Sunday, September 14, 2008

Alba album

I was in Ed for 31 days. The fringe didn't start for 3 days. I then saw 28 shows, so averaged 1.079 shows a day, as well as participating in 7 others and having 2 days off. There was literally nothing I saw that was a waste of time or terrible, but then I am not a critic (PTL) and camaraderie means you see good in other people's shows. Also I didn't see any student shows and a limited amount of plays, (just 2 in fact), so that cuts down on the potential under-rehearsed and/or boring nonsense.

Top 3 (of which there are 5) in no particular order:

  • Alex Horne's Wordwatching - 3 years of prep for an utterly delightful show. Would pay my own hard earned honk to see this again.
  • John Hegley - the man is deadpan genius.
  • "Nick Mohammed is a character comedian" - and a blumin good one he is too.
  • Ben Moore's Not Everything is Significant - bare footed charm.
  • Josie Long - enthusiasm and joy on the very last night, when weariness had overcome us.

Honourable mentions:
  • The Wisecrackin,.....Behemoth
  • Pegabovine Polite Club
  • The Penny Dreadful's Aeneas Faversham Forever
  • The Bird and the Bee: The Bee by Al Smith
  • Mark Watson
  • The Cheese and Pineapple club - these girls are a delight.
  • Joanna Neary's Magic Hole
  • Terry Saunders - Figure 8 - saw it twice, due to circumstances of blag and friend wanting to see
  • Simply Fancy by Pig Island - australian Boosh-alikes
  • Freeze! - Tim Key and Tom Basden tomfoolery
  • Mould and Arrowsmith's a Sketch Show in Powerpoint
  • The Boom Jennies - continue to be jealous of their french penpal sketch.
  • Idiots of Ants
  • Ginger and Black
  • Tommy and the Weeks
  • 2 rounds of We need Answers - Josie Long vs Paul Sinha; Kristen Schall vs. Alun Cochrune.
  • The Search for Sunshine - devised play about death with delightful shuffling God obsessed with Bond.
  • How to play the Ukelele in under an hour - useful for chord learnage.
  • Wil Hodgson - had forgotten how delightful his storytelling is.
  • La Clique - man climbing through tennis racket, striptease magic, homo-erotic chinese pole, you know, the usual.
  • Barbershopera
  • Tom Wrigglesworth
  • Elizabeth and Raleigh
  • Kristen Schaal and Kurt Wotsit.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Blue eleven*

A list of things that make me feel a lot more cheery:

  • Mango - Betacarotene a plenty. It's like eating sunshine. Squeeze lime over it. Use a fork not a spoon to eat it = satisfying skewering of the firm pieces that taste like pine.
  • Peanuts - reassuringly calm, sweet and funny.
  • Listening to King Street Junior - KSJ is just so rubbish, it's great. Overwhelmingly wonderfully stilted performances particularly from Mr Sim and any of the kids. The most unnatural dialogue ever crowbarred into a sitcom, providing the listener with a lecture on current developments in government education policy - "Oh no Mr Long, I can't believe we have to complete these learning target assessments on literacy and numeracy, it's a load of time-consuming poppy cock." And yet strangely someone kept recommissioning it for years.
*I only write on the eleventh of a month, I realise.

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