The Socks have a long association with the Leicester Comedy Festival. We have, in fact, played there for longer than we’ve played the Edinburgh Fringe. (Our first appearance there was in 2006, and we didn't miss the years we missed Edinburgh, making this our 20th anniversary)
But they’ve had a quiet year. Indeed, since writing and debuting Post Office Scandal The Musical at Leicester in 2024, I’ve not written a single bit of new material for them. (Dean Friedman and I did some adverts for a windows company that summer, so that would be the Socks last new stuff). So, I thought, setting myself the target of a New Show this month would give me the incentive to blitz a whole new load of stuff. I even put a shout out to Socks fans online asking for suggestions.
But by the time of our Leicester appearances I’d written nothing. Well, one feeble bit of dialogue about the song New York Groove. Nothing else.
We had a 20 minute mid show slot on a comedy bill in Nuneaton on Friday night (on with Karen Bayley, Steve Gribbin, and MC James Cook) which was in itself the Socks first gig of any sort since The Lakes comic festival show back in September, so there were cobwebs to be dusted off and a reminder needed that we could still do this. The gig went perfectly, and I felt great.
For Saturday in Leicester, the first of two nights, I had assembled a Best Of selection. Which, given how well my Best Of 20 min slot had just gone, I felt would be a satisfying hour. But one odd element of Leicester was that I had a small audience (only 27) and more than half of those were fans who’d seen us before. So, while the newbies were laughing out loud at the top notch classics, I could tell that the regulars weren’t, so much, at stuff they’d heard before.
And nobody laughed at the New York Groove rubbish. I only did that on the first night, replacing it the next night with Halloween. Which, because I hadn’t rehearsed it, I promptly forgot most of!
All that said, both shows were good, and the audiences seemed to love them. They were full of praise after both and it was only my self-critical-ness, and a mix of flop sweat and actual sweat, cos the venue Kayal was boiling, that had me coming away feeling a bit bad after Saturday. I felt a lot better after Sunday (which had a smaller audience of only 20). But ultimately I was disappointed that I’d listed a New Show and hadn’t delivered one.
I feel I have squandered a lot of goodwill with this show, and am doing little to attract new audiences. I really have work to do to get the Socks back on track.
Above: Thanks to John Shaw in the front row for this clip of a Sock suffering a wardrobe malfunction during Go To Greggs, not intentionally.
The running order for the alleged New Show was:
Opening gags inc lines from Roll Up (2019)
Ship In A Bottle (from Telly 10, & Space 13, main comedy club set)
I'm A Sock (as featured in every show ever, since 2006)
(Sat only) New York Groove (new, died)
(Sun only) Halloween (from debut show 2007, main comedy club set)
I Change The Key (Return 08)
Magic (Telly 10, & Roll Up 19, main comedy club set)
OG wordplay (WorldCon show 24)
Word Association (Hollywood 09)
4 Horsemen (Boo Lingerie 12)
Pagliacci (Roll Up 19)
Go To Greggs (Roll Up 19)
(Sat only) Earth Song (Hollywood 09, main comedy club set)
Bucket List (Boo Lingerie 12)
Always A Bastard (Telly 10, And So Am I 14)
Star Wars (Hollywood 09, Space 13, main comedy club set)
Sweary Poppins (Hollywood 09, main comedy club set)
So I didn't use any material from Post Office Scandal (24), Eurovision (22), Superheroes (18), or Shakespeare (16), which are the four best-shaped stand alone shows, or anything that was new from Minging Detectives (15), And So Am I (14), or Space (13) none of which seemed to lend itself to a fresh airing out of context. It's pleasing to look back and see how much material I do have, but disappointing that I fell back on a show which was composed of my main comedy club set (which adds up to nearly half an hour) and nothing new.
It reminds me that shaping a good hour long show takes a lot of work, spread over six months usually. The traditional pattern, which I managed to do almost every year from 2007 to 2019, was Leicester Comedy Festival would get a work in progress show, including lots of stuff that I'd done as Youtube videos over the preceding six months, then there'd be Glasgow Comedy Festival in March, which would have lots of fresh stuff, then a series of previews across the early summer, usually including Brighton in May, so that when I hit Edinburgh at the start of August I'd have an hour I was confident in. By the end of August this hour would be the best show I'd ever done and I'd tour it the following Spring.
That model broke in the pandemic of 2020, where I briefly enjoyed a new career online, which is where Eurovision and a whole raft of songs, that are my current pre-show playlist, came from. I think I took a bit of a knockback when Britain's Got Talent half-happened at the start of 2022, which drove our last visit to Edinburgh. Then Post Office Scandal The Musical two years ago was a surprising return to form, proving to myself I could still do it, with a show that was written in a fortnight and went down went on the few touring shows it played, but which never got the full development treatment, and I couldn't afford to take to Edinburgh.
Sorry if I sound a bit down. The Socks just played three good shows in a weekend and entertained some people, but I feel I haven't got their mojo back and don't quite know what I'm going to do with them next. I'm sure inspiration will strike when I least expect it.
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