It's Mumford and Sons like you never saw them before! The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's brand new show, And So Am I, comes to the Edinburgh Fringe in a few weeks time (see preview dates below) with a new array of songs, sketches, socks and violence. And costumes, so many new costumes. There's a banjo-picking yokel above, and how's this for a femme fatale from a costume drama we'll be unveiling this year..?
There are more costumes for us to reveal, so stay tuned. Meantime, if you haven't told all your Edinburgh-going friends to book for this show, which takes a satirical look at everything from Scottish Independence to UKIP, from the War on Terror to Downton Abbey, and many points inbetween, get spreading the word now!
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's new Edinburgh show, ...And So Am I, opens July 30th. Book now to avoid disappointment.
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre ...And So Am I is at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014. See you there.
July 11 - Beverley Puppet Festival July 13 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern 2pm July 17 - Larmer Tree Festival, Wilts July 18 - Leeds Carriageworks July 19 - Cradley Heath Comedy Festival July 22 - Comedy Den Cardiff July 23 - Taurus Manchester
July 24 - Leicester Ship Of Fools July 30 - Aug 25 Gilded Balloon, 10.30pm - Edinburgh Fringe 2014
More new comics, the covers thereof, by kids in my recent Comic Art Masterclasses in Burton On Trent, Sutton In Surrey, Greenock on Clydeside, and Keswick in The Lake District. Yes, when I say distance is no object, I clearly mean it.
The celebrities they chose for the "treads on a worm" demonstration were Miley Cyrus (twice), Hugh Jackman, Matt Smith, Elvis Presley and, for the first time, Kim Jong-Un. And don't these covers feature rather a lot of "generic schoolkid"? Sorry, inspiration can't strike every time. Did I mention I draw these covers in less than 15 minutes?
If you're interested, my day trip to Greenock is probably the most complicated bit of travelling in recent weeks. I had my flight to Glasgow and car-hire at Glasgow airport pre-booked, remembering to take my driving licence with me. Then just as I'm about to leave the house, at 5.45am to catch a 7am flight, I realise I can't find my passport. Panic ensues in the household, with me even trying to phone the airport to see if I'd be allowed to travel with just my driving licence as photo ID. For the record, you can't get an answer from Bristol airport at that time of the morning, and I still don't know whether a driving licence is good enough to fly with.
I set off for the airport with fingers crossed, only to find my passport lying in the car where it had fallen from my jacket pocket earlier in the week. Phew, panic over. I caught my flight in plenty of time. And it was only on the steps of the plane that I realised I've forgotten another thing I was supposed to remember - my Satnav. I'd instinctively put in the glove compartment instead of sticking it in my bag when I parked at the airport. This meant I had to cough up an extra fifteen quid to hire a satnav from Avis.
If anyone's bothered, I can attest to the fact that Garmin satnavs are rubbish compared to the Tom Tom I'm used to. This particular model seemed to be out of time, often telling me to take a turning that was two turnings behind, then, towards the end of the journey, giving me directions that were two stages ahead. When I arrived at my destination, the satnav though I had arrived a minute earlier and was displaying the words "Satnav off" on screen. Rubbish.
Luckily I took this journey as an opportunity to find out how my new iPhone works as a Satnav. And, guess what, the iPhone is way better than a Garmin. I could only hear the voice directions, but if had myself a way of mounting it on the dashboard it might give my beloved Tom Tom a run for its money.
Okay this is turning into Top Gear. Off with you. More Comic Art Masterclasses lie ahead, see you there.
Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing Bananaman in The Beano, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He's been writing and drawing comics for 25 years, he must know something.
Well will you look at us, all over the front cover of the Old Joint Stock Theatre Birmingham's summer programme! That would probably explain the sellout show we had there on Friday night, despite us having played there only 6 months ago. This time we were giving them a mix of Socks On Space and the new Edinburgh show And So Am I. (Space first, cut down to 45 mins, then 45 mins of And So Am I, for the record).
The audience was, it transpired, almost entirely newcomers to the Socks, which is great, and which made the Preview material a proper acid test. No fans laughing at things just cos they're fans, this material only worked if it was actually good enough, and gave us a very good idea of what's going to be in the final show (less than three weeks away).
And, going from famine to feast, the Socks found themselves back in Birmingham two days later, this time at Ward End Social Club, in front of their smallest audience of the year (possibly the smallest audience since we did a command performance for a married couple at Castle Skibo, but that's a story for another day). Helen, who runs the Nottingham Comedy Festival, was trying out an ambitious all-day-and-night programme of Edinburgh Previews, all shows on one ticket, with acts like Alfie Moore, Ellie Taylor and Dane Baptiste on the bill, the Socks kicking off at 2pm. There were only about a dozen punters in the room when we started, though there were more by the time we finished, and since we were only doing the Edinburgh preview (ie no "safe" material from our Best Of/fall-back repertoire), and only one person had ever seen us before, it really was a test of whether material was good or not.
Turns out an awful lot of our new show is good enough to entertain general punters who are seeing the Socks for the first time, while a fair bit is "Edinburgh" type material, with gags oriented towards a comedy cognescenti (especially the political satire, of which we have more than ever this year) or a Scottish crowd (even though Edinburgh audiences are primarily English-and-other-foreigners, there are always enough Scots to make Scotcentric gags hit home. See the "Mighty Corstorphine Power Rangers" gag which has been in Socks In Space for the past year despite not really making much sense outside of the Lothian region).
Our running order for these two And So Am I previews was:
Ignoranus/Stereotypes/Generalisation
Scottish Pros
Mumford & Sons
Baby In The Corner
Downton (full length, for the last time)
Merkel/Hollande
UKIP Medley
Noah (Ward End only)
Street Where You Live
Always A...
St Andrew (WE only)
Time Of My Life
Les Mis (WE only)
Sweary Poppins
(On script but not used: Batman Tennis & Eurovision song)
On Monday morning, flying to Glasgow to do a school in Greenock, I went over the script with a biro and was inspired to write a whole new musical routine which should form the ending of Downton. If you'll excuse me, I'd best go off and record it. See you all in Edinburgh, or at one of the remaining previews.
UPDATE 10/7/14: In Bedford last night we gave them the new song - Oh What A Lovely War, as described above - and it went very well, getting the best laugh of the show for the new costume which may or may not be the most racist costume we've ever made (I hope not). They also got Les Mis which I am now looking at replacing with.... (stay tuned)
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre ...And So Am I is at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014. See you there.
July 11 - Beverley Puppet Festival July 13 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern 2pm July 17 - Larmer Tree Festival, Wilts July 18 - Leeds Carriageworks July 19 - Cradley Heath Comedy Festival July 22 - Comedy Den Cardiff July 23 - Taurus Manchester
July 24 - Leicester Ship Of Fools July 30 - Aug 25 Gilded Balloon, 10.30pm - Edinburgh Fringe 2014
Another beautiful batch of comics by pupils in my Comic Art Masterclasses, from schools in Weston Super Mare, Bethnal Green, Romsey and Walsall. It's been a busy old time gadding about the country teaching comics, you can expect more of these soon. And at every one of the these schools, where I work with up to 60 kids in a day teaching them the fun art of writing and drawing comics, I try and rattle off a picture on the flipchart. Here are some recent efforts...
While I remember, the celebrities these pupils chose for the "treading on a worm" routine were Simon Cowell (as ever), Boris Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Lionel Messi, David Walliams and Luis (bitey bitey in the news this week) Suarez.
Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing Bananaman in The Beano, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He's been writing and drawing comics for 25 years, he must know something.
I'm staying over at my childhood home between gigs and have just had a look in the cupboards. Check out my version of Blakes Seven, a bit of sample artwork from 1983. It's a crumpled photocopy, the original artwork long since lost. And it's not the only thing I found while having a root around...
Doctor Who? Not only did I look like him at the time (plus ca change) but I turned out a nifty bit of sample artwork for a lad. But who had sent it back I wonder..?
Marvel eh? Well, their loss. Ten years later I found myself working for them after all. Then after a couple of years they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and I wasn't working for them. I'm sure their chance will come round again.
Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing Bananaman in The Beano, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He's been writing and drawing comics for 25 years, he must know something.
There's being in The Beano and there's being in The Beano, and this is very much what I call being in The Beano. In one of the panels of this week's Bananaman story, Wedding, Wayne has excelled himself by not just hiding my name in the background, but by drawing me in person. In my guise as wedding caricaturist, which I was doing just weekend now you ask (available for parties, Bar Mitzvahs, etc...) there's me, giving the impression to the world that I've drawn the strip. I didn't, I only wrote it (to a degree, it's been rewritten, so my "may I have your hand" routine has become a "will you marry me" routine, which I'm not sure makes any sense, but ours not to reason.)
The credit box is back in this week's Beano and the quality is as high as always. Dennis is brilliant, and the surreal Pie Face strip is up there with Krazy kat in my estimation. Buy The Beano - I'll see if you don't!
Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing Bananaman in The Beano, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He's been writing and drawing comics for 25 years, he must know something.
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's 2014 calendar is on the theme of modern art and July's page sees the boys doing art's leading double act Gilbert & George.
The calendar is on sale through Lulu.com at a devilishly reasonable price and is a joy to see and a marvel to treasure. (Also someone had me sign one after the gigs in Brighton last month which reminded me how incredibly valuable they're going to be someday.)
