Up To Speed...

Well this is my Blog.

I've not written one before. I've never really known what to say in them.

But as I'm begining to write my new edinburgh show I thought I'd keep a record of how it goes as I attempt to put it together.

I've been writing theatrical shows since 2001 under the production title 'Bad Ash Productions'. Some have been good, some have been rushed, but I have genuinely enjoyed writing and performing all of them and feel that the amount of creative control I have had in putting them together to be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things I have ever done with my time as every year I hurtle to the unmovable deadline that Edinburgh creates.

Three years ago I started out as a Stand Up Comedian. I wasn't really expecting much before I started, but after my first gig I realsied that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I think a lot of comedians reach this conclusion at a similar point. Whilst persuing comedy I have continued to write under 'Bad Ash Productions' as I worked on stand up comedy and last year was the first year that my two separate creative outlets merged.

I wrote a show called 'Bad Things Happen In Trees'. It sounds rubbish, I know. I think I must be subconsciously competing with myself to see how bad the titles for my Edinburgh Shows can get before I have to pack up my bags early and go home for the month because I have put off any potential audience members from attending due to title alone.

The year before that was a rock-opera, musical sketch show I wrote with my old school friend George Mitton called 'I Think, You Stink!', which despite it's title enjoyed a nice run at The Bedlam Theatre and a brief revival in London's Canal Cafe.

Anyway 'Bad Things...' came about due to a scheduling conflict. I had originally intended to take up an entirely different show with my Brighton friends Seann Walsh and Robin Buckland. We'd decided to do some sort of sketch/chat/stand up show with PBH's Free Fringe. The idea was that we'd book the space and work out the content later. However once the contracts were signed and the time slot and venue appointed to us it became very obvious that none of our schedules were compatible. And by that I mean that Seann was getting a lot of bookings.

None of us lived particularly near each other and it became impossible to sort out a time when we could all be in the same room so that we could even decide what to call the show in order to eter it into the Fringe Guide (which is pretty essential) by the Fringe Guide deadline in, I think April or May. It became impossible to sort out so we decided to part ways and cancel the show.

We'll never know what that show could have been, but judging by some of our early conversations about 'making it up on the spot everyday' it may well have been a blessing for all involved that it didn't go ahead.

However when I tried to cancel the show and time slot it became obvious that I was in breach of contract and that something would have to go on in its place. I casually said that this wouldn't be a problem and that I was sure I'd be able to fill the slot with something, before locking myself in my room naked with a box of wine and panicking for 48 hours. This meant that I had one day before the Fringe Guide deadline to come up with a title and concept for a month long run at the Ednburgh Festival.

Before then I had thought a little bit about doing a one man show, but honestly thought I was a while away from having that volume of material to fill an hour. Or at least make a consistently entertaining hour. So I decided to do a sort of variety, poetry, music show using bits and pieces from shows that I had written in the past, guest spots and pictures I would draw. I would also use a meter of Jaffa Cakes that I had recieved as a gift the previous Christmas.

I then had to come up with a title. I hastily scanned through a list of files on my computer looking for titles that would be appropriate. In the end I found an old piece of material called 'Bad Things Happen In Threes' which I had mistitled as 'Trees' and I thought, yes, that would be an acceptable title for a show that consisted of poetry and music and guest spots and Jaffa Cakes.

I had about two months to put the show together. In a panic I did. It came together through a series of previews over a four week period. The whole thing was a fluke and despite being my own harshest critic I was happy with the end result.

As I performed it it became less and less neccessary to have a guest spot and as I became more confident with the material I came to think of it as a my first hour of stand up (although I was joined on stage for every performance by my best friend Robert Stott on guitar - who has collaberated with me on every project I've worked on since I met him in Secondary School). The people that liked it seemed to really like it and the people that didn't seemed to grace it with apathetic indifference.

I guess if there is a lesson to learn it is that most things happen for a reason. I learnt a lot about how I write and construct shows and also about my own abilities and if anybody wants to try to do something creatively themselves, whether it be taking a show to the Edinburgh Festival or performing in a small room above a pub or painitng a picture or writing a novel, then the best advice I can give is to just do it for the sake of doing it and anything else that comes from it is a bonus.