Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Jeff Lantern @ The Cornshed Festival

Following on from my brief synopsis of the Cornshed Festival, one act that really caught my eye was the conspirationally brilliant Jeff Lantern. Jeff titillated a less than engaged crowd with a brief glimpse into the world of 'True Fist'.

 I say the crowd were less than engaged primarily because on the Friday he followed local hero Patrick Monahan. Once Pat had done his thing the majority of the crowd upped and left, or talked over fresh beers. But for those who paid attention, they were treated to a geeky beany and puffer jacketed conspiracy theorist. Think a plump cross between Urban Warrior and Citizen Smith overdosing on Robert Anton Wilson and David Ike with bottle bottom glasses. I love his surreal conspiracy theory, visual gag driven set replete with an eye to the absurd and and heavy sense of irony.

Aside from a few die hards however, it seemed as if much of the remaining crowd were undecided whether this was simply some nutter giving comedy a go or whether it was an act after all. His professionalism carried him through night one and Saturday saw a generally smaller but more engaged crowd. Shame about misplacing the Spar poster.

Jeff's been around a while and he's my favourite Arstiscientist and founder of the Squirclism movement.

We all know the world is soon to end but Jeff is going to save it, again, on Dec 12th in a 'gala spectacular' at the 400 seater Conway Hall, Holborn, London. Tix available here.
And of course he's doing bloody Edinburgh. His show features Lee Ridley aka Lost Voice Guy, who having suffered from Cerebral Palsy, communicates through his iPad, and is hosted by, yup, you guessed it, Patrick Monahan!



Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Dodgy Dating: My latest datingtrail.co.uk article


Dodgy dating: John explores some of the more niche ways to find a mate

John Davis by John Davis
Writer, Comedian and Star of Come Date With Me
Thursday, 5th July 2012
Dating isn’t of course new. Ever since Ug the Dinosaur Slayer discovered the joys of courting Uga, courtship and the means to enter into its fraught ways have been a dominant factor in the life of our species.

While the mechanisms by which we seek out a companion may differ significantly, from arranged marriages, dinner and drinks, hobby sharing, and mass May Day cavorting to online dating and speeddating, the aim is the same. To find someone.

In this technological era, where time is as precious a commodity as shares in Apple, the lengths we go to in order to procure a mate are often strange and peculiar. However, some are just down right odd. So for your delectation I hereby present 5 of the odder ways in which you can hook up...

Monday, 9 July 2012

Cornshed Festival

I turn my back on Balham for one weekend and what happens? The bloody Balham Comedy Festival!


By all accounts it went swimmingly for The Bedford with the likes of HARRY HILL, ARDAL O'HANLON, AL MURRAY (The Pub Landlord), MILTON JONES, STEPHEN K.AMOS, ED BYRNE, JOHN MOLONEY, RICHARD HERRING, MARCUS BRIGSTOCKE, TANIA EDWARDS, STEPHEN FROST IMPRO ALLSTARS, PAUL CHOWDHRY, DIANE SPENCER… all treading the comedy boards.

But that's not the point of this post.

I spent the weekend in North Yorkshire, in a rain sodden field attached to the bizarrely named Sexhow Farm for the relatively unknown but hugely successful Cornshed Festival in, wait for it... Hutton Rudby.
 
Now in its 26th year, the festival aims to raise money for the Great Northern Air Ambulance Service. 






Weather aside the whole thing was amazing. One of the slickest and best organised festivals I've seen in a long time. 2 music stages and a comedy tent for around 700 people on each of the two nights.


I don't get up North much but you'd be blind if you weren't aware that Yorkshire in particular tends to hit above its weight in comedy legends. What I hadn't counted on was just how much support there was for home grown heroes.



Patrick Monahan
Patrick Monahan was back donating his time and while many claim playing to a home crowd is far easier than your average gig, his control of the tent was a masterclass in catering to a broad age range. This made it particularly difficult for the other acts, particularly when people are leaving straight after their hero has finished a slot but hats off to them for powering on through. I'll have updates on the other acts in my next post, two of whom in particular who caught my eye.

What really struck me about Patrick was the little techniques he adopted to control what was a rowdily fun crowd. His seemingly prodigious memory of who had been at last years festival stood him in particularly good stead and his constant reference to people he had picked on throughout the set showed an ability to control every part of the large, brightly lit tent. He's a great talent for up and coming comics, particularly MC's, to watch and learn little tricks to manage a crowd.

In the meantime you can still donate to the Festival by dropping them an email or give direct to GNAAS.

See you next time.


Thursday, 5 July 2012

Jackson Voorhaar Returns!

My good mate Jackson's back! And I don't mean my good mate in that "please welcome to the stage a very good friend of mine..." We used to gig together back in the old Melbourne days and ended up sharing a house in wonderful Streatham.

After returning to the Antipodes the lanky layabout has a new show he's bringing all the way from Melbourne for your Edinburgh based delectation. AND IT'S FREE!

I'll be trying to get him down to do a few London gigs so stay tuned.

He's really worth seeing so if you get the chance, pop along and give the ol' hermaphrodite a hug.

And check out his spoof QI twitter feed @BBCQI


Monday, 2 July 2012

Rise of the Idiots - Edinburgh Previews

Bloody hell! Rise of the Idiots at The Exhibit, Balham, have really pulled this one out of the bag!

Every Sunday until July 29th will see some of the UK's top acts performing their Edinburgh preview shows... for a FIVER!!!

First up on Sunday 15th July it's 'Stephens Night' with Stephen K Amos and Stephen Carlin.
Work In Progress
Pandas Vs Penguins

FOR A FIVER! Oh ffs. It's only a FIVER!

Tix available from www.wegottickets.com but they are going fast.

And it costs five quid yeah.

009 Jayson Bend in "Queen & Country"



Well it's been a rather interesting week. I had my first ever film audition. I've never acted in my life and was asked to audition for the role of a spoof James Bond, Queen & Country. I suspect this was more out of cruel curiosity than any identification of a hitherto undiscovered acting talent I had but I dutifully popped along to a back lot studio in White City.

I can tell you now that the whole thing was a lot of fun, not least because the project was written by the wonderful Andrew Faure and directed by Andrew and Matt Carter. I've known Andrew for a few years now and love the look of his projects.

I won't give the story away but it's essentially a gay James Bond - Jayson Bend, with a 'y', in this incarnation - saving the world from a hair dresser oligarch with evil plans afoot to run every salon in the world.

Not being gay I thought I could really add something to the role but needless to say I didn't get it. Maybe I could try for the role of Bend's Swiss sidekick Alec de Coque, or the evil scientist Dr Tu Yung.

Any how, filming will be over the next couple of months but in the meantime get your furtive follicles fondled by the intro sequence:

By the way, films cost money to make so donate here: www.indiegogo.com/queen-and-country and get, like, stuff.

Sunday, 1 July 2012

All Aboard For Balham Transcentral

I Love some of the gigs I do. Aside from comedy I'm doing three regular quiz nights a week but it's the one I've been doing the longest which is probably my favourite. The Balham Bowls Club in er... Balham reminds me of one of those funky little back street pubs in Melbourne. An eclectic decor, even more eclectic clientele, a monthly retro market and comedy on the first Thursday of each month. They even featured in Easyjet's inflight magazine a couple of months ago.  This is no mean feat given they only feature one venue from destination cities each edition. So the BBC represented London, and proudly once they finally found out about it.


Bowled Over Comedy @balhambowls


 Comedy comes courtesy of Comedy Dave from Bowled Over Comedy. What originally began as a traditional stand up night with a bunch of open slots with one or two more established acts has evolved into a staple on the improvisational circuit. So much so that the last one they hosted featured Tim Brooke-Taylor regaling the audience with life stories while impro regulars The Wilmington Players acted out his tales.

This tends to set the BBC apart from strong local nights such as the justifiably famous Bedford and the always improving Rise of The Idiots - Dara O'Briain was a recent performer - at the Exhibit. A crowded market may appear to be the perfect thing for punters but can rapidly saturate an area so all three venues are to be congratulated on providing continually original nights.

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The Devonshire on Balham High Road is also worthy of a mention with their weekly Sunday evening open nights that feature everything from acoustic sets, comedy, burlesque, story telling and improv to, well, basically whatever you fancy bringing to the stage. It's anarchic and well worth a visit, particularly if you fancy trying something new in front of a supportive crowd.

All In all there doesn't seem to be a dull night in Balham so if you're not familiar with what used to be an extension of stab city that spread as far south as Streatham you could do worse than check it out.

All venues are approachable but do book up in advance quite quickly. This is particularly true of the Bedford which is probably best for more established acts, but if you do manage to get a couple of minutes on the Shakespearian like downstairs stage it's certainly memorable.

For Bowled Over at the BBC contact Dave at bowledovercomedy@gmail.com And for The Exhibit, Anthony at exhibit@exhibitbars.com

If I've missed any notable comedic Balhamites out, apologies and drop me a line. I'll make sure to give you a mention in my next update.