#Franksfund Shows The Good In Twitter

June 26, 2010 3 Comments

Monday of this week saw the sad news of the death of Manchester comedian Frank Sidebottom (the papier-mache headed character created by Chris Sievey).  It’s only a couple of weeks since he performed at the Pyramid Arts Centre in Warrington, a show that I really wanted to go to, but somehow completely forgot about (I’m an idiot).  I was gutted to have missed him, and now I’ll never get chance to see him.

On Wednesday morning, further news broke that Sievey’s family didn’t have enough money to pay for a decent funeral.   This sad news reverberated around Twitter and people wondered how they could donate money to help the family out.  Within a few minutes, a fund-raising campaign spontaneously erupted, with journalist and Sievey’s friend, Jon Ronson, posting the e-mail address of a Paypal account where well-wishers could contribute (it’s jonelle1929@gmail.com if you’re feeling generous).  #Franksfund didn’t look back from there.  At one o’clock, comedian Jason Manford asked Ronson how much more money was needed as he would generously make up the difference.  He didn’t need to make up anything, as over £6000 had been collected.  The latest update that I’ve read is that the total now stands above £19,000.  It’s quite staggering.  And, yes, I did contribute.  It wasn’t very much, but that wasn’t really the point.

The whole episode really went to show the power of Twitter.  Trying to explain the point of tweeting to someone who’s never done is pretty impossible.  Twitter is something that you have to experience before you can understand it.  However, something like #Franksfund clearly demonstrates the power of a group of like minded people being in instant contact with each other.  It’s only a shame that Chris and Frank weren’t able to see how much their passing had moved so many people.  There is talk that the excess funds collected could be used to commission a commemorative statue.  I think this would not only be a fitting tribute to the man, but to the collective good spirit shown by those that enabled it to be paid for.

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The Comedy Store @ Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington – 6th March 2010

March 7, 2010 Leave a Comment

I’ve not been to the Comedy Store in Warrington since November, and I’m happy to report that the audience was as mental as ever.  The MC for the evening was Justin Moorhouse, who’s an old hand at the Pyramid and knew how to cope with the odd mix of people, with the ladies of the Warrington Day Nursery on the front row getting the bulk of his attention.

The first act on was Andrew Lawrence whose Frank Spencerish voice, unusual appearance and quirky delivery divided the audience.  The half of the audience who understood the concept of comedy seemed to find him very funny; the half of the audience that had seemingly been plonked there at random were utterly bewildered by him.  The second act was Andi Osho whose confident delivery won the audience over.  She’s a very likeable performer and she thankfully got the other half of the audience back in the swing of things.

After the interval, Justin had another crack at the nursery ladies, and in particular one of them who was training to be a teacher.  She didn’t seem to like his implications that she was too thick to teach, but that’s what you get for sitting at the front.  The final act was Canadian Jason John Whitehead who delivered a confident, solid set and rounded off an excellent evening.

It was probably the strongest line up that I’ve seen at the Pyramid’s Comedy Store evenings for a long time and was well worth the £13 ticket price.

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Tim Vine @ The Parr Hall, Warrington – 5th February 2010

February 7, 2010 8 Comments

I made a big point of saying that I don’t like jokes in last week’s write-up of the Jimmy Carr gig that I went to see, so you may find it surprising to find out that I went to watch Tim Vine on Friday.  I should probably clarify my position:  I don’t really like the sort of jokes that people tell you in the office, or that you find in ‘lads’ mags’, but I do love stupid jokes – this can be evidenced by my penchant for telling them, here.  Luckily, Tim Vine tells the stupidest jokes of all.

We missed the warm up act, due to a sat nav malfunction (a letter will be going out to the Binatone complaints department for a partial refund).  Fortunately, there was an experimental theatre troupe in the foyer performing an improv session about ‘da issues’, and this was highly entertaining.  Admittedly, this troupe did consist of me and Dr Angel, but we do find ourselves extremely funny.  It’s a gift.

Anyway, back to the real show.  I didn’t really know what to expect from Mr Vine, other than tons of jokes.  Well, there were certainly lots of jokes, but I didn’t foresee the barrage of wonderful surrealism and nonsense.  If you were to take examples of individual jokes you’d probably think that they were rubbish, but somehow they all combine together to make a show of the utmost hilarity.  Highlights included the song about a small piece of carpet and a jewellry box, his Bee Gees tribute and… well I could go on and on, and therefore ruin his act.  Also none of it actually sounds that funny unless you were actually there.  My advice is that you should just go and see him live, accept that he’s the daftest man on the planet and laugh your head off.

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The Gravy Comedy Awards 2009

December 29, 2009 Leave a Comment

Let’s be honest.  The reason that I am doing this post is to try and recycle all my comedy reviews from throughout the year.  The whole ‘awards’ aspect is purely a decorative frame in which to hang it.  That said, here are the nominations:

Jason Manford @ Parr Hall, Warrington – 18th January 2009

Russell Kane @ Pyramid Arts Centre – 13th February 2009 (Support: Sadie Hasler)

Mark Watson @ Parr Hall, Warrington - 21st March 2009

Rob Brydon @ Southport Theatre – 26th March (Support: we had problems parking, so we missed the support act)

Richard Herring @ Pyramid Arts Centre - 18th April

Mark Thomas @ Parr Hall, Warrington - 1st May 2009 (Support: Wil Hodgson)

Paul Kerensa @ The Brindley – 29th May

Mark Steel @ The Brindley – 26th June

Tim Minchin @ Parr Hall, Warrington – 4th September 2009

The Comedy Store @ Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington – 5th September 2009 (Michael Smiley MC, Roger Monkhouse, Gordon Southern and Sarah Millican)

The Comedy Store @ Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington – 3rd October 2009 (Silky MC, Toby Hadoke, Steve Royle and Carey Marx)

Tony Law @ The Brindley, Runcorn – 9th October 2009

Al Pitcher @ Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington – 24th October 2009 (Support: Danny Mcloughlin)

Rich Hall @ The Brindley, Runcorn – 2nd November 2009

Stephen K. Amos @ The Parr Hall, Warrington – 4th November 2009 (Support: Seann Walsh)

The Comedy Store @ Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington – 7th November 2009 (Paul Thorne MC, Ian Stone, Phil Walker and Mike Gunn)

Sean Hughes @ The Parr Hall, Warrington – 18th November 2009

John Bishop @ The Parr Hall, Warrington – 8th December 2009

The Darwin Birthday Spectacular @ The Lowry, Salford – 9th December 2009 (Robin Ince, Ben Goldacre, Josie Long and Simon Singh)

Ricky Gervais @ The Opera House, Blackpool – 10th December 2009 (Support: Stewart Francis)

Jason Cook @ Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington – 11th December 2009

I had originally intended to just pick one overall ‘best gig of the year’ award, but I don’t think I could choose. You’ll have to put up with these ones instead:

Worst seats: Parr Hall.  You feel like you need major spinal surgery after a two hour show.  I think you’d probably die if you sat through a Ken Dodd show.

Best support act: Wil Hodgson.  It was like getting two main events for the price of one.  I’d definitely like to see him doing a full show.

Worst audience: The Comedy Store in October.  I have no idea why half the audience had decided to go to it.  They must have won their tickets or something.

Best audience: Jason Cook.  We tried to hide and bullied him in to dressing as an elf.  An unforgettable gig.

Most eagerly anticipated: Richard Herring.  I’ve got about 4 of his DVDs and listen to the Collings and Herrin podcast every week, so it was great to see Richard in the flesh.  His show, The Headmaster’s Son, was excellent.  Sadly, he doesn’t seem to be coming back this year.

Most unexpected: Rich Hall.  Despite him being on telly loads, I had no idea what to expect.  The show was excellent, especially the Otis Lee Crenshaw stuff in the second half.

Best use of comedy hands: Tony Law

Comedian who I have seen and then been mentioned on their podcast:  Paul Kerensa.  His podcast is called Movie Banter.  It is banter about movies.

Most inspirational: The Darwin Birthday Spectacular.  This is how all entertainment should be: funny and informative.  I bough 2 DVDS and 2 books from the people involved, the very next day.

Most original: Al Pitcher.  He created a show based on photos of Warrington, taken on the day of the gig.

That’s all I can think of for now.  It’s been an enjoyable year of watching live comedy, and I urge you all to go out and see some in 2010.

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Jason Cook @ Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington – 11th December 2009

December 12, 2009 1 Comment

Jason Cook aka 'The Elf'

Last night was my fourth comedy gig  in a week, as I went to watch Jason Cook perform his Edinburgh show, Fear.  About ten minutes before the show started there were only 4 people in the venue, which had me panicking a bit.  Luckily, this was boosted to a full 25 people by the time it kicked off.  I’ve been to a few gigs with a similar number of people and they usually go one of two ways: enjoyable, but slightly stilted, or enjoyable and intimate.  This gig found a new way – bonkers.  It’s nights like these why I go an see live comedy, when some strange magic happens and you have a really special night.

Through a combination of a lively, enthusiastic crowd and Cook’s charm and talent, he was able to turn the modest attendance to his advantage.  He talked to every group in the audience and so everybody felt instantly involved – especially the group of mature bikers in the front row.  His material was very funny, but it’s the rapport that he built with the crowd (if 25 people can be considered a crowd) that really made the evening what it was.

In the first half he mentioned that he had recently done a gig in an elf costume and that he might wear it in the second half.  When he came back from the interval in his normal clothes one of the bikers shouted: ‘Where’s your elf costume?’ and, after the rest of the audience agreed, he went out to his car to get it.  At which point, one of the bikers suggested that we hide (as Jason had suggested that we all hid when somebody went to the toilet, earlier).  We did try and hide but he came back and caught us.  To be honest, you probably had to be there.  I won’t even bother telling you about the bit when one of the bikers got on the microphone and threatened an anaesthetist (he was joking).

Anyway, Cook completed the gig in the elf costume (we wouldn’t let him take the hat off) and we all wore Santa hats.  At the end, he gave us all a free DVD of one of his previous shows, if we promised to give £5 to a homelessness charity (which I’ve just done).  It’s a shame that so few people managed to turn out for such a talented performer, although, if they had, the night might not have been as special.

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John Bishop @ The Parr Hall, Warrington – 8th December 2009

December 9, 2009 1 Comment

The show, unexpectedly, started with a video clip featuring Alan Hansen, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Kenny Dalglish, so I was never going to actively dislike fellow Red, John Bishop.

The first half of the gig featured some off the cuff stand up, which he later said tended to change every night.  As he was brought up in Runcorn, he was able to use his local knowledge to get some good laughs.  The first thing that he did was to confront, head on, his making fun of Warrington on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow.  You have to admire anyone who uses their big national TV break to slag off a town that most people in the country won’t have heard of.  It paid off though, Bishop revealed that this gig had been his fastest selling on the tour.   I guess that it’s nice to be recognised, even if you are being teased.

Because of its fairly ad hoc nature, the first hour was amusing rather than hilarious, but he really moved up a gear in the second half, as he performed his Edinburgh show, Elvis Has Left The Building.  The material was much tighter, and, as a result, was much funnier.  This bore out in the audience’s reaction; it was titters before the interval and guffaws afterwards.  The show was themed around Elvis and living your dream, but these were illustrated through his family life, appearing on Skins, and playing in the Hillsborough Memorial match.  The climax of the show might be ruined a bit if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Evertonian or Manc, but I loved it.

John Bishop will be returning to the Parr Hall in March – I guess the Warringtonians must love to be slagged off.  He was honest enough to say that we shouldn’t come back, as the second half would be the same, but if you didn’t go to see him last night, then I recommend that do.

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Sean Hughes @ The Parr Hall, Warrington – 18th November 2009

November 19, 2009 3 Comments

Despite appearances to the contrary, this is Sean Hughes

I usually buy tickets for Parr Hall comedy gigs pretty early, but, for one reason or another, this was quite a late purchase.  Which was a bonus as I was able to take advantage of a 2-for-1 offer on the tickets.  This did, however, suggest that they hadn’t been selling too well.

The venue certainly wasn’t sold out but there were 2-300 people in the audience and there was a nice, laid-back feeling to the gig.  Hughes warmed the audience up with the tried and tested ‘local newspapers’ trick, which maybe went on a bit too long.   He never really got in to the flow of his material during the first half – there were a quite a few ‘lively’ audience members – but he was able to go with it and this led to an entertaining, funny hour.

The second half saw fewer interruptions and more material.   If I was being hyper-critical, you could argue that there wasn’t a lot of structure and that some of the material could have been thought through a little more.  There were plenty of gems in there though and, utilising his great rapport with the audience, he was very funny throughout.

The two hours that he was on stage flew by, so I guess that’s the ultimate seal of approval.  The Parr Hall definitely need some new seats though – I lost all feeling in my buttocks.

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The Comedy Store @ Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington – 7th November 2009

November 8, 2009 2 Comments

The Comedy Store @ Warrington - November 2009

I’ll be honest, I’m really not in the mood to be writing much today and so I apologise now if this post is too short\rubbish.  It is perhaps apt though that I’m feeling half-hearted as it kind of reflects my feelings on last night.

The MC for the evening was Paul Thorne who did a good job of getting the audience going, and, as he was brought up in Warrington, his local knowledge helped to get the crowd on-side.   The first act was Ian Stone who was probably had the strongest set of the night, despite being heavily interrupted by late-comers for the early part.  Like last month, the coming and going of audience members was a constant distraction to the performers and the rest of the crowd.   It doesn’t help matters that the bar in the Pyramid is woefully inadequate, but they should really try and do something to stop so many people moving about.

The other two acts were Phil Walker, before the interval, and Mike Gunn, after it.  To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed by both, which is not to say that they didn’t have their moments.  The rest of the audience seemed to enjoy Gunn in particular, so maybe it was just me.

Despite what I just said, I still really enjoyed it.  A night of slightly underwhelming live comedy is still better than none at all.

 

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Car Park Confusion

November 5, 2009 1 Comment

Not In Use

The 'evidence' - just in case it was needed.

As you may just have read, I went to watch Stephen K. Amos last night at the Parr Hall.  I parked my car on the car park that adjoins the Pyramid’s own car park (bear with me).  It used to belong to the council, but now it is a privately-owned pay & display.  The kind of car park that is full of signs threatening you with fines and clamping if you even think about not paying and displaying.

Now, every time that I’ve been to a event at the Parr Hall, the ticket machine has been displaying ‘not in use’ and nobody is sure what to do.  Last night was no exception.  Most people decided that since they couldn’t pay they wouldn’t pay.  Some took photos of the machine as ‘evidence’, and I quite clearly jumped on that bandwagon.  Bizarrely, some people decided that they would go to the totally unrelated car park across the street and buy a ticket from there.

If anyone from the parking company were to show up, would they be within their rights to fine everybody parked there, even though there is no way of actually paying? It’s a very weird situation.

Two questions:

Why is parking a car such a pain in the arse?

What on earth is the deal with the car park next to the Parr Hall’s car park?

It seems unlikely that I’ll get any answers to my questions but I thought it was worth a shot.

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Stephen K. Amos @ The Parr Hall, Warrington – 4th November 2009

November 5, 2009 6 Comments

 

Stephen K. Amos at the Parr Hall

The latest in the series 'bad photos taken at comedy gigs'.

I first went to see Stephen K. Amos live last year, when he played in the Pyramid Centre.  Much of his act relies on his interactions with the audience and it really worked last time as there were a few characters in the audience that really made the show.  The funniest moment came when someone offered him a minstrel, which doesn’t sound remotely funny and it was a genuine ‘you had to be there’ moment.  It was one of the funniest gigs I’ve ever been to.

This year, he’d been promoted to the Parr Hall and had a lot to live up to.  The support act for the evening was Seann Walsh, who I’ve seen on telly somewhere but can’t remember exactly where.  He did a pretty  good job of warming up the audience but definitely had that weird ’support act that’s pretty funny but it isn’t entirely working because the audience know he’s not the guy who they actually came to see’ vibe.  Strangely, as I write this, I’m watching Wil Hodgson perform stand up on Russell Howard’s Good News Extra, who I saw supporting Mark Thomas earlier in the year and was one of the few warm up acts I’ve seen who didn’t suffer with the aforementioned phenomena.  Which was a hell of a tortuous sentence for such a tangential observation.

Anyway, it got to main event time and Mr Amos took to the stage with supreme confidence and you couldn’t help but instantly like him.  The important question was, for me, could he live up to last year?  The answer was…not quite.  He was certainly very funny but he does recycle quite a bit of material and so, having heard much of it before, it just lost that special magic.  Also, the smaller room, in the Pyramid,  made for a more intimate atmosphere which got more out of the crowd.

To a large extent, though, this doesn’t matter.  I’ve already said that his act doesn’t rely on his material and he bowls you over with his personality.  He makes fun of the audience members with such warmth that you can’t help but feel a sense of community in the room.  It was still a very funny gig and my opinion is clearly influenced by my expectations.  I’d certainly go and see him again and I would recommend that you go and see him.  I think he’d be an excellent first choice for any live-comedy virgins.

 

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