenn Wool, who was a bit unruly, quite frankly, though he did manage to make quite a good suit out of refuse sacks and sellotape in the physical challenge. In the end though, the winner was Alun because, I suspect, Mark didn’t want Glenn back.
Today I headed out to Jessops and got some of my photos printed for less than half-price so I now have a lovely batch of comedian photos from Latitude and Ealing. Yay.
First we headed to the Gilded Balloon cos Kirsty had seen that Tim was on Fleety and Friends tonight and wanted to confirm it before she booked a ticket for it. Coincidentally, Tim ran into us while we there and praised me for not going to it and made sure Kirsty was all better. Then on the way out we bumped into Benny, who looked slightly scared when we waved at him as if to say, ‘are you stalking me?’
After the excursion to Jessops I headed to the flat and waited, ate and other stuff before the next show, Mark Watson. There’s not really much to say about Mark other than he was Mark and rather good (I’m still trying to find someone who trumps Richard Herring for me). He tells a good rambling story but I’ve talked about him before so he was pretty much like that but with new stories.
Next stop was the Assembly Rooms (I refuse to call it Assembly @ George St cos that’s not what it is) to see Matt Kirshen, who was just brilliant. He has such an infectious, cheery mood that it’s almost impossible not to leave the show feeling happy. If you like being told stories about America by someone who looks about 12 then you’ll love this.
We met him afterwards and talked about the critic in his show who sat by himself, drawing attention, didn’t laugh and just spent the entire show writing notes. Me and Sorrel also got hugs - he’s nice.
From there we went to see We Need Answers for the third time. We arrived about an hour early and so stocked up on Kinder eggs and started the queue stupidly early. Because of this we saw both Chris and Tim while we waited. We had short chat with Chris, who likes my boots (but then again, who doesn’t?) and a wave to Tim and then we went in.
We saw a pissed Rich Hall, who mounted the stool first time, play last year’s winner Paul Sinha. Rich, who, as was pointed out, has done quiz shows before (QI), was in the lead for most of it but decided he didn’t want to back for for the next round and either gave nonsensical answers to the questions in the quick-fire round or let Paul answer them correctly.Consequently he ended up losing and so Paul still has the chance to continue his reign as king. Hooray.