Socks on Art - The YBAs

Brand new from the Socks, a silly little new sketch, partly to air some gags about art, but mostly to tease you all with the images from the brand new Socks calendar for 2014. Can you guess this year's subject, and can you spot all the, er, subjectees hidden in the background of this video?

 

SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour...NOW!
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester 
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

Get Socky - new video from the Socks

At last, a video for Get Socky, the Scottish Falsetto Socks' take on Daft Punk's single of the year. We recorded it back in April but never got round to shooting a video. It was hearing the audience's reaction to it when we play it as interval music that reminded me it needed a wider airing. Enjoy.

 

SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour...NOW!
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester 
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

Travels with my art, good to be busy

The Socks set on stage at a particularly Halloweeny Ace Centre in Nelson

It's been a very busy week and a bit, both travelling with my art and also sat at my desk.

On the road I've just completed a weekend which saw the Socks play the ACE Centre in Nelson Lancs Friday, then a sellout solo 90 minute Saturday night show at the Carriageworks in Leeds, followed by a day of Comic Art Masterclasses at Sci Fest in the Baths Hall in Scunthorpe (which, newly renovated and fantastically equipped as it is, still brings to mind the classic Jasper Carrot routine Scunthorpe Baths).

This three day excursion, for which Hev joined me for two pleasant overnight stays in Burnley and Leeds, and a lengthy 5 and a half hour drive up on Friday with a lighter 4 hour trip back Sunday night, with that delightful feeling of satisfaction of a job well done that such an exhausting trip can give you. They were all great gigs, with lots of happy punters and the fillip of being reminded one can be pretty good at doing what one does for a living. (This, of course, follows last weekend's Socks tour of Horsham, Margate and Canterbury, which did very much the same.)


A flipchart, Scunthorpe, yesterday

But it was at my desk that the week was completed, with a particularly productive burst of work. As an aside I rattled off two Socks videos, a new sketch BBC Weather Map and a re-recording of Halloween, but those were a cough and a spit. I also began work on illustrations I'm going to be doing for a new play at Hull Truck Theatre, a novel commission which I must get completed in the coming week.

But the best work is the one I can't really talk about yet. I've written a whole load of brand new sketches, on a certain theme, all for the Socks, and assembled them as a first draft of a pilot episode of a TV show. I've met with some people about it and I'm waiting to see what they think. As part of the material I've presented to them, the Socks have recorded a video which, very unusually for me, I haven't immediately stuck on Youtube or the world to see. It's strange for me not to share things as soon as I've done them, and if any interest is shown in this material I'd like to perform it in front of an audience as soon as possible to find out if it's as funny as I think. But even if it goes no further in a hurry telly-wise, and I'm hoping it will, I'm sitting on almost enough scripts and more than enough ideas for next year's Edinburgh show. On which subject I have some money to chase, if you'll excuse me...

November in the Socks calendar - Back To The Future

It's November, and the penultimate image on the Socks' 2013 Sci Fi calendar is Back To The Future, a film which ended up getting a one-line mention in our Socks In Space show, as it appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe and now on tour (blink and you'll miss it, and if we cut the Ding Ding Who's At The Door routine, as we do quote a lot recently, then you'll miss it entirely. Basically don't come to the show expressly for the Back To The Future line, yeah?)

Really must publish that 2014 calendar, mustn't we? Watch this space. In the meantime, you can buy the 2013, 2012 and 2011 calendars whenever you want.




SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour... NOW!

Oct 5 - Farnham Maltings
Oct 11 - Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

This year's Halloween pumpkin

I'm pretty busy with writing, as it happens, but I couldn't resist taking the time to make a Halloween pumpkin. A return to tradition, after last year's Jimmy Savile (of which I remain proud), this is supposed to be the werewolf from American Werewolf In London, though whether that's what it's ended up like I can't be sure. Enjoy.

Same time next year?

2011's Skull pumpkin
2010's Frankenstein pumpkin



Kev F comicbooks also available from UT Productions on Kindle:
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Comic No 1
Sinnerhound - Highwaywoman
Hot Rod Cow
The Tock - an illustrated book for children
The Immortal Partie - A Mr Hawk murder mystery adventure
Edinburgh Sketchbook 84-85

The following Sitcom Trials script books are on Kindle and come highly recommended:
The Lavender Millbank Mob
Go Wild In The Country
Kiss Me Son Of God
Situation Murder
Dead Air & Clarice
Didn't You Used To Be..?

Halloween - new video from the Socks

Hallo, my name's not... Yes it's a brand new video version of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's most popular routine, Halloween. Just in time to be out of date in less than 48 hours. You're welcome. Enjoy, please RT, and we'll see you with it all again this time next year.

 

SOCKS IN SPACE - The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre are on tour...NOW!
Oct 24 - The Capitol, Horsham
Oct 25 - Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Oct 26 - Canterbury Festival
Nov 1 - Ace Centre, Nelson
Nov 2 - Leeds Carriageworks
Nov 14 - Hull Comedy Festival
Nov 15 - Ropewalk, Barton On Humber
Nov 16 - Chorley Little Theatre
Nov 17 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester 
Nov 30 - Christmas Special, Camden Head, London
Dec 6 - Christmas Special, Ring O'Bells, Bath

"Pain and monkey laughter" - 9/10 review from Cardiff, July

Only just emerged online, a smashing review for the Socks show back in July. Cheers.

Review: Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre & Joe Lycett

Posted by Weeping Tudor from Cardiff - Published on 21/10/2013 at 16:58
0 comments » - Tagged as Comedy, Festivals, Movies, Music, Stage

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Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre &Joe Lycett
Chapter Arts Centre 

Saturday 13th July 2013
Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Rating: 9/10
Overall Rating: 8/10

Like with dance, I confess that I don’t see enough comedy. But this night was a hilarious evening made has made me want to see much more.

Joe Lycett, who was replacing Nick Helm, proved to be just as funny as any major comedian on the circuit today. His whimsy and charm had a matter of factness that made for a sophisticated and campish act. Or as he put it ‘Joe Lycett so he should have put a ring on it’. Him being informed that his spirit animal is a walrus (who is now a sort of alter ego), his fake complaint letters and what the gay Olympics would be like (non Russia related) all made for some stellar humour and a wicked and sharp tongued act.

He confessed to being gay and asked if there were any in. I resisted the urge to speak up, plus no one else did. I’m never one for a comedian ripping into me, so I let it slide. His emails to the Daily Mirror about a certain celebrity kicking a pigeon as a photo for the paper was the highlight of his stand up.

The main reason for coming to his was for The Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. I have been following it on YouTube for some time and when I knew there was a live performance of it in Cardiff, how could I possibly say no?

It’s very funny old fashioned Scottish humour which made for an hour of general hilarity and tears of joy unlike anything else. The show was set in space, apparently, with a thread of sci-fi along the way. Much of the wit came from elsewhere and it wasn’t until the end of the show that we got to be in space, but it’s all the funnier for that.

Like Tommy Cooper, it’s funny because things go wrong, very wrong missed cues, props falling, failed jokes (which our sock friends were more than happy to admit). Them asking for requests of Michael Jackson’s No. 1s songs was a great moment. Pointing out to a lady that the album Thriller went to number one and not the song (biggest selling Vinyl of all time. My mum still has a copy).

I shouted out the song Beat It as it was the only other one I could think of since all the others had been said. My reply back from one of the socks in classic Scottish style was ‘You beat it ya ****!’ much to my shock and sheer amusement. The David Bowie sketch along with the impersonation, almost had me on the floor in a fit of pain and monkey laughter.

Follow them on YouTube. It deserves much more praise

Joe Lycett Rating: 8/10
Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre Rating: 9/10
Overall Rating: 8/10

Events » October 2013's Sprout Editorial Group Meeting