Really nice review from real person + "Swipe File"

Obviously any good review is a great thing, and you'd think the bigger the publication the more I'd like it. But I tell you what, this little review that popped up online is the sweetest review we've had this year. A normal member of the public, aka Sarah Rooftops, who has this to say:

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. If we hadn't been looking for something entertaining and possibly naffly Scottish to do with Dad, it's highly unlikely Steve and I would have gone to see that. Sock puppets making jokes in squeaky Glaswegian accents? For two hours? It didn't sound appealing. But, I kid you not: I have never laughed as long or as hard as I did at that show. It was BRILLIANT. Absolutely hilarious. And Dad assures us that you don't need to be Scottish to get the jokes. They (I say "they" - it's one man and two grey socks) don't seem to have a current website (although there are lots of old clips on YouTube), but if you see them in theatre listings near you, go and check them out.

Thanks Ms Rooftops, that's just what we like to hear. Let's hope the word reaches the good punters of Halifax, Keighley and Stafford, who we'll be entertaining later this week.

And talking of forthcoming shows, check out this double bill:

The Scottish Falsetto Socks and Late Night Gimp Fight on the bill together? Should be fun. And I like the Gimps' Nevermind parody. I wonder if they've seen this...



Great minds.



The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Bath April 7 • Milford Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

Cleese on Creativity

I have been led to this rather marvellous lecture on creativity by John Cleese by @bechillcomedian. Enjoy (and pay very close attention)...



It's a very helpful lecture when anyone in my line of work is doing the rather inexplicable things we do and finding it hard to do because people who don't do what we do is bugging us with stupid questions about what it is we're doing in the first place. Show them this, it might help.

There's publicity... (Socks on tour)

There's publicity, and there's publicity...



And sometimes it's a pretty unfathomable business. A glossy printed programme in St Andrews produced a small but lovely audience, Aberdeen's Lemon Tree gave us a beautiful sellout by whatever means, and then the above poster, which struggles to merit the title of poster but is the sum total of the visual elements in the promotion of the event, gave us a sellout crowd in a charity fund-raising show which was a delight, and had the added benefit of stupendous support act Iszi Lawrence. (I think I've made a note of that so that, when she's Iszi Lawrence off-of-the-TV I can point at it and say "look, she supported us! Like Russell Howard. And Miranda. And Frank Skinner. And... yes, I know we exaggerated the Frank Skinner story, but whatever, all the same, the point remains. Look, Iszi supported us. Once.")

Let's face it, the success of a comedy show, as far as bringing the audience in is concerned, is never down to just one element. Sometimes word of mouth will do the job, sometimes every possible component from posters and flyers to programme and existing audience and word of mouth, press, PR and imperceptible other things will still fall short of the target. What can I say? I'm working on it.

Talking of changing the subject, Hev & I have been using Skype while I'm on my travels. Does everyone's Skype look this crazy sometimes?



I see another artform in the making.



The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Bath April 7 • Milford Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

Dundee - Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on their travels (see below) and en route through Scotland just paid a visit to the home of comics, Dundee...





The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Bath April 7 • Milford Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

The Save Your Kisses For Me Shed, Preston

The Captcha I had to type in when uploading this photo was "carbon footprint"...



... which is strangely apt as I am the middle of my travels and I really am treading in a lot of carbon this week. This shed is, I was assured, the shed where the lyrics to Save Your Kisses For Me by Brotherhood Of Man were written, though extensive research, ie thirty seconds on wikipedia, has not yet validated that fact.

The shed, which I photographed because it's an interesting bit of woodwork, stands in the garden of the Claremont Hotel on the Blackpool Road in Preston, where I stayed en route between a school in Ealing and a gig in St Andrews. If anyone can confirm its Eurovision-winning songwriting connection, I'd be much obliged. Of course, it's not the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's first encounter with a shed...


Songs From The Shed session with Jackie Oates, Jim Causley, and the Scottish Falsetto Socks

Meanwhile the Socks gig at The Byre in St Andrews was greatly enjoyable, and tonight's show at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen is looking like a sellout. Tomorrow we then have to get to Bishops Monkton near Harrogate for a gig in a village hall, so wish us well. (I say "us", obviously it's just me and the Socks again, don't pity us).

With three days of Comic Art Masterclasses in schools in Cork, Dungarvan and Waterford to look forward to, followed by Socks shows in Halifax, Keighley and Stafford, all by next Friday, it's going to be a busy time when I don't expect to get a lot of blog-writing, or indeed any writing, done, but I'm doing my best today thanks to Val & Rosie in Aberdeen, life-long friends of my Mum & Dad who are putting me up here in the lap of luxury. I have a study to myself, yes be impressed.

In lieu of anything passing for an interesting diary, here are notes scraped from the few Tweets I've sent in recent weeks. If I've said anything in the slightest bit interesting I'll be amazed.

I only got 17/20 right in this Who Said It: Rupert Murdoch or Mr Burns? quiz @HuffPostUKCom
Wish we'd to Kangaroo Island when we were in Adelaide last month, it sounds great. Now, where do I send the invoice?
V good piece on ITV's missed opportunities over the years via @guardian
If you're a protestor who gets killed in Bahrain, will @redbull give you wings? #F1 @f1racingmotor

Youtoobling Feb 22:
TV of Tomorrow Tex Avery
Wow, Disney don't make em like this any more Making Of A Nazi cartoon
We Are Young, Fun
Alright, Supergrass
The Young Ones, Cliff & The Shadows
Jesamine, The Casuals
Is it a King Of Leon? No it's ... The Move, Fire Brigade
Fire & Rain, James Taylor
Fireflies, Owl City
Set Fire To The Rain, Adele
Fire, Kasabian
Fire, Crazy World of Arthur Brown Glastonbury 1971
Running Up That Hill, Kate Bush live



The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Bath April 7 • Milford Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

Fringe Review recommends... The Socks in Brighton

A nice way to start a week, this has just appeared online. Fringe Review makes its recommendations for the Brighton Fringe, and what's that we see at number 3..?



Boom Lingerie? Boom Lingerie? Typos aside, it's nice to be listed. Looking forward to it already.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Bath April 7 • Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

And I will drive 500 miles. And the rest...

I've just finished booking a stupid-load of travel. Before I bore you with it, have a bit of this...


David Tennant and the cast of Doctor Who 2009 do an end-of-term video

And I will drive 500 miles, and the rest of it, in the next week. I was hoping I could take the train for my next week's work, but it turned out to be unfeasible. If you can work out a better way I could have done this, tell me how (bearing in mind you're too late, it's booked).

So I need to be in Ealing on Tuesday to do a Comic Art Masterclass at a school (this involves carrying a big bag of comics and pens and a portfolio of artwork), then on Wednesday night I perform the Scottish Falsetto Socks in St Andrews, Fife (this involves carrying the Socks props in their oversized bass guitar gig bag + another bag of props, and of course disposing of the bags from my Comic Art Masterclass which means I can't take both sets of bags with me on public transport and have to pay extra for any flight with the Socks props, I hope you're keeping track). Then on Friday I do the Socks in Aberdeen, then Saturday the Socks in Bishop Monkton a small town near Harrogate in Yorkshire, then on Monday morning at 9am I need to start doing a Comic Art Masterclass in Cork, then Tuesday in Dungarvan, then Waterford on Wednesday, then home to Bristol from where I have to get to a Socks show in Halifax in Thursday, Keighley Friday and Stafford Saturday.

So, how would you do all that? While you're working it out, enjoy this...


The Ballad of Russell & Julie by David Tennant, Catherine Tate, John Barrowman and the Doctor Who 2009 crew, another party video for the retirement of Russell T Davies & Julie Gardner

So the only solution is drive from Ealing to Preston (4 hours), stay overnight there (£39 inc breakfast and wifi) then drive to St Andrews (4 hours). The alternative involved driving home to Bristol, flying to Edinburgh, getting a train to Leuchars and a bus to St Andrews. Oh, that's the easy bit.

Then Aberdeen's easy enough, all the more so with my car. Next is the drive to Bishop Monkton near Harrogate - 6 and a half hours. This was the hard call, as the train to Harrogate is only £39 and I could read a book and rest, and I'm sure I could get a lift to Bishop Monkton. But then comes the hard part. Finish a Socks gig in BM on Saturday night, and get to Cork for 9am Monday morning.

I drive from BM to Bristol overnight (4 hours 20) then get a plane from Bristol to Dublin at 13.10 on Sunday. Then the train from Dublin to Cork and stay overnight, that's the only way to be at a school there on Monday morning. The train from Harrogate wouldn't have left till Sunday morning, would have cost £101, and wouldn't have arrived in time to catch a plane in time to get to Dublin. And before you ask, flights to Cork don't go from Bristol, that would have necessitated going from Gatwick. But then on Wednesday I have to fly back from Dublin, which only goes to Bristol.

I realise my travel plans are of interest to no-one. But may they serve as a cautionary lesson for anyone planning to combine a career of stand-up/sit-down comedy with a career of comic-book drawing which involves more teaching than drawing, and accepting gigs at opposite ends of three different countries in the space of 10 days (and this is before I go on to do Halifax etc - and the following week I do a class in mid Wales - "Just what we need Niles, a fourth country!")

100th Birthday of Clevedon Curzon

Treat of the day, we just visited Clevedon Curzon cinema, our local cinema which is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an open weekend. It is magnificent.



Unbeknownst to us until now it has a museum of cinema arefacts containing dozens of movie projectors of all shapes and sizes, and has an exhibition on the history of the cinema and of film itself housed in the former balcony. On today's open day we were able to visit the current projection booth, which runs a state of the art digital projector alongside the 35mm projector that still shows 20% of their output, plus we able to see the old projection booth which used to run up until 1973 and which has immortalised on its wall the chalkboard bearing details of the final film projected from there - Cabaret, ending with a showing of God Save The Queen which was still the tradition.



If you can get to Clevedon at one of the weekends when it's open, please please do, it is worth it. It is probably the best cinema museum housed in an actual working cinema in a small British seaside town anywhere in the world. The first films it showed, this week in 1912, included a newsreel of the sinking of the Titanic and raised money for the memorial fund. And I go past it every day! I cannot praise Clevedon Curzon enough.

♥ Clevedon Curzon wikipedia page
♥ Curzon website ♥ Curzon iPhone App




♥ Nailsea people article on the death of the Clevedon Mercury with contact details
♥ Bristol's Venue magazine saved from closure
♥ Captain Clevedon radio promo & press cutting

RIP The Clevedon Mercury

This week marked the sad passing of The Clevedon Mercury. Founded in 1863, this local newspaper which serves the town where I've lived for the last 20 years was one year short of its 150th anniversary when its life was cut short, a victim of the current perilous state of local newspapers. (The Mercury was one of many Northcliffe papers that are suffering down-sizing, as are Thomson and Johnson and other groups papers, as the loss of their three big advertising bases, cars, houses and jobs, to online continues to bite).


The Mercury's wikipedia page is currently a pathetic stub, which I'd love to see someone improve, and its online presence brings new meaning to the word perfunctory. Does this look like a newspaper covering a fascinating small Somerset town? We're the home of the Curzon cinema (which has an open day today, by the way).

Quite how Clevedonians will now spread news and celebrate local events I don't know. If anyone can tell me how the Mercury is being replaced online, I'd love to know. And lest this sound too parochial, I am fully aware that this situation is being repeated across the country, and indeed across every country in the world that has a tradition of local newspapers. As someone who's taken the greatest pleasure in appearing in his local press - you may, with my blessings, check out this girning photo, and this sweet tribute, and this vaguely accurate footnote - I sincerely hope this won't lead to a lack of communication between people based on their proximity to each other. That, I would think, cannot go well.




♥ Nailsea people article on the death of the Clevedon Mercury with contact details
♥ Bristol's Venue magazine saved from closure
♥ Captain Clevedon radio promo & press cutting

"Renowned comic-strip artist" - Lancashire Telegraph

This is why we need to preserve our local papers* - so I can be in them.


The renowned comic-strip artist, writer, producer and comedian took his touring Comic Art Masterclass to the Blackburn school.

Kev has produced work for The Beano, Dr Who Adventure and Match magazines, as well as appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

Famous for his quick-fire charicatures, which KevSutherland spent the day advising third-year pupils on the art of producing a comic strip.

He also took time out at lunch to answer questions from children and staff about his work.

Valerie Dewhust, head of library at QEGS, said: “The whole day had a buzz with pupils working hard to get through the fast-paced sessions.

"They were delighted to see the end results – a comic style book.

“All pupils involved were treated to their own caricature to take home, giving a real edge to what was a brilliant day.”

Thankyou Lancashire Telegraph, and thankyou Queen Elizabeth Grammar in Blackburn for having me. Oh and can I just say - charicatures? Charicatures??

* On an unrelated subject, the Clevedon Mercury ended last week after over 120 years of continuous publication. A tragic loss. I was in it loads.

If you would like to bring my Comic Art Masterclass to your school or art centre, drop me a line, a comment, a Twitter, carrier pigeon, whatever works. Click below to see more, including video and contact details.



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Help I'm A Superhero Get Me Out Of Here - new comics by kids

And this week's comics all come from the kids in one school North Beckton Primary in London E6.



It's a treat to be at one school for a whole week (well, four days) doing my Comic Art Masterclass with two groups apiece of year 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s, every one of them going home with a copy of the class comic containing a strip by every single one of them. They came up with all these titles, don't blame me. And I draw a caricature of every single one of them (see below) which, with just up 30 in each class plus teachers, means I've drawn 240 faces without breaking a sweat.

One thing I started doing this week, which hopefully I'll remember to do in future, is making a note on each front cover of which celebrity the kids in each class have chosen for the "Worm" demonstration. I show some top tips of comic storytelling by having a famous person tread on a worm, chosen by the class, but I never keep a record of who they've chosen. My memory tells me that the most popular choices over the years are 1) Michael Jackson, 2) Simon Cowell, 3) Cheryl Cole with many other names cropping up regularly (the most surprising ever was the group of 11 year olds who chose Tim Brooke-Taylor). This week's celebrities were: Will Smith, Justin Bieber, Simon Cowell, Jessie J (twice), David Tennant, Barack Obama and Lionel Messi.



If anyone wants me to come and show their kids how to do what I've been doing for a living for the last two decades, drop me a line, a comment, a Twitter, smoke signals, the usual methods. Click below to see more, including video and contact details.



RECOMMENDED COMIC BOOKS & GRAPHIC NOVELS for Comic Art Masterclass students, teachers and librarians

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"Socks get ready to step on stage" - Chorley Guardian interview

Look at the Socks all over the Chorley Guardian.



Published on Wednesday 11 April 2012 10:27
A Beano comic strip creator is bringing a unique ‘sock show’ to Chorley audiences.
Kev Sutherland, 50, from Scotland, is the man behind the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, a company that quite literally consists of two talking socks.
Having started officially at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007, the socks have gone on to be a huge success on a national and international scale.
They will be making their third return to Chorley Little Theatre on May 12 at 8pm, ready to delight audiences with songs, sketches and historical re-enactments.
Kev, who also teaches comic strip classes to children across the country, said: “The socks are a comedy act, who make people laugh.
“This will be the third time they have come to Chorley - they always have fantastic audiences there who come in big numbers.
“They are proving really popular.
“We will be trying some new stuff out on the audience, as well as lots of stuff that has been popular in the past.
“And there is quite a bit of interaction with the audience.
“People should come and seen them because it is the funniest show they will see.”
In their latest tour, Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre will be testing out material for a brand new ‘Socky Horror Show’ that they plan to take to Edinburgh in August.
They can be supported on Twitter by following @falsettosocks and their Facebook can be accessed on www.facebook.com/ScottishFalsettoSocks. To buy tickets ring 01257 264362.

Dear oh dear I really must try and say more interesting things in interviews - get the Socks to do the interviews, do it all in concise soundbites. Anything to avoid lines like “...there is quite a bit of interaction with the audience, People should come and seen them because it is the funniest show they will see" appearing again. Still no publicity is... you can see where that's going.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Bath April 7 • Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

"A complete delight" - ★★★★ Venue

Brand new review for the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's show in Bath on Saturday. "A complete delight" - ★★★★ Venue 4 Stars? That'll do nicely.



COMEDY The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, now something of a comedy institution, has lost none of its zest. If you haven’t seen it, it does pretty much what it says on the tin. Devised by local boy Kev F Sutherland, it actually does feature a puppet theatre in which two puppets, actually socks, argue with each other in high-pitched Scottish accents. That’s right. The fun comes with the sheer speed and energy of the performance in which the hosiery-related pair shout insults at each other, play ridiculous songs, attempt costume drama, comment on the lyrics of Michael Jackson, make fun of the audience and the sound technician, perpetrate appalling puns, and generally cause mayhem at the rate of about a gag a second. A complete delight. (John Christopher Wood)

★★★★ (4 STARS)

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Bath April 7 • Milford Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

Exeter Degree Show 1983 videos

This will either be the ultimate nostalgia trip for students from Exeter College of Art (which is about to be demolished, hence the recent flurry of reminiscences on Facebook), or it might be the most tortuously dull video you've ever sat through. In 1983 I walked round the entire Degree Shows with a (very heavy) video camera. The film last an hour, but by speeding it up I've condensed it down to less than 15 minutes and divided it into chunks. Enjoy.

Back in E.D.I.N. BRAW - the Socks return to Edinburgh

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre return to the Edinburgh Fringe this August with not one but two new shows - BOO LINGERIE and CHUNKY WOLLEN NITS. So, in celebration, here's a song about our favourite city...



Originally recorded back in 2009 to promote the Socks Go To Hollywood, who would have dreamt that Princes Street would still be buggered up by unfinished tram works three years later?

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Bath April 7 • Milford Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

Scottish Falsetto Socks do Dave Matthews Band

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre perform The Dave Matthews Band Ants Marching:



This was produced as a commissioned video for one of the lovely sponsors of our Adelaide show and, for some reason, I've not posted it on my blog until now. I don't know whether it's clear while watching this video, but neither the Socks nor I had ever heard Ants Marching by the Dave Matthews Band ever before in our life until we produced this video. How we'd managed to survive two decades without this US hit single from 1991 crossing our earwaves I don't know, but that's what happened. I can only assume the UK remains the one country on earth where Dave Matthews can walk the streets unassailed by fans pointing and asking him to sing Ants Marching. Perhaps he's more famous to everyone else in the country and it's only I who have remained oblivious to his music and indeed his very existence. Either way, I know him now, and so do the Socks. Hello Dave Matthews, we all hope you're well.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Spring Tour: Milford Haven April 12 • Exeter April 13 • Bridlington April 14 • St Andrews April 25 • Aberdeen April 27 • Halifax May 3 • Keighley May 4 • Stafford May 5 • Chorley May 12 • Brighton May 19/20 • Hereford May 27 • Harrogate June 28/29 • Rondo Bath July 9 • Beverly Puppet Festival July 13 • Tring July 19 • Manchester July 20 • Nottingham + Guildford July 21 • Derby July 22 • Bedford July 27 • Edinburgh Fringe August 1-27. Spread the word.

Exeter College Cabaret online after just 28 years

And you thought alternative comedy was born in the 2010s with the revolutionary wit of Michael McIntyre? Far from it. Check out these videos of the Exeter College of Art & Design cabaret from March 1983. This first clip features Mike Dade, who sadly was the first of our alumni to die (in a traffic accident a few years after we left) playing a duet with then 9-year-old Matthew Dunkley (who I cannot imagine being any older than nine, though I'm sure by now he must be), plus a song by Tim Langley and Nick, and a very brief appearance by John Earwaker. Enjoy.



And here we have Dave Wells with one of his mind-boggling magic tricks, Paul Mclaren's poems, and another song by Tim & Nick...




Dave Wells' classic "suffer baby suffer" magic routine


The Prospective Student sketch. These videos are all in mono and will in fact only come out of one ear-hole. That's how we did it back in the day.

Nauseoustalgia - Exeter & Loughborough

Last night we drove home after four days working in Norwich (Comic Art Masterclasses, great fun with great kids), and after the four and a half hour drive I was all-prepared for a two and a half hour drive this morning to take me to Fowey in Cornwall. Imagine my delight when I discovered an email I'd missed from February pointing out that today is Good Friday so the school I'd be working at wouldn't be open, and instead I'll be going there in May. Which means I have a bonus day at home and in the studio to get stuff done and/or take it a bit easier. So I've been indulging myself with a bit of nostalgia.

While we were away, Hev found a thread of photos on Facebook from graduates of Exeter College of Art, some of which we've not seen for 30 years and most of which we've never seen before. A couple of my favourites are below. And, inspired by that, I dug out one from even earlier, my graduation photo from the Foundation Course at Loughborough College of Art back in 1980. Where are they now? I know one draws regularly for Private Eye, at least one's big in the art world, and one went into local government. More than that I'd love to know.



Here (below and top of the page) are some pictures from the college cabarets that I produced at Exeter. It's hard to believe, but I actually developed these slides myself. What, do you think fingerprints and scratches like that put themselves on? Actually there's probably an App that makes photos look that crap nowadays. Enjoy.




More photos from Exeter College of Art on Facebook.

Dr Ghenki's Super-Ethical Happy Sun Time - new comics by kids

It's been the Easter holidays this week and I've spent four days working with kids in Norwich, courtesy of Culture Works East, running my Comic Art Masterclasses and giving them all the chance to produce a comic book in half a day. Here are the front covers of the comics they came up with together.


Click to see them enlarged, and to see a library of hundreds more by kids around the country and the world.


Our coverage this week in the local press.

If anyone wants me to come and show their kids how to do what I've been doing for a living for the last two decades, drop me a line, a comment, a Twitter, smoke signals, the usual methods. Click below to see more, including video and contact details.



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"Comic genius inspires youngsters" - comic class in EDP

I'm honoured and flattered to be the subject of a double-page spread in today's Eastern Daily Press, with an interview and photos from my Comic Art Masterclass in Dereham, Norfolk.



Comic genius inspires youngsters
(Must say I prefer that headline as it appears in the paper)

His comic strips have brought the Bash Street Kids and Doctor Who to life for countless readers. And yesterday Kev Sutherland – an artist with iconic comic The Beano – shared his skills with the next generation of cartoonists at a workshop in Dereham.



The Beano’s sales approached 2m in the 1950s when the likes of Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx were at their prime but numbers are now down to 38,000, and Mr Sutherland said comics are “increasingly a minority sport, especially for younger readers.”

Speaking at Toftwood Junior School, Mr Sutherland said the future for comics among today’s youngsters lies in a different direction and increasingly online.

He said: “They want chain saws, zombies and violence – all the stuff they get in computer games. I want to see books for kids with violence – cathartic and well-reasoned violence. Kids don’t like soft stuff, by and large.

“When you see the stuff the kids have created for themselves, mostly it’s explosive gun-toting hamsters blowing up Jeremy Clarkson or Peppa Pig, and that’s where eight-year-old brains are at.
“I find some people are a bit disturbed by the violence in the stories. They should read Shakespeare or the Bible.”

Many of the one-page comics his audience produced proved his point, with titles ranging from The Killer Tree Gets Simon and Gangster Frenzy to Teletubby Massacre, although Love showed a gentler, surreal streak.

Dereham Neatherd student Josh Crisp, 14, said he uses the internet to read Japanese manga and learn how to create them.

He said: “I read a lot of manga but they are hard to draw. I used to read Beano and had a couple of annuals at home. It was quite good, but I got bored of them.”

Mr Sutherland said stories that interest him inspire his work for the Beano, and he has brought back old characters and written longer stories that children can invest their time in. In one 16-page story, Julius Sneezer returned in the form of an Ofsted inspector.

He said: “It’s when you do long stories you can do things that are worth kids reading. Stuff you read as a kid like Tin Tin and Asterix books are stories where you reward the kids’ attention and you have given them time to have something to read.”

He pointed to the success of manga comic books in Japan, where one story can run for 200 pages and computer games are inspired by comics, rather than drawing away potential readers.
Beano has launched its iPhone app, which entered the top ten most downloaded apps on the Apple news stand within two weeks.

Mr Sutherland has started experimenting with selling his comics on Kindle devices, and last month received £7 from sales in Britain and France.

He said: “If you are driving kids towards words and pictures that can only be a good thing, especially if they are reading the words, rather than just hearing them.”

Mr Sutherland takes heart from the explosion in popular children’s books, but said comics need to be better and more affordable to duplicate their success.

The internet, by avoiding the expense of colour printing, could help with the latter.

He also said comics had one advantage over big-budget films and computer games – children can create their owns strips using exactly the same tools as the professionals.



Added to the main article, there's a piece in the Comments and Opinion section (which I can't find online) continuing my observations that comics could have a revival of interest given the right material. So thankyou EDP for the cracking coverage. And memo to myself, I should pay more attention when doing interviews in class so I don't say things that come across a bit naff. "...last month (he) received £7 from sales in Britain and France" doesn't sound so much witty and self-deprecating as it does pathetic. And "They should read Shakespeare or the Bible" sounds like I'm suggesting those as nice alternatives to violent reading whereas my point was that they are more violent than people think. Ah, whatever, no publicity is bad publicity.

If anyone would like to bring my Comic Art Masterclasses to their school or art centre, do please email or twitter.