It’s odd seeing people from the telly in the flesh. Last night we (me, lovely Suze, Jon, Joy and Damian) watched Richard Herring do two hours of stand at the Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham and he was shorter than I imagined he’d be. And scruffier. And more hung over.
And a lot funnier too.
He was very funny indeed doing a set that didn’t have much of a central theme apart from making everyone laugh a lot. Except the four people in front of us who left at half time after the fucking-jesus-through-his-stigmata bit just before the intermission. But everyone else who didn’t storm out in fury had an ace time.
After the show he popped into the bar and was selling DVDs from a bucket, none of the latest releases mind, just ones of his own shows. Joy bought a DVD and in return got him to pose with Oxfam ribbon on which hopefully will make it into the Oxfam in house magazine:
Though perking up nicely for the photo the rest of the time he looked a little forlorn at the prospect of a) selling DVD’s out of a bucket and b) Doing it in a near empty bar in Fareham. I can’t blame him to be honest.
Anyways. There’s a few shows left of this run and if anyone who actually reads this blog is in the near vicinity of any of the below venues I’d heartily recommend popping along 
- 30th May INVERNESS
- 31st May ABERDEEN
- 2nd June CARDIFF DVD record
- 5th June SHOREHAM-BY-SEA
- 6th June SWINDON
- 7th June TELFORD
- 11th June LIVERPOOL
More details on his site.
What was a bit odd were a bunch of twats in the front row. During the interval one of them put a note on the stage saying “WHAT IS THE BIGGEST LEAF” which launched Herring into a bit of a rant about what a racist Norris McWhirter was.
During the 2nd half one of them also shouted out “BUT WHAT IS THE BIGGEST LEAF RICHARD” which ground the whole show to a stop. It was a bit like Laurence Olivier asking Dustin Hoffman “Is it safe” in the Marathon Man. They were sitting near us in the bar after, they were a bit pissed and you could hear their conversation which honestly went like this:
Bloke 1: Stuart Lee is clever but isn’t funny
Bloke 2: Yeah, Bernard Manning isn’t funny
Bloke 1: Yeah but Jim Davidson is, he’s a genius
All a bit odd
Yes I am in pain. Those who were also on Mark’s Excellent Stag do this weekend may have jumped to the conclusion that beer related injuries may be to blame. Luckily they’re not.
Despite craftily stumbling over in the pub and breaking my scarily rapid fall using my sternum against a very solid pub table and slamming knee first onto a concrete slab after exiting a club I’m not too too physically achey this morning. That said I wouldn’t recommend either as a fun activity.
My current pain is also nothing to do with the non boozing related fatigue of Mark’s Excellent Stag do. We spent some time shooting pigeons of a clay variety and also a bit of time hung over quad biking. Both though a tad tiring being wonderful fun. There are pictures. They are here.
No this is the source of my pain:
I’ve spent a bit of time of late playing Geometry Wars having set myself the goal of the getting a A MAGIC MLLION points. And I’ve made excellent progress leaving my previous high of 425k behind in the past and getting within 3.2k of my goal (about 10 seconds more play)
I did make a terrible mistake though and if truth be told started to crow about my point scoring prowess just a little bit. Fast forward to yesterday and I’ve now been beaten to the post by Jed and more embarrassingly Shelley. Now I’m not being sexist, the core of my disgust at falling to Shelley’s 1.2m is fuelled by the fact she’s only been playing it for a few weeks. Being completely honest being beaten by a girl at vidjagames does make up about 5% of the stinging pain I’m now experiencing. A jaunty text arriving late last night pointing out I’d been crushingingly defeated didn’t help much either.
Or IM’s of this ilk:
I wouldn’t mind but knowing myself pretty well I know that after getting a mill it wouldn’t bother me what other’s had scored, quite frankly I would have likely never played Geo Wars again. But I didn’t and here’s how close I got:
At least Shelley’s better than Jed as well but I don’t know what to do. Take up Extreme Needlepoint probably.
Or head for 2 mill
Yet another blog update where the central theme is jollying it up in London. And very nice it was too, a bit of impromptu flash mobbing of The Salisbury in St Martins lane of people I have met over the internet in recent years. If your first reaction to that is they must all be uber geeks or pedophiles then you have a a very petty nature and put too much stock in lazy caricatures. To be fair it’s exactly the sort of stupid opinion that floats through my head from time to time. Anyway an excellent time, as is often the case, was had by all.
Only slight marring of an excellent day was the Lovely Suze have an equally fantastic time but sadly elsewhere in London for Bob’s birthday drinks. As well as missing her I could have done with her help when body slamming myself into the stairs of Chinese restaurant later in the evening.
Anyway ace to see Mr and Mrs Dr Matt, Ahchay and family, the swiths, Jimmy The @ and K as it always is.
Other pics here
Well that was a very nice day and there’s pictures to prove that right here
A couple of weeks ago I was surprised Suze had never seen the rather excellent Little Shop Of Horrors (scaringly 20 years old this year) the film of the musical of the original film. So a couple of days later after a bit of Amazon Fu the DVD turned up which we both hugely enjoyed. So much so that a the week after Suze booked us both to go and see the stage show currently showing at the Duke Of York’s theatre in that there London.
fig(i) London, yesterday
Very good indeed And surprisingly so in some respects. We didn’t know who was in the cast until collecting the tickets and I was a little sceptical that Who’s Line Is It Anyway veteran Mike McShane would be any cop as Audery II especially working in the considerable shadow cast by The Four Tops’ Levi Stubbs who did such a fantastic job in the film. We saw McShane co-starring in Marlon Brando’s Corset last year the Edinburgh Fringe and he was, well, pretty crap in it really. So after slumping my shoulders a little when taking my seat it was a real delight that the McShane as Audery II stole the show. Very funny and a shockingly good singing voice too.
Anyway, if you’re even slightly font of the film I’d heartily recommend the stage show. Suze got the tickets from lastminute.com for a very reasonable £22.50 each
As well as taking in a show we spent the early afternoon at the Tate Modern. Never been before and hugely impressed. For some reason I’d formed the opinion that London’s museums and art galleries made you pay through the nose for entry these days which isn’t the case at all.
It’s amazing that this excellent facility is completely free and a real treat to see some classic works like Litchenstein’s Wham! and Dali’s Lobster Telephone along with art I’d never seen before but was equally affecting. Joseph Beuys The Pack was a favourite of both of ours. And the Tate Modern building itself is nearly as captivating as its contents.
I also liked the Ice Cream Van and Scooters parked outside
In between that and the show we had just enough time to squeeze in a lunch at the fabulous Ketners and more than a few beers in some scabby back street boozers.
Hoorah for bank holidays I say and there’s more pics to be found of ours right here
Just a quick test of embedding FLV’s using a wordpress plugin modified to cross post correctly to Livejournal
[flv:/video/a5.flv 400 300]
Works
