They think it's all over....

Well, the Barnstaple festival is over and the first Smoking Shows have been done - all at the same time as England are getting kicked out by Germany. But still enough of the doom and gloom because the festival was BRILLIANT!
True audiences weren't big and the venue was hot as could be but everyone working on this festival was fantastic, warm, welcoming, looking after the performers. And the performers themselves all supported each other by going to each others shows and being really positive about the whole event. I've been at other things were egos have abounded but not here.
Part of the beauty of the festival was the randomness of the selection. You didn't know who or what quality or whether it would be your bag, often until you'd paid your £ 4.00 (£ 2.00 ticket prices for performers! - bargain much cheapness) to see the shows and in truth I didn't see a duff one.
I don't know whether people would all say the same about the Smoking Show. Certainly a number of people gave great feedback, and the review in the freebie mag was good and one great local bloke gave me a new joke to put in, which I did and it worked. Oh, he enjoyed the show as well by the way.
I did push myself with this one, in terms of how hard I went in for the performance - if you start a show pogoing to XTC where are you going to end - and the personal content. Never done that before. Not sure whether I will do it again.
So will the Smoking Show go anywhere else. At the moment I'm kind of thinking about it and what would need changing before it moved on. I know one thing though that I did do what a friend of mine calls the "Ronseal" trick - did exactly what I say on my tin.
Will I try and do the festival again next year. I think so. Maybe with something completely different. The other thing is that the template that was used, I really think would work up here and I'm going to have a think about perhaps a Stroud TheatreFest.
So, it only goes to say thanks then to all the stewards, the venues, the techies, and Bill and Gill the organisers for a fabulous job of making everyone so welcome. Oh and also the other performers. I didn't get to see everything - when do you but came away with the firm belief that theatre is as wide and as varied as people can make it and as long as it's done with conviction and belief and the desire to entertain it's brilliant!

One week to go.....

Only a week to go andhaving run the show a couple of times through, it's about 20 minutes too long! Aaagh!! What to do now? Which bits do I cut? It's always the way that you have to sacrifice some of your favourite lines for some of the time saving. Do I rethink? What should stay and what should go? Do I keep my favourite funny bits or bits that I think an audience will find funny. And should I trim the "ranty bit"?

Some times I love the joy of creating theatre and other times it just goes a bit crazy. This is probably the strangest piece I've done. I mean first off it's about me and I try and steer clear of talking about me. I do! I'm not even fond of writing this blooming blog thing! Then it's about smoking and cancer which gives me a gut feeling that I could end up being a bit "controversial" whilst telling my own truth. Will it get an audience? Will the audience get it?

In truth the whole thing is an experiment and if it comes off, it will be great. If it fails then "Hey! At least I tried out something different again!"

Beer mats and broadcasts

So, the beer mats have come and will look splendid gracing any pub, cafe or other such venue to push the show.

Also decided that tonight for the Bizarre Hour show I do on Community Radio station Stroud Fm (www.stroudfm.co.uk) from 9.00 - 10.00 will do a few extracts from the script - which is still in rehearsal and not quite rounded - along with appropriate tracks. Am a little bit trepidatious about this and am now wondering whether it's a good idea but "Hey! Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb!" - Never quite understand that saying!

The show is repeated on Saturday between 11 and 12 (morning) so if you want to hear some bits log on to www.stroudfm.co.uk.

Script, script, script!

There are sometimes when you are writing a script when you just have to go back to the drawing board and reshape material. This has been the case with this show. Plus prudent editing. Got way too much material for one hour and it's now the - "Is that important? Is that funny? Is that even about smoking?" phase. Add to that the "Do I need to write it all down or can I use notes and improv my way through it" idea then everything gets a bit complicated. Ah well!
Still to be written - cheery fun stuff like smoking rooms, smoking styles and controlling people with your lighter! and not so cheery stuff like cancer treatments and remission. It is part stand up, part drama after all. You can guess which is which.