gig report no.9 17-07-2017

Another lovely evening with for me the added pressure that I've only three gigs before Quillarious goes up to the Edinburgh Fringe. Every day the show will run 15.45-16-45 upstairs at: The Waverley Bar' St Mary's St. (next to the World's End on Royal Mile)

It's free! so please spread the word and come and play Quillarious.

Lots of acts doing and saying amazing things, I thank you all and to our amazing audience. Man from Middle of Nowhere, Man with wrapping paper shirt and Debbie Harry lookalike and beardy man with earring who won the Quillarie to name but a few.

Quillarious:

I was much happier this week as we got to the round where people performed the story. In Edinburgh this will be real audience performing at the mic for perhaps their very first time. I’ll video it and post to Youtube unless they pay  ££££.

It wasn’t a great punch or story but the show’s format  is starting to solidify and I’m generating improvements that will make a big difference.

It now my rule that no poor taste material. Every time we go there we get sucked into a drain.

Minus points are my weapon of choice and a clear anti entendre speech. “I don't care if you’ve a big one on the tip of your tongue, zip it! Even if it makes the eyes water.”

I’m also starting to get a bigger picture of how the audience interacts with the show in terms of social media. A video clip here an image there.

The badges arrived today! I know, social media gone mad!

Quillarious:

Keywords Yoga, Snake, foreskin, anti gravity, Robocop, Essex

Punch: Attacked by four skins!

Senario: 

RoboCop while on his

way up to an anti gravity yoga retreat  in Essex to present a newly created yoga position to honor the county - “Downward Facing Dogging”

He stopped off for a pee in a hedge when he was bitten on the willy by an adder. “Oh My foreskin” he cried which was ironic as he was then attacked by four skins.

Acts: Kathryn Mather, Paul Ennis, Daniel Rubinstein AKA Stylophobia, Erin Barry, Rosie Martin, Declan Kennedy, Tom Keenan, Michael Hughs, Eleanor Bennet, Donald Hamilton and Bentley Browning.

Gig report Quillarious no7&8 02&09/07/17

Wow and double wow!! It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for Quillarious.

Mon 2nd July, what a lovely night. The biggest Quillarious yet in terms of number of acts and audience.

A special thanks to Bentley Browning who brought a bunch of new acts from his course for their second ever gig. We also had a clutch of seasoned acts and a Swedish internet TV star who was doing his first ever stand up gig. I can’t remember his name but his surname was Finish for upstairs!

The big room :

I thought the atmosphere was as fluffed up as a duvet show room. Rapport, banter and connection all good. A couple of acts crashed and burned but hey that’s life. Some of their recoveries were brilliant.

Swedish guy was very personable and added a dynamic to the event.

In short the best ever Quillarious in spite of the fact that the Quillarious section wasn’t the most dynamic but it does seem to connect and fluff the room even more.

Thanks to: Yasser Kayani; Kuan-wen Huang; Fatima Abbas; Paul Grover; Paul scahill; Jodie Frances; James Harold; Bella Humphries; Michael Hughs and Bentley Browning (sorry if I’ve got the names wrong I lost my notes!)

Edinburgh!

Then Tuesday after salsa I was offered a venue in Edinburgh but It clashed with my existing compilation show :-(

But on Wednesday I was offered a perfect venue and a perfect time.

Quillarious show number 554
Waverley Bar Upstairs (Venue 438) start at 15:45 -16:45 dates 5-27 August 2017

Quillarious is actually going to Edinburgh!!!!!

Art work, flyers, publicity a to do list of to do lists.....

Just a moment to answer many of my critics including myself regarding art work.

Yes I do my own and I’m not a graphic designer.

Firstly the artwork is part of a greater creative process. Hard to explain but for me is about visualising the show. It’s the first stage of publicly expressing the dream as a reality. Often it’s during the artwork stage that titles change and the layout readjusts my priorities.

Then there is the timescale. The artwork deadline for images for the Fringe brochures was less than 24 hours away. Commission graphics in that time? No way Jose.

Finally cost. Part of the reason I can afford comedy is that it’s a low cost hobby. The costs for the year including the Fringe is less than the annual membership of a half decent golf club, and I don’t have to wear silly costume, every gig.

Mon 11th July

The small room but a great evening. A lovely bunch of acts including Jo Fletcher-Cross from Muswell Hill and Verity Day from Kent and Mel Byron from Glasgow.  Ali AKA Alistair Woods who made me the second funniest Alastair in the room.

Michael Hughs was on top form with the news and thanks also to Peter Hose and Andre.

Stars of the show were the ‘family’ From Chalfont St.Giles, dad, son, son’s hot Romanian girlfriend and step mum all out for drinkies. Lets just say they joined us some way into the drinkies and were totally awesome. Step mum got up and danced. Son heckled politely as Dad charmed the girlfriend.

Quillarious:

So lets play Quillarious. Herding cats along the learning curve that just keeps on giving way past the envelope. (It’s a metaphor cocktail)

Notes:

Divide and conquer, I did it and it partially worked.

Introducing the rounds was better than before with the word association tennis also working well to give more voice to participants.

It was a weak punchline, in fact I was unfamiliar with the quote about dancing!

I also need to steer things away from the sexual and darker side.

I don’t want Quillarious to be a knob joke generator.I was very pleased with the bishop ordain-ary pun.

It was a bizarre evening at the swingers night.

first there was a A bishop who was  basically an ordain-ary kind of guy.

Robert Murray Helpmann

Later Michael Flattery arrived stark naked with smoke coming from his feet.

“Feet of fire?” asked the bishop.

“No inflamed toenails.” said M.

The strange thing was that while the music played M.  would shag everything and everyone.

He mitre of even shagged the bishop, but M. stopped dead when the bishop turned off the sound system. Because as Robert Murray Helpmann almost famously said....

“The trouble with nude dancing is that Knob Everything stops when the music stops.”