What The Dickens?????
So, Friday night - with Blur's The Universal still running round my brain - I took a train to Chatham, to do a gig for Jongleurs On The Road.
Most of these gigs are in theatres or arts centres and while I don't do too many of them, I've yet to have a dodgy one. In fact they're usually really lovely.
This one was in a place called Dickens World. As in Charles Dickens. The bloke wot wrote Oliver Twist, who never lived a day of his life in Chatham!
I'd had all kinds of warnings from my peers about what a horrible gig it is, but I refused to let their words get to me, I was looking forward to it. After all, a Charles Dickens inspired theme park has gotta be pretty amazing, right?
Misconception number one is that its a theme park. From the outside it looks like a huge Allied Carpets superstore. It blends in beautifully with all the other units on this nondescript retail park.
Inside, it went from faceless lobby, to country style bar, to full on film set space that looked very much like they'd inherited it from Lionel Bart's Oliver, then through to the Britannia Theatre where the show was due to take place. This part of the building looked like another gig I've done a few times - The Swan Theatre in High Wycombe -all completely bizarre!
The bill was strong - fabulous Andrew Bird, wonderful Orangutan expert Noel Britten, and new to me but not to showbiz act Kev Orkian (its an abridged version of his real name apparently, not a play on Jack Kevorkian the suicide doctor) - the audience were really lovely, and the show was really good fun.
I have to give a shout out to the staff all of whom were so helpful and generous and made us all feel a bit special. What a treat!
Last night saw me back Up The Creek - I was there last weekend as MC and had two blinding nights - but this time I was there to do a set. It's been ages since I've done a set anywhere and I was nervous. As a compere you can really own this room, so there was a risk I might die on my ass doing a turn. As it turns out, that was most definitely not the case. I had a blast, I f**king loved it, and from now on I am going to be doing more sets. Sometimes its nice to have all the glory for yourself!
Even tho I could've buggered off as soon as I was done, I didn't. I stuck around and watched one of my comedy faves Otiz Canneloni MC - magnificent as always - as well as two more of my favourite men on the circuit Paul Sinha and Craig Campbell - both of whom were a joy to watch.
What a cracking weekend!
Most of these gigs are in theatres or arts centres and while I don't do too many of them, I've yet to have a dodgy one. In fact they're usually really lovely.
This one was in a place called Dickens World. As in Charles Dickens. The bloke wot wrote Oliver Twist, who never lived a day of his life in Chatham!
I'd had all kinds of warnings from my peers about what a horrible gig it is, but I refused to let their words get to me, I was looking forward to it. After all, a Charles Dickens inspired theme park has gotta be pretty amazing, right?
Misconception number one is that its a theme park. From the outside it looks like a huge Allied Carpets superstore. It blends in beautifully with all the other units on this nondescript retail park.
Inside, it went from faceless lobby, to country style bar, to full on film set space that looked very much like they'd inherited it from Lionel Bart's Oliver, then through to the Britannia Theatre where the show was due to take place. This part of the building looked like another gig I've done a few times - The Swan Theatre in High Wycombe -all completely bizarre!
The bill was strong - fabulous Andrew Bird, wonderful Orangutan expert Noel Britten, and new to me but not to showbiz act Kev Orkian (its an abridged version of his real name apparently, not a play on Jack Kevorkian the suicide doctor) - the audience were really lovely, and the show was really good fun.
I have to give a shout out to the staff all of whom were so helpful and generous and made us all feel a bit special. What a treat!
Last night saw me back Up The Creek - I was there last weekend as MC and had two blinding nights - but this time I was there to do a set. It's been ages since I've done a set anywhere and I was nervous. As a compere you can really own this room, so there was a risk I might die on my ass doing a turn. As it turns out, that was most definitely not the case. I had a blast, I f**king loved it, and from now on I am going to be doing more sets. Sometimes its nice to have all the glory for yourself!
Even tho I could've buggered off as soon as I was done, I didn't. I stuck around and watched one of my comedy faves Otiz Canneloni MC - magnificent as always - as well as two more of my favourite men on the circuit Paul Sinha and Craig Campbell - both of whom were a joy to watch.
What a cracking weekend!
Labels: Gigs
posted by JoJo Smith at Sunday, July 05, 2009
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