Paper Tiger Poetry This Friday, 16th at Teahouse Vauxhall

Yeas mate. Got some new shorter poems I've been working on. It's been a while, what with working on the longer shows etc. This Friday I'm gonna drop a few of them at Paper Tiger Poetry, at the Tea House Theatre in Vauxhall. this gig will be like going back to 2007 for me mate. Banging out the short sets. That's a good thing. I've not been to this gig before so I'm excited. There's quite a few features on the bill including man like Jake Wild-Hall, who was one of the Pilgrim boys up in Edinburgh this summer, he's a top bloke, spent a lot of time with him up there. He was doing the Boomerang club show, they runs a regular gig out in Hammersmith, hold tight Joel. My mate Gary From Leeds says the venue is pretty banging, well not banging, he's northern, he'd say 'mint' or something, or 'summat' morelike. So what's not to like. And the very next morning, I've gotta get up at the crack to go and take part in one of these Tough Muddah events. Fuck knows why. I'm up for it though. All of it.Let's 'ave it.

Creatine live at Sofar Sounds

Hello! So this is the first post up here since Edinburgh but it's not an Edinburgh post. That will come, soon, possibly this weekend. I'm still unwinding from all that....

Anyway. Back in July sometime, on a nice Sunday afternoon, I was getting ready to run through the material for the Edinburgh show when I got a call, from a mate, who's mate had rung him, as their mate had pulled out of a Sofar Sounds gig and they needed someone, within about 2 hours. I answered the call and bowled up to some warehououse in Manor House and did this gig. They filmed it. Here it is. Enjoy it. I did.

Count Up To Edinburgh #8 I can count the days on my right hand now

So in one weeks time I'll be up there. Bonkers mate! Been building up to this all year but it's now suddenly come round very fast. Bit of a cliche but it's true. Mind you, the last month has been mental, I've not had a great deal of time to think about it really. In the last two weeks I've finished my school job for the summer, finished a 2 month youth project with Lyrix Organix, called Kingston Roots and just completed a 2 week musical theatre residency at Stratford Theatre Royal with Conrad Murray. And oh yea, I've moved out of my house as well. Not the most ideal of preparation but I'm alright none the less. Could do with a fat kip though. You know, one of those massive 16 hour ones that proper recharge you, waking up in a light and airy room with cotton drape curatins gently flapping in the summer breeze, with a load of Andrex puppies rolling round in carzy roll. I'm rooming with Gary From Leeds up in Edinburgh, I might ask him if he wants to stand in for the Andrex Puppies.

Look at that mug with his Edinburgh show

 It dawned on me this morning whilst brushing my teeth that this is all now happening next week, it's actually happening. I'm about to go and do 25 shows plus extra gigs, as well as having to go out there and get the punters in every day, which in itself is quite daunting. Of course, I knew all of this when I signed up and I'm making it sound like I'm about to go to war or something. I'm going to do a show in a pub / bar..I like performing, why the worry? I don't have the answer to that question. My reactions are probably way over the top but it's still a big deal for me. I'm sure I'll look all at this in a few months time and laugh, whilst thinking what a nob. There's a whole bunch of people I know who are going up there and I'm sure it'l be a laugh. It'l no doubt be a slog at points but that's all part and parcel. No pain no gain and all that. By sticking the show on, I wanted to see if I could actually do it and I'm doing it. Putting my money where my mouth is. Not that I have much money, but my mouth is reasonably sised, so in case I grt a massive windfall, I'll be alright. Anyway, I wasn't doing anything else this summer, so why not?

What?! He's got his mug on the back as well?!

I had a day this week with director Stef O'Driscoll, who I worked with on A Tale From The Bedsit. Stef is now really making a name for herself out there, I think there's 3 shows in Edinburgh this year alone that she's directed, don't quote me on that, she might have been telling me about shows in devlopment. Either way, she's smashing it, so I was lucky to get a day with her. I like to think working with me back on the Bedsit show launched into her new found director stardom, but I can't say that's true, though we did drink a lot of tea and had a good laugh whilst making it, so it was great to get back in the room with her again. She helped me tighten up all the pieces and add what I hope are now the finishing touches. I just have to record one more piece of audio then the thing there is done. I've also managed to recruit a tech to do my sound this week as well, seems like a cool guy and I hope we work well together.  I hope he doesn't like lager as much as I do, then we might have a problem.


So yes, I am now days away from starting. Gonna do a few more of these blogs whilst I'm up there. But if you are up there, I'm at the Pilgrim, everyday except the 16th, 4:15. Just look at the flyer, it's all on there. By the way, flyers are great aren't they.. They were designed by Natlie Clay check her stuff out www.styloclay.com. Peas and taters

Count Up To Edinburgh #7 It's getting closer...

Yea, not long now. So this last two weeks I've had some sort of headcold / flu / hay fever / avian influenza which has limited my output a bit. Really annoying, can't seem to shake it either, but I'm treating it like an Edinburgh lurgy preview as it's likely I'll get run down up there, they say most people do. The early performances have been improving, my knowledge of paracetamol based products is now a lot better than it was.

Speaking of previews, was in Guilford this Monday just gone for Keystone Poetry. It's a regular Poetry night run by Donnal Depmsey and the now Janice Dempsey. (They've very recently got married are now officially the Jay-Z and Beyonce of the poetry game.) Back in January they offered me the chance to do a preview of C/D Borderline. They rreally are lovly people and have always been supportive of me All in all, it went really well and was a good test of the material. I couldn't get any of the audio to work so all I had was the stories themselves, so I had to riff a bit between them but it was all ok. There's a nice review of it here

 

 As I've wrote in previous Edinburgh blogs, one of the aims of going up this year was seeing If I can actually pull it off, meaning organise what I need to do. This can be anything from sorting out a tech operator, to getting flyers designed and printed. So in these last few weeks I've managed to get a flyer designed (I used www.styloclay.com highly recommended!) and I've written a press release. Yea, a press release. Imagine that. Felt like a right nob writing it, it's worse than writing bio's, it's like I had to channel the inner-bellend within and become the worlds worst used car salesman, estate agent and investment banker all rolled into one, some proper mega-prick, all in the hope some journous might, just might come and review the show. Need  to check my soul into rehab after writing that. The alternative of course is to hire a PR firm but that's about £2000. You get the picture. As soon as I work out how to convert a PDF to JPEG then I'll stick the flyer up, maybe not the press release though yea.Hold tight Gary From Leeds (again) and Rosie Knight for helping me out though.

I've managed to sort my travel this weekend. Knew it was going to be expensive so I took the hit, weren't quite as bad as I was expecting tough but still a lot of dough. I'm gonna fly up there on the 5th (it was cheaper than the train, silly isn't it? Hold tight Jeremy Corbyn), which is nice as it's from Gatwick so I'll probably go back to the manor and see my parents before I go. Coming back on the 28th on the train with Gary From Leeds, who knows what state we'll be in. Either way, it's coming up fast now but I'm just about moving in the right direction. Lots more to do but I'm getting there...

Nitrobeat Bites @Soho Theatre

So tomorrow night at Soho Theatre, as part of  NitroBEAT Bites a story I've written is being put into a short 10 minute theatre scratch and being directed by Benji Reid, who's a bit of a legend in the theatre game. It's pretty nuts, I once wrote a monolouge for a play many years ago, but apart from that, this is the first time something I've written is being staged, by someone else, and with some actors! Mate, but yea, should be a laugh though. There are 7 writers on the night whos work is being staged, including Amy Ng, Caleb Femi, Femi Martin, Segun Lee French, Titilola Dawudu. The evening is being hosted by comedian Athena Kuglenu and, yes and, there is a live DJ, Psykhomantus. Details on the flyer, still a few tickets left HERE

 

Some things I've been up to of late

1: I did a nice rap battle

 

Got asked to do this a few weeks back, what with the show, work and everything else I almost said no, but I rarely say no to anything, so I didn't say no, instead, I said, yes. 

Now, I'm a fan of battle rap, I've been watching it regularly since The Jump Off days of Professor Green and Stig Of The Dump and have followed that evolution of it into Don't Flop and all of the other leagues that have sprung up around it. I'm no stranger to rapping but battling? Mate. I'd be lying if I said I haven't ever thought about it and when they told me I'd be facing Bru-C in a compliments battle, I was a bit nervous to be honest, he's really good and I' seen him battle many times, as well as hearing a lot of his music, which is decent by the way. However, by the time I stepped up onto the stage, I'd gone from being very nervous to just wanting to do it. And I did it. And I'm glad I did it. I messed up my last round (which thankfully insn't on there above video) which I was annoyed about it but overall I was pleased with how it went. I'd go as far as to say I loved it. The event was great. All the battes were brilliant. It was packed, the crowd were really into it and I really enjoyed being on that stage, it was a different experience for me and one that I'll remember, I didn't sleep much that night and was still buzzing about it the next day.

Super last minute gig at BoxedIn

 

'Tis was the Tuesday before the big show at Roundhouse, myself and Talia Randal were due to lead a workshop in Surbiton as part of the Kingston Roots project, but alas, Talia was struck down with illness! Panicking we were, until out of the shadows and fresh off his Until You Hear That Bell tour stepped Sean Mahoney, who did a fantastic job, saving the day. By chance, Sean's regular gig as co-host of well known peotry night, BoxedIn, happened to be the same evening, and alas, their mighty headliner, Simon Mole had also been struck down with illness! So Sean offered me the chance to step in and do a slot straight after the workshop, "yes" I said, "we shall do this!" Ran we did, to Surbiton train station, to Waterloo, then down into the underground for The Waterloo and City Line (which neither me or Sean had ever been on?!), riding it over to Bank, where we seemed to get stuck behind a gate trying to get to the circle line. Bursting out of Liverpool St we then ran to Boxpark for Sean to immediately take the mike, sweating out of breath. 5Five minutes later I was on stage, I did my little bit and low and behold, it was filmed by these wonderful people called BlaSphMe TV. I had a great night, Talia and Simon made a full recovery, Sean is still hosting BoxedIn and as for the rest of the world, they all lived happily ever after. The End.

PBH Free Fringe Fundraiser

 This was last Wednesday. Really good night. The Bedford is a proper gig venue, old school, it has a green room with loads of graffiti all of over the walls from various bands, wicked. The bill was a mixture of poets, singers and comedians. They were all of a very good standard. I think these sorts of mixed bills are my favourite gigs and all of these people on the bill all seem to be out there and doing really well as the merch stall was packed with products. Don't often see a merch stall at the usal gigs I do.  I'd never seen Attila The Stockbroker before, he was great and lived up to the name. Was really impressed with Chris T-T too. He was something else.

Back in the booth

 

Been a while since I did anything like this. Wrote the bars on the spot. Was good fun though. Round Conrad Murray's studio again. Think I got shown up by the younger guys! Track line up:  Boss Man Bob, me, Killer Plo and Nahum. Beatbox by Nahum, produced by Conrad Murray.